Faith
Taliban reject UN concerns over laws banning women’s voices and bare faces in public
By Associated Press — August 29, 2024
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Wednesday issued the country’s first set of laws to discourage vice and promote virtue. They include a requirement for a woman to conceal her face, body and voice outside the home. They also ban images of living beings, such as photographs.
AME Church delegates name six new bishops while retaining same-sex marriage ban
By Adelle M. Banks — August 28, 2024
(RNS) — In a joint address, AME bishops called for the creation of ‘accountability measures for every elected and appointed leader within our church.’
Once a beacon of the Yiddish speaking world, Lithuania’s Jews work to keep it alive
By David I. Klein — August 28, 2024
VILNIUS, Lithuania (RNS) — If one city could be said to be the home of Yiddish, the traditional language of Ashkenazi Jewry, many would point to Vilnius, the capital of modern-day Lithuania, where a program hopes to preserve and expand it.
Harris-Walz campaign hires the Rev. Jen Butler, longtime activist, to lead faith outreach
By Jack Jenkins — August 28, 2024
(RNS) — A familiar face among Washington’s faith-based activists, Butler said she brings ‘a broad set of relationships that I think can help, very quickly, pull a broad coalition together’ in a foreshortened Harris campaign.
Israeli Cabinet minister draws rebuke for saying he would build a synagogue at holy site
By Michele Chabin — August 28, 2024
JERUSALEM (RNS) — The far-right minister’s latest remarks have sparked outrage from Muslim authorities, concern from the U.S. State Department, and Israeli assurances that the ‘status quo’ will remain.
Why are Mormon lifestyle influencers so popular?
By Jana Riess — August 28, 2024
(RNS) — Lifestyle influencers with ties to the LDS church navigate a tightrope between traditional and modern. And America is eating it up.
Platforming religion: The Dems’ and GOP’s official positions compared
By Mark Silk — August 28, 2024
(RNS) — What the parties have to say — and not say — on the subject as the 2024 campaign heads into the homestretch.
I documented dozens of shrines to people who’ve died in North Philly − here’s what they tell us about memory, grief and trauma
By Gordon Coonfield — August 28, 2024
(The Conversation) — Makeshift memorials are public expressions of private mourning in response to trauma and tragedy.
Each Jewish couple’s story starts long before the wedding − and so does the celebration of their life together
By Shulamit Reinharz — August 28, 2024
(The Conversation) — Jewish traditions to mark a marriage often involve ceremonies and celebrations before the big day, whether it’s a ritual bath or even a fiance’s conversion to Judaism.
The suspect in the Germany attack was motivated by Islamic State group ideology, prosecutors say
By Daniel Niemann and David Mchugh — August 28, 2024
SOLINGEN, Germany (AP) — The attack comes amid debate over immigration before regional elections on Sept. 1 in Germany’s Saxony and Thuringia regions where anti-immigration parties such as the populist Alternative for Germany are expected to do well.
In the face of Palestinian suffering, interfaith groups offer a protective presence
By Yonat Shimron — August 27, 2024
(RNS) — An interfaith delegation to Israel aims to provide support and accompaniment to Palestinians facing home demolitions, dislocation and violence from West Bank settlers.
Want a better life? Spend more time thinking about sin, says Elizabeth Oldfield.
By Bob Smietana — August 27, 2024
(RNS) — In her book ‘Fully Alive,’ the podcaster and author argues that admitting we aren’t as great as we think we are opens the door to a better life.
Brazilians march for Eshu, an Afro-Brazilian deity, to protest Christian intolerance
By Eduardo Campos Lima — August 27, 2024
SÃO PAULO, Brazil (RNS) — A march in honor of the orisha Eshu drew some 150,000 people in São Paulo recently, considered a rebuke to the rise of evangelical Christians’ political power.
Remembering the Peekskill riots, a caution for the right and left
By Jeffrey Salkin — August 27, 2024
(RNS) — Decades before Charlottesville, there was Peekskill. You can still hear its echoes.
Breathe your spirit into the dry bones of your church
By Thomas Reese — August 27, 2024
(RNS) — People are leaving the church in droves. Seminaries and religious houses are closing or are half empty.
