Among the hubs for climate scientists, activists and fossil fuel lobbyists at the United Nations climate summit is a new addition this year: a place to pray. The first-ever Faith Pavilion, inaugurated by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, in a video message on Sunday, offers a space for meditation, daily […]
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On Halloween, the pop star Sabrina Carpenter uploaded a music video to YouTube for her new song “Feather.” That was a Tuesday. By the end of the week, a Catholic priest had been stripped of his administrative duties because of it. In the video, Ms. Carpenter, 24, a former Disney child star with more than […]
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The Rev. Kay Colleton will never forget the time she first laid eyes on Moving Star Hall, a tiny white clapboard building with a leaning chimney, a crooked roof and a storied history. The hall is a rare surviving example of a praise house — humble one-room structures used as places of worship by enslaved […]
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In the same way, Palestinian insight into the devouring specters of antisemitic persecution awakened in Jews by the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack appears negligible. Mutual empathy is very hard to find. “Each side begs for the status of five-star victim,” said Mohammad Darawshe, the director of strategy at the Givat Haviva Center for Shared […]
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In the church of my childhood, we believed God’s angels battled demons in a war for our souls. This was not a metaphor. We were Pentecostals, though not strictly and not always. We weren’t picky about denomination; what mattered was belief in the redeeming blood of Christ, in the Bible literally interpreted and in God’s […]
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Pope Francis, who has made reaching out to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics a hallmark of his papacy, has made clear that transgender people can be baptized, serve as godparents and be witnesses at church weddings, furthering his vision of a more inclusive church. The pope’s embrace of transgender people’s participation in the church was revealed in a […]
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In the moments before he was to face a vote on becoming speaker of the House this week, Representative Mike Johnson posted a photograph on social media of the inscription carved into marble atop the chamber’s rostrum: “In God We Trust.” His colleagues celebrated his candidacy by circulating an image of him on bended knee […]
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When Helena Jeppesen-Spuhler, an advocate for the ordination of women, joined a major Vatican meeting this month, she was skeptical that an institution dominated by men for 2,000 years was ready to listen to women like her. The gathering of some 300 bishops from around the world also included for the first time nuns and […]
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After reports of the massacre and kidnapping of Israeli Jews by Hamas militants, the two exchanged texts. “How are you holding up?” Ms. Hasan wrote, before expressing anger that such atrocity could be done in the name of God, and fear of a violent retaliation that would take innocent lives. “I love you,” she continued. […]
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Javier Milei, a far-right libertarian leading the polls in Argentina’s presidential election this month, has made a lot of contentious statements in recent years: Humans did not cause climate change; people should be able to sell their organs; his nation’s currency “is not even good as manure.” But, to many Argentines, he has done something […]
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New York’s Jewish community is the largest outside of Israel, and it is often polarized, particularly regarding Israel and its treatment of Palestinians. Since the brutal terror attacks on Israelis last Saturday, many New York Jews said they have put aside those differences. This week, thousands of Jews from across the political and theological spectrum […]
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Rome is a Catholic menagerie these days. An excommunicated woman dressed in red bishop’s robes is marching toward the Vatican behind a procession of would-be female priests. Conservative culture warriors are headlining theaters, delivering screeds against Pope Francis before marginalized cardinals and exorcists sitting in velvet seats. The abortion-rights leader of Catholics for Choice is […]
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The Francis era in Roman Catholicism is a good example of how the abnormal and even extraordinary can come to feel, with enough repetition, old hat and status quo. The wildness of the last decade is undeniable: the first papal resignation in centuries, the elevation of a new pope who began casting about for the […]
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Tibetan Buddhism has long been led by the Dalai Lama, the 88-year-old spiritual leader who fled Tibet in 1959 and has been living in exile in India ever since. Beijing considers the Dalai Lama a separatist and asserts that only the ruling Communist Party — an avowed atheist organization — can name his next incarnation […]
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Throughout his decade as leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis has allowed debates on previously taboo topics and set in motion subtle shifts toward liberalizing changes that have enraged conservatives for going too far and frustrated progressives for not going far enough. This month, starting on Wednesday, Francis’ desire for the church to […]
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The more I consider the challenge posed by Christian nationalism, the more I think most observers and critics are paying too much attention to the wrong group of Christian nationalists. We mainly think of Christian nationalism as a theology or at least as a philosophy. In reality, the Christian nationalist movement that actually matters is […]
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From a distance, the cemetery looks much like any other in Israel, but examine the tombs closely and a startling fact is revealed: Here are buried Jews, Muslims and Christians. The graveyard lies in the Oasis of Peace, a small village off the main highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and home to some 70 […]
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When Christy Childers moved from Austin to San Francisco in 2017 to start a marketing job at Facebook, she felt anxious about sharing her evangelical faith with her new colleagues. In Ms. Childers’s religious community, Silicon Valley has a reputation for being overtly secular and less than accepting of Christian beliefs. She now calls that […]
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Lina Lutfiawati’s videos of eating delectable meals — featuring fish, crab, clams, prawns and ribs — have earned the Indonesian influencer millions of fans on TikTok. But when Ms. Lina, 33, ate pork rinds on camera in March, her TikTok video of the meal drew the attention of a different audience: Indonesia’s top Muslim clerical […]
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Four years after her death, the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster has not decomposed, her fellow nuns said. Believers come from all over to see for themselves. WHY WE’RE HERE We’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In the hills north of Kansas City, Mo., a small abbey has become a […]
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