News
Bangladesh’s Hindu-Buddhist-Christian council pushes for secular state
By Rishabh Jain — August 29, 2024
(RNS) — Amid a government shake-up and rising violence against minorities, an interfaith council is pushing for the country to remove Islam as the state religion.
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.
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.
AME Church announces retirement settlement agreement during General Conference
By Adelle M. Banks — August 26, 2024
(RNS) — ‘Church employees who served their community for years deserve the retirement funds they were promised,’ responded a lawyer involved in the litigation.
Anti-Trump evangelical Christians make the case for Harris
By Katherine Stewart — August 26, 2024
CHICAGO (RNS) — A group of mostly progressive evangelical political strategists are trying to help religious conservatives see Harris as the more biblically faithful of the two candidates.
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 […]
Pope Francis condemns Ukraine’s ban on Russian Orthodox Church
By Claire Giangravé — August 26, 2024
(RNS) – 'Churches are not to be touched!' Pope Francis said after Ukraine approved a law banning churches tied to Russia.
