Social Issues

Black church brought religion to politics in the ‘60s, but different to white Christian nationalism today

By Tobin Miller Shearer — September 6, 2024
(The Conversation) — In 1966, the assertion of Black power was grounded in an appeal to the founding principles of the United States. Black church leaders called for healing internal divisions through engagement.
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7 years after genocide, plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh is exacerbated by camp violence

By Nasir Uddin — September 4, 2024
(The Conversation) — Hundreds of thousands of minority Muslims fled Myanmar in 2017 amid a government crackdown. Seven years on, they remain in refugee camps.

A Pakistani religious leader is tried in his absence for allegedly threatening Geert Wilders

By Mike Corder — September 4, 2024
SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AP) — “Every day you get up and leave for work in armored cars, often with sirens on, and you are always aware somewhere in the back of your mind that this could be your last day,” Geert Wilders, leader of the party that won last year's general election in the Netherlands, told the court.

How HIV/AIDS got its name − the words Americans used for the crisis were steeped in science, stigma and religious language

By Anthony Petro — September 4, 2024
(The Conversation) — The nascent LGBTQ+ rights movement and the Christian right each strongly shaped the early years of HIV/AIDS, a historian explains.

Catholic diocese sues US government, worried some foreign-born priests might be forced to leave

By Giovanna Dell'orto — September 3, 2024
In his own border diocese of El Paso, Texas, Bishop Mark Seitz is facing the possibility of losing priests whose permanent residency cases now have little chance to be approved before their visas expire. The law mandates them to leave the United States for at least a year.

What to know about the rescued hostage’s Bedouin community in Israel

By Mariam Fam — September 3, 2024
(AP) — One significant long-running source of tensions is that tens of thousands or so Bedouins in the Negev eke out an existence in villages that the Israeli authorities don’t recognize. The villages are largely cut off from basic services and the government wants to tear them down.

The Black church has moved from essential to voluntary, says author Jason Shelton

By Adelle M. Banks — September 3, 2024
(RNS) — ‘Is the Black church dead? I think it really varies depending on which traditions we’re talking about,’ said Shelton, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Montgomery County, Maryland, was most religiously diverse US county in 2023

By Aleja Hertzler-McCain — August 30, 2024
(RNS) — Beyond the religiously unaffiliated, which represent slightly less than 2 in 10 (17.8%) residents, the largest religious group in the county was Black Protestants, who make up 10% of the population. 

Retirement doesn’t just raise financial concerns – it can also mean feeling unmoored and irrelevant

By Marianne Janack — August 29, 2024
(The Conversation) — If you have spent 40 years of your life working 40 hours a week, retirement isn’t just a financial consideration, writes a philosopher.

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.

Judge blocks Arizona lithium drilling that tribe says is threat to sacred lands

By Scott Sonner — August 26, 2024
A federal judge has temporarily blocked exploratory drilling for a lithium project in Arizona that tribal leaders say will harm land they have used for religious and cultural ceremonies for centuries. Lawyers for the national environmental group Earthjustice and Colorado-based Western Mining Action Project are suing federal land managers on behalf of the Hualapai Tribe. […]

Pakistan flies home the injured and the bodies of 28 Shiite pilgrims killed in a bus crash in Iran

By Munir Ahmed — August 26, 2024
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan brought home Friday the bodies of 28 Shiite pilgrims killed in a bus crash in Iran this week while heading to Iraq for a pilgrimage. A Pakistani military aircraft also flew back 23 pilgrims injured in the accident, officials said. Earlier in the day in Iran, officials handed over the bodies […]

Hundreds of police raid a religious compound in search of Filipino preacher wanted for child abuse

By Jim Gomez — August 26, 2024
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Apollo Quiboloy, preacher of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, claims to be the appointed son of God.
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