(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 MoreWhen Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, it wasn’t all that surprising when her Notre Dame Law School colleagues offered high praise for her work. Earlier, when she was nominated to the 7th Circuit in Chicago, every single member of that faculty signed an endorsement letter stating, in part: “Amy is a role model for all of us, and will be a model of the fair, impartial, and sympathetic judge."
Read MoreIn the wake of federal funding cuts affecting nonprofits, over 150 organizations have signed a pledge urging grantmakers to extend their support and funnel fresh funds to hard-hit advocacy groups that have lost federal contracts.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Details are still emerging about Vance Boelter, the 57-year-old man accused of killing a Minnesota state politician and her husband and grievously injuring another state senator and his wife. But the more we learn about Boelter, the more likely it seems that Christian nationalism may have played a role in motivating the attack.
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 More(ANALYSIS) Maybe what stands out here is that no matter how much the country has changed socially, religiously and politically, none of that has really shifted the overall relationship between Jews and the Democratic Party.
Read More(ANALYSIS) This is not a moment for faith-based institutions to retreat or sanitize their convictions. It is a moment to reclaim their voice and affirm their rightful in shaping a public life capacious enough to hold true difference, including sacred difference. Religious freedom — grounded in conscience, practice and institutional distinctiveness — must remain a cornerstone of our shared civic life.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Trump has praised the Gilded Age as a time of national prosperity thanks to tariffs, no income tax and few regulations. Similar to today, the late 19th century was a time where a small group of men enjoyed immense wealth, privilege and power to shape the nation. It was a time of immense inequality, as factory and housing conditions crushed the lives of the poor.
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 MoreThe Trump administration has rolled back federal project review deadlines, putting Indigenous nations at risk of losing their voice in the development of infrastructure on their homelands. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is cutting funding for the national THPO program by 94%, leaving many Indigenous nations with limited resources to maintain their historic preservation efforts.
Read MoreAll many journalists want to talk about is “the guys.” That focus on young males swimming the Bosphorus has created plenty of mainstream news reports. This week’s “Crossroads” podcast focused on a BBC feature with this headline: “Young US men are joining Russian churches promising 'absurd levels of manliness'.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth repeating here: Whenever I tweet a graph that contains a couple of the largest religious groups (evangelicals, Catholics, nonreligious), the first question that comes in the comments is inevitably, “Where are the Latter-day Saints?”
Read MoreAbout 27% of Christian ministry leaders told MinistryWatch they believe the Trump administration’s policies will have a negative impact on the organization they lead or the work they do. This is an increase from 19% who gave the same answer in our January survey.
Read More(ANALYSIS) There are two reasons, translations and texts, both of which have cropped up in the news of religion this year. The venerable King James Version (KJV) appeared without changes over centuries. Today, experts continually reconsider the best available evidence to improve our English Bibles.
Read MoreA Christian university in Arizona is no longer on the hook for a $37.7 million federal fine, believed to be the largest-ever financial penalty imposed on a school. Grand Canyon University (GCU), said that on May 16, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) rescinded the massive penalty proposed for the Phoenix-based school in 2023.
Read MoreA federal tax credit proposal would provide up to $5,000 per student in tuition assistance for yeshivas and other Jewish schools nationwide. The proposal, which has been criticized by some as a threat to religious liberty, has been hailed as "historic" by Agudath Israel.
Read MorePublishing or distributing sexually explicit material of a person without their consent is now a federal crime, and social media platforms and other websites must remove such images within 48 hours of notification.
Read MoreA week doesn’t go by without President Donald Trump talking about “needing” to acquire Greenland. As reporters rush to cover this mysterious territory, much has been said the island’s politics and melting ice — but nothing about the island’s eclectic religious mix of Lutherans, Pentecostals, Baptists, Baha’is and Catholics.
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