Topic: US Domestic Issues
“We have [Muslim] folks who worship here in Chapel Hill who refrain from publicizing and making it known where they worship, when they come together. They tell me it’s because they have concerns about their safety,” says Mark Kleinschmidt, mayor of Chapel Hill, North Carolina where three Muslim students were murdered in February. More
“It took many parts of very many communities to make peace in Baltimore,” says Eugene Sutton, Episcopal Bishop of Maryland. “Religious leaders from all over the city—Christian mainly, Muslim and Jewish leaders—got out on the streets and congregations and really proclaimed a message of hope and of nonviolence and peace. City officials did the same.” More
John Bursch, the main lawyer arguing why the states should not be required to license same-sex marriages, summed the issue up this way: “You can love your neighbor no matter what their sexual orientation is—what choices they make about their life—and still have a disagreement about what marriage means. And the question is who gets to decide the meaning of marriage?” More
“We were willing to be beaten for democracy,” says Rev. C.T. Vivian, recalling the freedom movement and voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965. It was, he says, “the beginning of the transformation of America.” More
Radical Islamic groups are using high-quality videos to recruit young Muslims in the US and Europe to join their fight. Now, a Somali Muslim immigrant in Minnesota is fighting back with his own videos—an animated series called “Average Mohamed” that counters extremist ideas about Islam. More
“To me, the idea of a church offering an economic well-being award makes perfect sense,” says Bay Ridge United Methodist Church pastor Robert Emerick. The idea of offering a prize for the best explanation about why the economy is doing so poorly compared to a generation ago started when Rev. Emerick felt overwhelmed by the competing claims of politicians during the recent mid-term elections. “It seemed to me as a Christian minister that I needed to know whether the claims were true or false,” he says. More
“There’s really no widespread religious objection to the [measles] vaccine…It’s that I have a belief that these vaccines are harmful, or that they don’t work, or I don’t believe that somebody else should be telling me how to raise my kids,” says Religion News Service editor-in-chief Kevin Eckstrom. More
Social justice and civil rights activists had a lot to like in President Obama’s address, but religious conservatives were concerned by the “reframing” of issues such as gay marriage as matters of freedom and justice. More
According to Father Michael Doyle, crime and poverty in Camden, New Jersey are worse today than when he first arrived there 39 years ago. But through his church’s ministry of feeding, housing, and educating the poor, Father Doyle sees hope for what the FBI considers the most dangerous city in America. “We’re working against the odds, but I think God is on our side,” he says. More
“The question for our government” says Lenni Benson, executive director and founder of the nonprofit Safe Passage Project, “will be, even if they have deportation orders, is it ethical and legal to remove a child to a country of origin if we aren’t assured that child will be safe upon return?” More
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