America’s churches are slowly, bumpily reopening. Today is Pentecost, when Jesus’s apostles are said to have received the Holy Spirit, marking the founding of the Church. Congregations’ approaches to easing restrictions have varied widely according to geography and temperament. In…
African American Alumni Call on Jerry Falwell Jr. to Step Down
Nearly three dozen black alumni of Liberty University denounced school President Jerry Falwell Jr. on Monday, suggesting he step down after he mocked Virginia’s mask-wearing requirement by invoking the blackface scandal that engulfed the state’s governor last year.
US faith leaders lead congregations through tumultuous time
American religious leaders across faiths are grappling with the heavy burden of helping to heal two active traumas: rising civil unrest driven by the police killing of George Floyd and the coronavirus pandemic.
Rev. Barber: ‘Systemic racism is choking the life out of American democracy’
On Pentecost Sunday, after a night of unrest that swept the country in the wake of the brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of police, the Rev. William J. Barber II delivered what he called “a pastoral letter…
Trump’s New ‘Religious Freedom’ Adviser At USAID Once Called Islam A ‘Barbaric Cult’
The new religious freedom adviser at the U.S. Agency for International Development once called Islam a “barbaric cult” and shared a meme that said people should be forced to eat bacon before purchasing a gun, among other racist posts. Those…
As 100,000 die, the virus lays bare America’s brutal fault lines – race, gender, poverty and broken politics
In one of the rare expressions of empathy that Donald Trump has displayed during the course of the coronavirus pandemic, he talked earlier this month about the disease claiming so many lives it was “filling up Yankee Stadium with death”.
LA allows shopping, worship sooner than expected in pandemic
Retail shops and offices were allowed to open Wednesday and the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the U.S. announced a plan to resume services as Los Angeles County took another step toward a reopening that seemed hard to imagine a…
Breakaway Anglican group that left Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth wins property fight
The Texas Supreme Court awarded a Fort Worth breakaway group affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America the right to $100 million in church property.
A quarter of Americans, and a majority of black Protestants, say their religious faith has deepened because of the coronavirus
One in four Americans say the coronavirus has deepened their religious faith, a poll released Thursday found, including a majority of black Protestants. Just 2 percent said the virus has left their faith weakened.