Photo by Alexis Brown/Unsplash/Creative Commons May 12, 2022 By Yonat Shimron (RNS) — If a Supreme Court justice, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and the secretary of the Treasury were not enough, Jewish girls can find plenty of other role models of professional success. A new study suggests the examples of these

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

January 28, 2022 By Samuel L. Perry (RNS) — As the nation remembered the Capitol riots on Jan. 6 earlier this month, a deluge of articles highlighted the role of white Christian nationalism and its ongoing threat to democracy. This was absolutely necessary. Yet, white Christian nationalism has been tied to an even greater crisis over the past year, namely, the

January 13, 2022 By Jack Jenkins   WASHINGTON (RNS) — A religion scholar believes major trends in religion and politics can be traced back to the rise of the religious right in the 1990s, a sea change moment that set in motion an array of phenomena ranging from an uptick in religious disaffiliation to the

January 5, 2022 By Samuel L. Perry (RNS) — One year ago at the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, the world witnessed one way in which Christian nationalism imperils American democracy. We’ve all seen photos and footage of the mob violence perpetrated by Americans waving Christian flags, clad in Christian clothing, saying Christian prayers. As some

The Rev. Derek Miller plays guitar and leads worship at Cornerstone Church of Spring Green, Nov. 7, 2021, in Spring Green, Wisconsin. RNS photo by Bob Smietana November 16, 2021 By Bob Smietana SPRING GREEN, Wis. (RNS) — The Rev. Derek Miller has seen the future of the church in America. And it is small.