Lauren Markoe

Lauren Markoe has been a national reporter for RNS since 2011. Previously she covered government and politics as a daily reporter at the Charlotte Observer and The State (Columbia, S.C.)

All Stories by Lauren Markoe

Rihanna defies religious group’s warning to stay away from Senegal

By Lauren Markoe — February 2, 2018
(RNS) — The singer arrived in Dakar, the capital of the mostly Muslim West African nation, despite accusations from the group that she is a Freemason and supports gay people — both serious transgressions in their eyes.

Four trends that demand Christian and Jewish leaders’ attention

By Lauren Markoe — January 30, 2018
(RNS) — Four powerful and irreversible forces are rapidly transforming the Jewish and Christian worlds.

The Slingshot: Jersey sanctuary; Headscarf protest; Protecting churches

By Lauren Markoe — January 30, 2018
A third Indonesian Christian seeks sanctuary in a New Jersey church. Iranian women on social media take off their obligatory headscarves. Federal officials are training congregants to protect their churches from gun violence.

Iranian women protest obligatory headscarf

By Lauren Markoe — January 30, 2018
(RNS) — The women appear to be following the lead of a 31-year-old protester identified as Vida Movahed, who took off her headscarf on the same street in late December. She was detained for a few weeks and then released.

The Slingshot: Hijabi model; Arrested priests; Holy hipsters

By Lauren Markoe — January 23, 2018
The first hijabi model to front a major hair product campaign steps down in controversy. Congo’s government arrests 10 Catholic priests. A Canadian church figures out how to attract millennials.

10 Roman Catholic priests arrested in protests in Congo

By Lauren Markoe — January 22, 2018
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — The church brokered the agreement by which the country's authoritarian leader, President Joseph Kabila, was supposed to have stepped down more than a year ago.

Pence: US Embassy to move to Jerusalem in 2019

By Lauren Markoe — January 22, 2018
(USA Today) — Pence made the announcement Monday (Jan. 22) at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

In Israel, a rabbinical plan to hide Africans facing deportation

By Lauren Markoe — January 18, 2018
JERUSALEM (RNS) — 'If someone had told me 10 years ago this would happen, I’d have said a Jewish state would never send desperate refugees away to their deaths,' said Rabbi Susan Silverman, sister of comedian Sarah Silverman.

More Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews buck tradition and head for the army, higher ed

By Lauren Markoe — January 17, 2018
JERUSALEM (RNS) — 'My father didn’t serve and neither did my nearly 100 cousins, not that I hold it against them,' said one ultra-Orthodox soldier.

The Slingshot: Pope in Chile; Big Mormon announcement; Oh Happy Day

By Lauren Markoe — January 16, 2018
The pope offers an apology. A new leader of the LDS church will be announced today. A gospel great passes on.

Gospel star Edwin Hawkins, known for ‘Oh Happy Day,’ dies

By Lauren Markoe — January 15, 2018
(AP) — Along with Andrae Crouch, James Cleveland and a handful of others, Hawkins was credited as a founder of modern gospel music.

The Slingshot: Christian rift; Mississippi justice; Porky lunches

By Lauren Markoe — January 9, 2018
A gap widens between American evangelicals and Mideast Christians. The high court won’t hear a gay rights and religious freedom case. A French town won’t accommodate kids who eat halal.

Justices won’t step into Mississippi gay rights legal fight

By Lauren Markoe — January 9, 2018
(AP) — The Supreme Court is refusing to intervene in a legal fight over a Mississippi law that lets government workers and private businesspeople cite their own religious beliefs to deny services to LGBT people.

The Slingshot: Young American Muslims; Nigerian church tragedy; Pope’s ‘useless baggage’

By Lauren Markoe — January 2, 2018
Many U.S. Muslims get serious about their faith when it’s time to marry. Gunmen target Christians after services at two Nigerian churches. Francis wants the world to cut the ‘empty chatter.’

In Christ’s birthplace, olive wood artisans carry on a Holy Land tradition

By Lauren Markoe — December 19, 2017
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (RNS) — Artisans in and around Bethlehem specialize in carving wood from a tree that makes several appearances in the Bible. They consider the work — a millennium-old tradition — holy. But clashes between Israelis and Palestinians threaten this year's Christmastime sales.
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