August 15, 2022 By Richa Karmarkar (RNS) — Wearing a patterned button-down and his signature blond braids, RJ Hill stood out from the other clergy in the virtual meeting earlier this year discussing HIV and AIDS outreach in Staten Island. He spoke deliberately, aiming for clarity and confidence, attributes he later said are critical to
August 5, 2022 By Kathryn Post (RNS) — No small number of millennials was first introduced to personal technology tending to their tamagotchis during recess. Only later did the dot-com revolution, smartphones and social media invade every part of their lives, from relationships to health to music — and faith. Today, meditation podcasts, TikTok sermons and livestreams
By Ryan Burge (RNS) — One of the most important and difficult questions among those who study religion and politics is just how important a pastor, rabbi, imam or other religious leader is when it comes to shaping the worldviews of their congregation. These figures get a weekly chance to dominate the attention of the
July 11, 2022 By Bob Smietana (RNS) — With Roe v. Wade overturned, white evangelicals support restricting abortion, including through so-called heartbeat laws that ban abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, according to a new survey. Almost all want to see abortion banned after 15 weeks. More than half said providing an
People arrive at the Anaheim Convention Center for the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, June 14, 2022, in Anaheim, California. Photo by Justin L. Stewart/Religion News Service June 16, 2022 By Ryan Burge (RNS) — On Tuesday (June 14), thousands of messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, cast their ballots
May 9, 2022 By Bob Smietana (RNS) — For the last 50 years, abortion has been one of the most contentious issues in American political life, fueling mass protests, political machinations and even the rise of Donald Trump, who promised to deliver Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. But as Roe’s future
April 13, 2022 By Ryan Burge (RNS) — Possibly the most oft-repeated statistic in American religion is the rise of the religiously unaffiliated from just 5% of the population in the early 1970s to about 30% of adults in 2022. In a field where shifts typically move at a glacial pace, that demographic factoid may represent the
March 16, 2022 By Ryan Burge (RNS) — Last month I wrote about one area of consensus amid the two warring factions in our increasingly polarized republic. While the two political parties and their constituents could not be further apart in their positions on gender and sexuality issues, abortion, taxation and a host of other questions, Democrats
March 15, 2022 By Yonat Shimron DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) — The congregation at Holy Cross Catholic Church is an anomaly in one sense: a historically Black congregation led by the Rev. Pius Wekesa, one of just 250 or so Black priests in the United States. Many Black Catholics, a minority within a minority, rarely see
February 15, 2022 By Ryan Burge (RNS) — One of the most consequential legal terms in the 21st century may be “religious freedom.” As my colleague University of Cincinnati political scientist Andrew Lewis discusses in his most recent book, “The Rights Turn in Conservative Christian Politics,” religious conservatives have begun centering their legal strategy on
