(ANALYSIS) Taiwan’s international rating on freedom of religion is undisputedly very high. The 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom, published by the U.S. Department of State, also noted Taiwan’s constitutional protection of the freedom of religion as well as the diversity of religious beliefs, but questions are asked about how freely can one practice their religion.
Read MoreJames Weldon Johnson’s poem “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” set to music by his brother John Rosamond, was first presented as a hymn, then adopted as a song and soon cherished as an anthem. In its 125th anniversary year, the work — published in numerous hymnals — is seen as a healing balm with timely biblical and theological elements for a deeply divided United States.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s affiliation with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches drew attention again with a Pentagon prayer led by Hegseth and his pastor, Brooks Potteiger, in which they praised President Donald Trump, who they said was divinely appointed.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Whatever one’s position in a conflict, certain actions cannot be justified. Targeting civilians, destroying essential services, blocking aid, using civilian areas for military purposes or punishing entire populations for the acts of a few are all violations of international law and human conscience.
Read More(REVIEW) In 1838, American clergymen Edward Robinson and Eli Smith began a Bible-guided survey of the Holy Land, producing a landmark archaeological record. Allan Chapman’s new book traces how 19th-century explorers and missionaries — from pyramid-measuring mystic Charles Piazzi Smyth to Ur excavator Sir Leonard Woolley — sought evidence for Biblical truth.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Described in the Bible as the first nation to attack the Israelites after the Exodus, the Amalekites came to symbolize a recurring evil: Not merely one that seeks to harm the Jewish people, but one bent on their erasure. Across the centuries, Jewish thinkers have mapped this archetype onto real-world threats. Some are asking: Should Iran be added to that list?
Read MoreWhen a shell slammed into a madrassa (an Islamic school) housing over 1,200 children, its caretaker, Sayyed Habib, didn’t dial the army or the police. He didn’t call emergency services. He called Pradeep Sharma, a Hindu and former lawmaker, and his best friend since ninth grade. it was an example of how people of differing faiths found it in their hearts to help one another.
Read More(REVIEW) When it comes to U2, perhaps the only thing harder to find than a nuanced opinion of them is an accurate portrayal of their faith. It was a shock to some that the Dublin-based band — who became big in the 1980s — refused to be pigeonholed as apologists for Irish nationalism. Anyone who looks at their religious makeup shouldn’t have been surprised.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The central government’s gazette notification for India’s upcoming 2027 census omits the word “caste.” This, despite earlier public assurances that caste data would be collected. The absence of explicit mention has triggered accusations of deliberate evasion. Is the reluctance tied to the disruptive potential of a full caste enumeration—one that could unsettle the ideological foundations of Hindu nationalist politics?
Read MoreFinding chaplains on-site at a National Trust heritage property is not something visitors usually expect. But at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, in the north of England, it has become a regular occurrence. The Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII marked the end of Fountains Abbey as a Cistercian monastery.
Read More(OPINION) As a historian of Christianity, I have studied how religion has been manipulated to bless empires. In the year 325, Constantine declared himself Christian and forged the Christian Empire. In 800, the Pope crowned Charlemagne, merging the power of church and state. During colonial expansion, Christianity was exported alongside conquest and commerce.
Read MoreAs the evening crowd arrived for services Thursday evening at Young Israel of Century City, Benny Factor watched for updates on his phone, which was leaned against a tissue box on the table in front of him. The chyron of an Israeli TV channel he was streaming told the story: “Happening now,” it said in Hebrew: “A wave of attacks has begun in Iran.”
Read More“Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta” is on display at the Stanley Spencer Gallery, in the former Wesleyan chapel on Cookham High Street, where the artist worshipped as a child. But, for the first time, this exhibition brings together drawings, studies and related paintings from his Regatta series that give insight into how he planned and painted it.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On June 5, the U.S. Department of State sanctioned four individuals currently serving as judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “directly engaging in any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute a protected person without consent of that person’s country of nationality.”
Read More(OPINION) We are all curious to see how Pope Leo XIV will engage with the Trump administration. The Chicago Archdiocese’s upcoming celebration of the pope, an American-Peruvian dual citizen, stands in contrast to the military parade being hosted in Washington, D.C. on the same day. At the same time, the Catholic Church has seen empires rise and fall.
Read MoreFor the first time in centuries, public access to the Knock has been denied. Although the hill is widely acknowledged to be used publicly, it’s technically private land. After a group went to the summit for a winter solstice ceremony last year — honoring what many believe to be the hill’s ancient role in sun worship — they received a letter from the landowner warning they were trespassing.
Read MoreBetween 2010 and 2020, global religious affiliation shifted significantly, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis. While Christianity remains the world’s largest religion, its growth lagged behind overall population growth. Christians increased by 122 million to 2.3 billion, but their share of the global population fell. At the same time, Islam saw a global surge.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Leo’s elevation broke the longstanding rule of thumb that no American, as a citizen of a superpower, could or even should become pope. But that did not trouble the College of Cardinals in May, and leading up to his election Cardinal Robert Prevost felt free to critique current American policies.
The Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan has long experienced significant constraints on its religious practices. From not being allowed to call their places of worship “mosques” or use Islamic terms such as “Azan” (call to prayer) to not being able to vote because Ahmadis must either renounce their faith or agree to be placed on a separate electoral list categorizing them as “non-Muslim.”
Read MoreBerlin faces growing intolerance of immigrants and their religions, especially Muslim Arabs from countries like Turkey and Syria. right-wing extremist political parties like the Alternative for Germany echo Nazi talking points and pine for a homogenous, white and Christian society. History, however, shows that such a time never existed.
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