Burmese refugee youth resettled in Texas exhibit amazing courage and resilience in negotiating American life and helping older relatives and community members overcome language and cultural barriers in the U.S., ethnographic researcher Diane Mitschke said during an April 28 lecture…
High recidivism rates keep the Prison Industrial Complex humming, authors contend
The U.S. prison system intentionally promotes recidivism rates high enough to guarantee the continued existence and growth of a thriving, profit-driven incarceration system, according to Fox Richardson, the subject of an Academy Award-nominated documentary about the power of faith over…
Immigration advocates sound alarm on proposed state and federal immigration bills
Immigration advocates have been especially busy this month actively opposing anti-immigrant legislation proposed on state and federal levels. That’s because Republican lawmakers from Washington, D.C., to Tallahassee, Fla., have ramped up efforts to energize their base with bills critics have…
Pew study finds major shifts in U.S. Latino religious identity
Catholicism has taken the biggest hit from U.S. Latinos switching religious affiliations over the past decade or more, while the religiously unaffiliated have seen the most growth in that time frame, new research shows. The Pew Research Center study also…
Nine ‘Mama Bears’ testify how anti-LGBTQ legislation is harming their families
Loving and supporting LGBTQ children does not make Christian parents bad Christians, Mama Bears founder Liz Dyer said during a roundtable presented by the Human Rights Campaign. “I like to emphasize that my faith led me to become affirming of…
Young BIPOC have not abandoned religious belief, new study finds
Contrary to popular opinion, young people of color have not abandoned religious belief and in fact are praying, meditating, reading Scripture and building sacred fellowship on their own terms, youth ministry expert Megan DeWald said. This reality escapes or frightens…
DeSantis and Florida Legislature want to control pretty much everyone
Hardly a constituency or demographic in Florida has escaped the legislative onslaught of Gov. Ron DeSantis and his Republican supermajority in the statehouse. Over the past year, bills have been introduced or signed to impose strict controls on public and…
Broad coalition of religious liberty groups sides with former postal employee
A veritable who’s who of religious groups have filed joint friend-of-the-court briefs in a U.S. Supreme Court case involving a Christian postal worker claiming religious discrimination by having to work Sundays to deliver Amazon packages. Baptist Joint Committee for Religious…
New book on Kentucky’s oldest Baptist association finds the more things change, the more they stay the same
A recent book about the first Baptists in Kentucky reveals present-day Baptists face many of the challenges that vexed their 18th and 19th century ancestors, Aaron Coyle-Carr said during an online discussion presented by Baptist History and Heritage Society. “The…