Religion

By Val Wilde The same panel that shone a light on the systemic clerical sex abuse problem in the Church of England has released a similarly damning report about the Catholic Church in the UK. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) discovered more than 3,000 complaints of child sexual abuse perpetrated by over 900 priests, deacons, and …

By Katherine Stewart Will President-elect Joe Biden’s victory force America’s Christian nationalists to rethink the unholy alliance that powered Donald Trump’s four-year tour as one of the nation’s most dangerous presidents? Don’t count on it. The 2020 election is proof that religious authoritarianism is here to stay, and the early signs now indicate that the …

By Robert Barnes When a public official says he is pessimistic that his comments won’t be twisted or misunderstood but then adds, “here goes,” even he knows something controversial is coming up. That’s how Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. began his rock-ribbed and unusual speech to the Federalist Society on Thursday night. He …

By Hemant Mehta You remember Pastor Tony Spell. The head of Louisiana’s Life Tabernacle Church was first arrested in April — remember April?! — for aggravated assault against a protester. But he became notorious for holding in-person church gatherings and putting countless people in harm’s way. Despite being under house arrest, he defied the law to preach at his …

By Annie Knox The Utah Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case alleging male leaders of a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation in Roy forced a 15-year-old girl to listen to a recording of a man raping her in 2008. Lower courts found the church is not liable for the incident under protections of the First …

By Jack Jenkins President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisers are backing his challenges to the results of the 2020 election, though most stop short of joining the president’s effort to declare victory despite President-elect Joe Biden’s substantial leads in key swing states. Ralph Reed, head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, echoed Senate Majority Leader Mitch …

By Ron Millar Humanists across the nation and around the world are joining in the celebration of Donald Trump’s defeat. We can now embrace hope for progress in a way that wasn’t possible these last four years. While we don’t wish to sink to his level of strident demonization, we do need to recognize that …

By the Pew Research Center In 2018, the global median level of government restrictions on religion – that is, laws, policies and actions by officials that impinge on religious beliefs and practices – continued to climb, reaching an all-time high since Pew Research Center began tracking these trends in 2007. The year-over-year increase from 2017 …

By Gabby Orr It wasn’t until Election Day, when returns showed counties across Michigan, Georgia and the industrial Midwest leaning toward Joe Biden due to a groundswell of religious support, that the Trump campaign realized it had a problem. For months, President Donald Trump’s top aides and religious allies dismissed his softening support with white …

By Ryan Burge I’ve always been fond of the “Charlie Brown with the football” series from Peanuts. The premise is simple: Lucy is holding a football and she wants Charlie to kick it. Charlie is reluctant because he knows Lucy’s track record: she will yank the football away at the last minute. Still, every time …

By Scott Neuman A new Vatican report on former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked last year amid allegations of sexual misconduct that spanned decades, shows that Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI were aware of the accusations against him. The Vatican on Tuesday made public a detailed 461-page report on an internal investigation revealing that …

By Celine Castronuovo The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced changes to its Islamic personal laws, now allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate, loosening alcohol restrictions and imposing harsher punishments for “honor killings.” The Associated Press and Reuters reported on the changes Saturday, with the UAE state-run news agency WAM saying that the updates are intended to improve the country’s economic …