Orthodox Christians in North America and around the world already are venerating the Alaskan matriarch for her care and concern for abused women.
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While less than 1% of Americans identify as Orthodox Christians, 5% of Alaskans identified as Orthodox in 2014, according to Pew Research. And while the number of regular attendees at Eastern Orthodox churches in the U.S. has declined 14% from 2010 to 2020, the number of parishes grew 3% over the same decade, according to the latest data in the 2020 Census of Orthodox Christian Churches.
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Orthodox churches around the world are all preparing for Easter, a celebration of Christ defeating death, by reflecting on Judgment Day. Despite this relative unity in worship, the Orthodox schism between Moscow and Constantinople that broke open in 2019 is cracking further. What is good and what is evil in the war in Ukraine is far from agreed upon.
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Afghans in and outside the capital describe scenes of violence, deteriorating living conditions and shrinking personal freedoms amid the Taliban’s rise to power with the U.S. troop withdrawal set to complete on Aug. 31.
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(REVIEW) Netflix’s latest reality series about a highly successful businesswoman who left a strict Orthodox Jewish community is hilarious at times and binge-worthy but adds to the narrative that religion is oppressive. Meanwhile, Orthodox Judaism is attracting more young people in the U.S. than previous generations despite religion’s overall decline.
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HarperCollins Christian Publishing Inc. and its publishing groups Zondervan and Thomas Nelson will not publish or manufacture the “God Bless the USA” Bible after a petition launched in response to Religion Unplugged’s reporting earlier this month. The Bible would have melded the New International Version Bible text with the U.S. founding documents and Pledge of Allegiance. Its Tennessee-based seller plans to print the Bible with a public domain translation instead.
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The “God Bless the USA” Bible includes America’s founding documents in its last pages and lyrics to the popular song “God Bless the USA” that became the chorus of Trump rallies. It will ship to customers this September to mark 20 years after 9/11.
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He’s an evangelist, a DJ, a radio host, a newspaper publisher, a gun violence mediator, an immigration law facilitator and much more. An immigrant from Jamaica, Rev. Terry Lee is a hustling, innovative, inner city preacher, the kind of unsung ministerial hero who works tirelessly and like a renaissance man to advance the common good inside and outside his community. And this weekend, he’s going to the White House.
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The debate over whether the Equality Act would simply extend needed protections to LGBTQ Americans or also discriminate against women, girls and public-facing religious organizations has divided even faith leaders, pitting LGBTQ rights against religious freedom.
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Hillsong Church’s New York pastor Carl Lentz was removed on Wednesday due to “moral failures,” the church leadership said. Then Lentz shared more details.
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Dubbed Not Our Faith, the PAC’s leaders include Billy Graham’s granddaughter Jerushah Duford and former aides and advisors from both sides of the aisle. The leaders of the PAC argued Thursday that Trump has denigrated the Christian faith and harmed migrants and refugees.
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As greater numbers of Muslims in the West seek Islamic communities outside local mosques, the new website Imam Connect aims to connect the so-called “unmosqued” to Islamic services they want, from match making to art lessons, counseling and funeral and wedding rituals.
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Mary Magdalene, the first apostle of Jesus and first to see him resurrected, is trending on Twitter on her feast day. She’s been reinvented numerous times throughout church history and even attracts fans outside the faith.
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Dr. Syra Madad, the senior director for the System Wide Special Pathogens Program for New York City Health and Hospitals, has been on the front line preparing for pandemics before the novel coronavirus hit. Now she's a leader in the response to COVID-19 in New York. Religion Unplugged sat down on Zoom with Dr. Madad to talk about the role her Muslim faith and religion overall plays in her medical mission to fight the spread of disease.
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St. John’s Episcopal Church, where Trump posed with a Bible on June 1, is known as the “Church of the Presidents.” Here are five facts about the historic church that you probably didn’t know, involving Abraham Lincoln, a marriage record of both enslaved and free African Americans, a presidential pew and more.
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While white evangelicals are the least likely religious group to view global warming as a crisis, there is a growing movement of evangelicals like Michelle Frazer who not only care about the impacts of climate change, but perhaps more significantly, are appealing to conservative Christians in ways that the secular, left-leaning environmental movement hasn’t.
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Gilead Sciences, which has raised hopes of a drug to treat coronavirus with some early signs of success in clinical trials, is named after an ancient salve used in Bible times.
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With a long-trending decline in the number of Americans who identify as Christian, stay-at-home orders are testing churches’ ability to maintain connections with followers or lose more of their flocks. During Holy Week, many churches report higher views online than can fit in their sanctuaries. Some are even hosting virtual activities like an Easter egg hunt to engage kids.
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The Mormon church has combined and updated its handbook, a portion of which had previously remained off-limits for lay members. Several changes relate to LGBTQ members, while the church remains firm in its support for only traditional marriage.
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Since launching in February, the Religion Unplugged team has been thrilled with our readers’ responses. We’re also proud to have won an Editor & Publisher award in our first year for best culture and entertainment news for websites under 1 million monthly views. Thank you for reading!
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