Faith
Frederick D. Haynes resigns abruptly as leader of Rainbow PUSH Coalition
By Adelle M. Banks — April 17, 2024
(RNS) — Haynes, the pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, had been in the role at Rainbow PUSH for less than a year.
Father of boy accused of stabbing 2 Sydney clerics saw no signs of extremism, Muslim leader says
By Mark Baker and Rod Mcguirk — April 17, 2024
SYDNEY (AP) — Kheir is among several community leaders who have accused police of unnecessarily raising community tensions with a premature declaration on Tuesday that the attack at Christ the Good Shepherd Church fit the definition of a terrorist act.
Reagan’s great America shining on a hill twisted into Trump’s dark vision of Christian nationalism
By Diane Winston — April 17, 2024
(The Conversation) — Reagan and Trump − two of the most media-savvy Republican presidents − used religion to advance their political visions, but their messages and missions could not be more different.
‘The Hopeful,’ film about Adventist origins, debuts in theaters
By Kathryn Post — April 17, 2024
(RNS) — ‘I think a lot of those misconceptions that Adventists maybe aren’t mainstream Christians, I think they’re going to be challenged,’ said director and co-producer Kyle Portbury.
In time for Passover, the first Ukrainian-language Haggadah goes to print
By David I. Klein — April 16, 2024
(RNS) — ‘It is a symbol of how we’ve manifested as Ukrainian Jews, that we are something different, not just Soviet Jews anymore,’ said the translator of the Passover liturgy.
How can a denomination based on reconciling differences split over its disagreements?
By David Eagle — April 16, 2024
(RNS) — The United Methodist Church has to stop fracturing over sexuality and learn to live with our differences.
After traditionalist churches left, UMC may be more — not less — diverse
By Yonat Shimron — April 16, 2024
(RNS) — Even after the departures, 24% of North Carolina clergy remaining in the denomination disagree with allowing LGBTQ people to get married and ordained within the denomination.
How not to comfort the mourning: Hospital chaplain J.S. Park talks grief in new book
By Kathryn Post — April 16, 2024
(RNS) — ‘The biggest myth I see is that grief is a poison to get past,’ said Park.
Prominent New York church, sued for gender bias, moves forward with male pastor candidate
By Darren Sands — April 16, 2024
(AP) – Candidate Kevin R. Johnson, founding pastor of Dare to Imagine Church in Philadelphia, will be recommended for the congregation’s approval to lead the more than 200-year-old Abyssinian Baptist Church,
Indian protesters pull from poetic tradition to resist Modi’s Hindu nationalism
By Krupa Shandilya — April 16, 2024
(The Conversation) — Thanks to a strong oral Urdu literary tradition in South Asia, poems from the past linger in the popular imagination.
A London court rules against a Muslim girl who wanted to pray at a school known for strict rules
By Associated Press — April 16, 2024
LONDON (AP) — The fight was over a rule put in place last year by the Michaela Community School after a small group of students who began praying in the schoolyard caused divisions at the school that spread to the community and led to a bomb threat.
Salman Rushdie’s ‘Knife’ is unflinching about his brutal stabbing and uncanny in its vital spirit
By Hillel Italie — April 16, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) —At just over 200 pages, “Knife” is a brief work in the canon of Rushdie, among the most exuberant and expansive of contemporary novelists.
Tensions rise in Australia after a bishop and priest are wounded in a knife attack in a church
By Rod Mcguirk and Mark Baker — April 16, 2024
SYDNEY (AP) —Video of the attack spread quickly on social media and an angry mob converged on the church demanding vengeance.
Feud with ex-president leads to lawsuit, alleged threats of violence at Calvin University
By Bob Smietana — April 15, 2024
(RNS) — The prominent evangelical school hired a former business executive as president in hopes of turning around years of decline. But his tenure ended abruptly after the board alleged he'd sent inappropriate messages to a woman he was not married to.
Solar New Year celebrations unite religious groups across the South Asian diaspora
By Richa Karmarkar — April 15, 2024
(RNS) — This week, people of all South Asian backgrounds celebrated the Hindu Solar New Year in their unique, regional ways. But common threads between the holidays, many say, have the power to unite those living in the diaspora.
