(ANALYSIS) Anime and Religious Identity: Cultural Aesthetics in Japanese Spiritual Worlds helps students explore questions of meaning, ethics and belief that anime brings to life. It examines themes such as what happens when the past resurfaces? What does it mean to carry the weight of responsibility? And how can suffering become a path to transformation?
Read MoreEvan Carter helped the Texas Rangers win the World Series in 2023. But Carter — still just 22 — has faced multiple challenges over the past two seasons. He talked to Religion Unplugged about his journey as a ballplayer and, more importantly, as a person of deep Christian faith. “Baseball is what I do, but I try and not make it, as the cliché goes, who I am,” he said.
Read MoreSupreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018, but religious-liberty activists still want to know where he hoped to draw a bright line between religious freedom and the sexual revolution. Kennedy knew that the First Amendment's declaration that government “shall make no law ... prohibiting the free exercise of religion” was creating warfare in modern American law and politics. But he didn't know how to end the strife.
Read MoreOn India’s busy streets, vehicles adorned with Hindu symbols are more than just modes of transport — they have increasingly become mobile expressions of political and religious identity. The proliferation of these Hindu stickers has transformed everyday commuting, a phenomenon deeply intertwined with rising religious tensions.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On July 8, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants of arrest for Haibatullah Akhundzada, supreme leader of the Taliban, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, chief justice of the Taliban, who have exercised de facto authority in Afghanistan at least from Aug. 15, 2021.
Read More(ANALYSIS) One hundred years ago this month, Americans were transfixed as a Tennessee courtroom hosted challenge to the state’s new law barring “the teaching of the Evolution Theory” in public schools, including colleges. The prohibition covered “any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible.
Read MoreIn the heart of Nairobi’s Mukuru slum, where corrugated iron shacks gleam under the equatorial sun, Sister Mary Killeen has woven a legacy of hope. Known as the “Mother Teresa of Nairobi,” this Dublin-born Sister of Mercy has spent nearly five decades transforming lives in one of Kenya’s most impoverished areas.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Moyers died on June 26 at the age of 91, after a long and complex career in which he served as a speech writer and press secretary for President Lyndon B. Johnson, followed by decades of work with CBS, NBC and PBS. However, before that, the Rev. Bill Moyers was a Southern Baptist pastor in Texas towns like Brandon and Weir. He was proud of those roots and his convictions as a progressive Baptist.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Are Superman and Jesus headed for an American revival? For better or worse, people’s love of Superman and devotion to God have always been tightly fused. Whether this will lead to a long-term revival for both or just a short-term connection remains to be seen. For now, a lot more people are looking up to the heavens than were before.
Read MoreBill Moyers was arguably among the best reporters on the religion beat. Even if it wasn’t always the main focus of his work or what comes to mind for those familiar with his legacy, still, he was a lifelong spiritual seeker.
Read More(ANALYSIS) This is a mountainous and, until recently, remote area that is culturally and historically distinct from the rest of India. It is also the most thoroughly Baptist region in the world. For example, the church in Mon, a town of approximately 17,000 people, is the largest Baptist church in Asia. It dwarfs surrounding buildings and can seat 10,000 worshippers.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Throughout his career, you see the outlines of a man burdened by the myth he helped build. A man who stared down America’s worst tendencies and tried to warn us, only to watch them metastasize. And in that exhaustion, there’s something quietly Christlike — not in purity, but in genuine suffering.
Read More(ANALYSIS) With the increasing secularization of America, there’s far more freedom for Hollywood writers to tell stories about the afterlife that are in conflict with Christian narratives. There’s less cultural pressure to conform to Christian norms, so filmmakers are now freer explore alternative or ambiguous views of the afterlife.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The Bible Society recently published a report claiming that church attendance in England and Wales increased by more than half between 2018 and 2024. The revival was especially striking among young men, with reported church attendance jumping from 4% to 21% over this short period.
Read MoreA recent Lifeway Research study examining the rate at which evangelical and Black Protestant pastors leave the ministry also asked pastors about their experience with counseling, both in their ministry preparation and practice.
Read MoreAt a time when the Trump administration has renewed a travel ban on various Muslim majority countries in Africa and across the Middle East, the Quran owned by John Adams is but one indication that our nation’s founders regarded Islam — as well as other, non-Western, non-Christian faiths — as worthy of respect and protection under the law.
Read MoreMore than eight in 10 Americans agree that respect, family, trustworthiness and freedom are important values to them. At least three-quarters say the same when it comes to kindness, health, integrity, happiness and knowledge.
Read More(REVIEW) “Squid Game” is a series that’s no stranger when it comes to weaving religious imagery into its narrative. Season 3 culminates that thread with both subtle and striking references, particularly when it comes to Christian symbolism. The season, it turns out, is more parable than sermon. The six episodes that form the final season are bloodier than ever.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A new study has found nearly 950 hate-related incidents in India during the first year of the main ruling party’s third term. Religious minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, were the main targets of violence and hate speech. This rise in unchecked and largely unpunished hostility should concern all citizens.
Read MoreThe U.S. Supreme Court ruled parents of public-school children in Montgomery County, Md., have a right to opt their kids out of classroom reading times with books the school board labels as “LGBTQ inclusive.” These books were introduced as part of a new curriculum in 2022 for pre-K through eighth-grade students. They promote storylines that teach gender is a construct rather than a biological fact.
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