Tag: Religion and Belief

I Am Haunted by What I Have Seen at Great Salt Lake

From a distance, it is hard to tell whether the three figures walking the salt playa are human, bird or some other animal. Through binoculars, I see they are pelicans, juveniles, gaunt and emaciated without water or food. In feathered robes, they walk with the focus of fasting monks toward enlightenment or death. This was […]

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Pope Francis’ Decade of Division

Instead, Francis’ gambit involved a controversy much more clearly entangled with Catholic doctrine — the question of remarriage after divorce, where the very words of Jesus are at issue. Meanwhile, his larger approach has been to open controversies on the widest possible array of fronts: Sometimes through his statements, sometimes through his appointments, and for […]

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10 Years On, Pope Francis Faces Challenges From the Right and the Left

“The synod will be a beautiful moment,” said Cardinal Re, adding, “The pope has given a direction different from the past — certainly it is a journey that will bear fruit.” Some analysts have compared the meeting to a miniature Second Vatican Council — the landmark church assembly of bishops in the 1960s that opened […]

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Kung Fu Nuns of Nepal Smash Convention

As the first rays of sun pierced through the clouds covering snowcapped Himalayan peaks, Jigme Rabsal Lhamo, a Buddhist nun, drew a sword from behind her back and thrust it toward her opponent, toppling her to the ground. “Eyes on the target! Concentrate!” Ms. Lhamo yelled at the knocked-down nun, looking straight into her eyes […]

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In Troubled Times, the Sports World Offers a Necessary Salve

Did you feel it? Lionel Messi dueling Kylian Mbappé, shot for shot, goal for goal, in the World Cup final. LeBron James becoming the N.B.A. scoring king and Patrick Mahomes winning the Super Bowl. The South Carolina women’s basketball team: undeterred and undefeated. Tiger Woods — two years removed from a devastating a car wreck […]

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For Observant Jews in Brooklyn, the Sabbath Expands

When he moved in 2014 from an apartment in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights to a house he could afford in nearby Crown Heights, Naftali Hanau, a 37-year-old Orthodox Jewish businessman, suddenly found that, even in a secular and tolerant place like Brooklyn, the rigorous tenets of his faith now made it impossible for him to take […]

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Jay Shetty Wants to Fix Your Love Life With ‘8 Rules of Love’

They collectively got close to 20 million views, Ms. Huffington said.“It was clear to us, to our audience and to the world that Jay Shetty was something special,” she said. Almost immediately, she offered him a job as a host and producer in New York City. “Overnight, my life changed,” Mr. Shetty said. What’s Love […]

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Jinger Duggar Vuolo Revisits Her Religious Upbringing

In grappling critically with the strict religious teachings of her childhood, Mrs. Vuolo is taking part in a version of “deconstruction,” though she distances herself from the specific term. It’s an exercise that has accelerated in the last five years among young adults raised in conservative Christian homes but remains controversial among many in the […]

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Returning From Africa, Pope Francis and Christian Leaders Condemn Anti-Gay Laws

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE — Pope Francis on Sunday doubled down on his assertion that homosexuality should not be criminalized, saying on the papal plane returning from South Sudan, a country that penalizes homosexual acts, that “to condemn a person like this is a sin.” But Francis, 86, also turned his attention back toward Rome, […]

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In Congo, a Pope and a Nation Revitalize One Another

Even the day’s painful afternoon meeting with the victims of gruesome crimes in the country’s embattled east, when survivors put machetes and knives on the floor near the pope to punctuate the horror of their accounts, seemed to remind him of his mission. “Thank you for these testimonies,” he said gravely. And on Thursday, the […]

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They Ran an Illegal Scam. Do We Let Our Child Go to Their Home?

Four years ago, after many years with no contact, I finally reconnected with the best man from my wedding, who is probably my longest very good friend. We both worked for the same company in our first jobs after college. Eventually, he relocated to the South while I remained in the North. After we reconnected, […]

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