(OPINION) The future journalist was both shocked and inspired by her contact with Christians caught in that land's toxic climate of paramilitary warfare, drug trafficking and kidnappings. She struggled to grasp how someone like pilot Russell Martin Stendal, after years held for ransom, could forgive his kidnappers and then start a missionary effort to convert them.
Read MoreEarlier this month, the two-part BBC documentary “The Modi Question” was screened at Columbia University's Journalism School and Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, among others. In its most recent attempts at stifling dissent, the Indian government banned the documentary. At Columbia University, the screening was followed by a panel discussion led by progressive academics, Indian activists and journalists.
Read MoreJoshua Prager’s book, “The Family Roe” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction and received broad acclaim for Prager’s painstaking research into the life of the Roe v. Wade plaintiff — Norma McCorvey in real life and “Jane Roe” to the court — and many people connected to her, including the daughter born to her before abortion was legalized.
Some critics suggest that soft-on-crime policies have gone too far in recent years and perhaps even damaged efforts to help the homeless, drug addicts and prostitutes. The tensions around rising murder rates in major cities around the United States in recent years are also creating hurdles for the loose coalition of conservative, Christian and libertarian nonprofits and billionaires who have collaborated with progressive left activists in the cause of prison reform and deincarceration.
Read MoreSome churches and religious organizations have adopted the government’s theme in their events and preaching. To highlight the importance of education, it has become a norm for the older generation to go to work or attend church services and business meetings wearing school uniforms. This significant event has drawn the world’s attention to South Africa since 1976.
Read More(ANALYSIS) If there was ever a doubt that Americans are living in two, separate news universes, then the past two weeks certainly crystallized that reality even more than the polarizing presidential elections of 2016 and 2020. As a result, a major news story on pro-abortion rights protesters at churches was totally ignored by many mainstream news sites.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Something akin to a Catholic “Trial of the Century” has gotten underway in Rome and there’s plenty of palace intrigue to go around. The trial involving corruption, bad real estate deals and financial wrongdoing has placed Pope Francis in the center of a controversy that for the first time doesn’t involve doctrine or theology.
Read MoreA former plaintiff in a suit against Institute in Basic Life Principles told MinistryWatch that the IBLP’s media statement contains many “manipulations and distortions of the truth” and it made many “who knew the inside story sad and angry that the most they can offer is ‘no comment’ after decades worth of alleged abuse within their organization.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) The focus the past few weeks has been on Germany and the involvement of Benedict XVI in the handling of some abuse cases, decades before he became a key church official in Rome and, eventually, pope. This was also long before the church adopted stricter policies on how to handle cases of clergy sexual abuse.
Read MoreCheryl Brown Henderson, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Oliver Brown, shares behind-the-scenes details about her family’s important connection to the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Henderson spoke at Oklahoma Christian University’s annual History Speaks event.
Read MoreIn response to reporting by ReligionUnplugged.com and The Washington Post in 2019, a prominent former LDS Church member filed a federal lawsuit last week against the LDS Church seeking to regain more than $5 million in tithing he gave the church. The 2019 reports exposed that the LDS Church had amassed a $100 billion secret investment firm and used member tithes without their knowledge. The IRS has not confirmed whether it is investigating the church.
Read MoreSarah Collins Rudolph, survivor of the racist Alabama church bombing that fueled Civil Rights activism, spoke with Religion Unplugged on racial reconciliation and how her faith has sustained her. Rudolph released a book about her story on Jan. 28 — including the full story from the bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963.
Read More(OPINION) After I became a Christian in 1973, in my early 20s, I lost interest in politics for a while, because there were new spiritual dimensions of reality to investigate and map. But around 1978 something awakened my interest again. That was the campaign in Santa Ana, Calif., to run the Rescue Mission out of town. I realized that a lot of land use law in our country is based on a not very Christian concept of who is “undesirable neighbors.”
Read MoreAt the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Democrats steered clear of Barrett’s religion, even as Republicans focused on it. This week’s Weekend Plug-in has that news, plus all the top headlines and best reads from the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) Vandalism against Catholic churches is a news story. Period. Where is the coverage?
Read MoreHere’s everything you need to know about Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s faith, her past statements regarding abortion and whether religion should impact judicial philosophy.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has prompted President Donald Trump to pledge a nominee this week. Frontrunner Amy Coney Barrett, a Catholic, has a record of being anti-abortion and will certainly inflame those on the political left who fear an overturning of Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.
Read More(OPINION) This post isn’t some esoteric exercise in press freedom or news judgement. It’s about something real that is plaguing the national press in this country at this very critical moment in time.
Read More(OPINION) "John Lewis practiced the politics not of what we call bipartisan, John Lewis practiced the politics of We the People. The politics of the preamble of the constitution of the United States, ” Lawson said during his 21-minute message at the funeral where he added that while many books have been written about the Civil Rights period, most people get it ”wrong,” when it comes to telling the story of John Lewis.
Read MoreThe charity of American missionary Renee Bach, accused of causing more than 100 child deaths in Uganda, is now dissolved. Bach is accused of performing medical procedures without being a doctor. She settled out of court with two mothers who each lost a son.
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