(OPINION) A recent Pew survey found that 40% of countries and territories worldwide had blasphemy laws in 2019. But a few caveats bring a greater understanding of how blasphemy laws and hate speech laws are impacting believers and nonbelievers today.
Read MoreSeveral prominent Ugandan pastors’ marriages have recently shattered in the public eye, causing many of Uganda’s 34 million Christians to express concerns about the state of marriage in their country. In most of the scandals, male pastors are abandoning their spouses after many years for young women in their congregations.
Read MoreIn the 1980s and ‘90s, modest religious dressing in Kenya meant a very restricted wardrobe — one solid color of fabric stitched and sold in select shops run by members of the church. Today, trend-conscious religious millennials are changing the dress code, not necessarily by dressing immodestly but by adding twists of artsy, modern style.
Read MoreOf the 7.6 billion people on Earth, 2.4 billion identify as Christian, 1.9 billion as Muslim, 1.2 billion as Hindu and more than 500 million as Buddhist. Those are just the four largest religions. In other words, 310 million in the U.S. do not necessarily constitute the epicenter for all religion in the world. If anything, religion in America is a unique outlier.
Read More(OPINION) The conflict in Ethiopia continues to take new victims. Shortly after it began in November 2020, evidence of mass killings of several hundred people in the western Tigray town of Mai Kadra, started to emerge. In 2021, the U.N. raised its concerns regarding the emerging humanitarian crisis and the risk of famine.
Read MoreThe late Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu who changed the world through his message of truth and racial reconciliation will be buried in Cape Town on Jan. 1, 2022.
Read MoreWhile the world continues to pay tribute to the late Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu — who fought against apartheid and brought racial reconciliation to South Africa — his spiritual son, business mogul and anti-apartheid activist Saki Macozoma fondly reflected with ReligionUnplugged.com on the special moments they shared.
Read More(ANALYSIS) As 2021 comes to a close, everyone is looking toward 2022. The news cycle over the last two years has been dominated by COVID-19, and that doesn’t seem to be subsiding given the rash of recent omicron infections. The Catholic world, meanwhile, had in 2021 one of its busiest years. Expect 2022 to be just as busy.
Read More(OPINION) Religious leaders have long involved themselves in the immigration debate, taking a variety of of pro and con positions. So does religiosity make people more welcoming, or more suspicious, of the stranger? A recent Religion News Service story tries to answer the question as it has unfolded in Europe.
Read MoreDesmond Tutu, who fought tirelessly for the end apartheid in his native South Africa and won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, died Sunday at the age of 90. Religious and political leaders in his homeland and across the world sent stirring tributes in the hours following his death.
Read More(OPINION) On Dec. 17, the U.N. Human Rights Council, during its 33rd special session on Ethiopia, adopted a resolution establishing an international commission of experts on Ethiopia to conduct an investigation into allegations of human rights violations and abuses by all parties to the conflict.
Read MoreAmid heightened needs of Afghan girls and women, ReligionUnplugged interviews Daisy Khan, one of the most prominent female Muslim leaders in the U.S., about her work leading the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality to advance the rights of women based on the spiritual principles’ integral to the Islamic faith.
Read More(TRAVEL) Among all the hustle, bustle and stress that comes with Christmas, we should also all be reminded that it is a time of prayer. While prayer can take up many forms, Catholics are returning to in-person Mass now that COVID-19 lockdowns have largely been done away with.
Read More(OPINION) Nigeria’s de-listing was seen by numerous informed observers as an outrageous betrayal of an already brutalized Christian community. The decision ignored years of well documented murders and mutilations, death squads, torched villages and farmlands and devastated homeless refugees.
Read MoreA growing list of Muslims arrested and killed without trials in Ugandan anti-terrorism security operations, recently including a respected sheikh, has stirred anger and calls for fair prosecution of suspects rather than shootings on site.
Read More(ANALYSIS) It’s now clear that the Biden administration wants to oust Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. This is extraordinary and would exacerbate many of the region’s challenges, including religious extremism. While Ahmed has made mistakes, they are incomparable to the persecution, repression and suffering caused by past regimes.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The current crisis in Ethiopia — displacing 2.1 million people with another 7 million in need of humanitarian aid — is an ethnic-political conflict, not a religious one. However, strengthening Ethiopia’s interfaith collaboration among religious groups can bring about much-needed national reconciliation and healing.
Read MoreThe Kenya Film Classification Board recently banned the documentary film “I am Samuel” about a religious gay man’s struggle for acceptance from his family and country, sparking debate on the rights of the LGBTQ community as well as interpretations of the Bible on same-sex relationships.
Read MoreAs millions of South Africans visited the polls this week, the South African Council of Churches prayed that the local municipal elections would not trigger more spread of COVID-19. The nation has been one of the world’s hardest hit during the pandemic in terms of coronavirus infections and death rate, with 2.92 million cases and 89,179 deaths.
Read MoreThe number of Roman Catholics across Africa and Asia continues to grow, according to a new report, while it has dropped in Europe. The Vatican report serves as a statistical snapshot of the church’s global population and institutions, comparing 2019 — the last year for which data is available — with the previous year.
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