The Islamic State has appointed yet another ‘caliph’ after the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. What is the idea behind the caliphate?
Darren Spencer at a memorial for his childhood friend Saheed Vassell, a 34-year-old father of a teenage son, fatally shot by police in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, April 5, 2018.
AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
Police are almost always the first responders in cases of mental health crisis. Too often these encounters turn bad, even deadly. But police were never meant to be in charge of US mental health care.
Vice President Mike Pence joins military officers and a chaplain on Aug. 23, 2019 in a prayer for two Army men who died during operations in Afghanistan.
AP Photo/Cliff Owen
When the US entered World War I in 1917, military chaplains catered to majority white and Christian soldiers. Today the armed forces recognize over 200 denominations and religious groups.
A looted Jewish shop in Aachen, Germany on the day after Kristallnacht, Nov. 10, 1938.
Wolf Gruner and Armin Nolzen (eds.). 'Bürokratien: Initiative und Effizienz,' Berlin, 2001.
Wolf Gruner, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Most histories highlight the shattered storefronts and synagogues set aflame. But it was the systematic ransacking of Jewish homes that extracted the greatest toll.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg leads supporters on a march to the Democratic Party’s Liberty and Justice Celebration event in Des Moines, Iowa on Nov. 1, 2019.
AP Photo/Nati Harnik
Pete Buttigieg has said that Christianity teaches ‘skepticism of the wealthy and the powerful and the established.’ These ideals are similar to those espoused by a Midwestern Social Gospel movement.
Bullet-riddled vehicles that members of the LeBaron family were traveling in sit parked on a dirt road near Bavispe, at the Sonora-Chihuahua border, Mexico, Nov 6, 2019.
AP Photo/Christian Chavez
Brazilian evangelicals are politically conservative, but they still believe in climate change. Turning them into climate activists, however, will be a challenge for the environmentalist movement.
Despite courting the Jewish vote, President Trump has used anti-Semitic rhetoric.
AP/John Locher
A task force has been assembled in the US Senate to fight anti-Semitism. A specialist in Jewish-American history says the group has a big job ahead of it. Anti-Semitism has a long history in the US.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at a town hall in Florence, South Carolina. He was denied communion by a priest in South Carolina.
Sarah Blake Morgan
Joe Biden was denied communion for pro-choice views. Catholics with ‘unforgiven’ sins can’t receive communion. A theologian says many Catholics would question if Biden was indeed in a ‘sinful’ state.
Kids in South Sudan await a daily meal from World Vision.
AP Photo/Sam Mednick
Not everyone’s a fan of this fundraising approach. But it does bring the needs of children in developing communities to the attention of many Americans.
The market has been flooded with apps related to Buddhism and most of them claim to teach meditation.
akiragiulia (pixabay.com)
Buddhist meditation apps are an increasingly popular stress-reliever for people on the go. But do these apps really work? Or are they products of a lucrative industry contributing to a tech addiction?
Lebanese protesters formed a 105-mile human chain connecting geographically and religiously diverse cities across the country, Oct. 27. 2019.
AP Photo/Bilal Hussein
Lebanon’s 1989 peace deal ended a civil war by sharing political power between religious factions. That created a society profoundly divided by religion – something today’s protesters hope to change.
Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutch humanist and theologian.
Quentin Matsys
Martin Luther is credited with initiating the split in Christianity that came to be called the Protestant Reformation. But don’t count out Erasmus, an early proponent of similarly radical ideas.
Revelers dressed as Catrina, an iconic Day of the Dead skeleton, at a holiday parade in Mexico City, Oct. 21, 2018.
Reuters/Andres Stapff
Kirby Farah, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
It may sound like a solemn affair, but the Day of the Dead – which blends indigenous and Catholic ritual – is a convivial celebration that allows Mexicans to reconnect with deceased loved ones.
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, watching the installation of a menorah outside Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
On top of the rising number of violent acts and vandalism incidents, American Jews are dealing with microagressions and prejudice that take a toll on their lives.
Halloween can also be a time of expression of cultural and social anxieties.
AP Photo/Richard Vogel
In the early 1970s, rumors about poisoned candy on Halloween led to mass paranoia. A historian explains why such fears emerge – and what, in reality, feeds them.
Seventy-eight percent of the people executed for witchcraft in New England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries were women.
Jef Thompson/Shutterstock.com
Powerful men often proclaim baseless accusations to be a ‘witch hunt.’ But American witch trials have always targeted a persecuted minority: women.
Refugees awaiting municipal bread distribution in Akcakale, Turkey, Oct. 20, 2019. Three-quarters of the Syrian refugees in Turkey are women and children.
AP Photo/Mehmet Guzel
Turkey is threatening to send 3.6 million refugees back to the Syrian territory it just invaded. Deporting these vulnerable people would make them the collateral damage of a chaotic, many-sided war.
Pope Francis at the start of the Amazon synod, at the Vatican, Oct. 7, 2019.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
Hundreds of bishops, priests, missionaries and tribal leaders are at the Vatican for the Synod of the Amazon, a three-week meeting focused on the environmental crisis threatening Amazonian peoples.
Fred Rogers rehearses with some of his puppet friends in Pittsburgh,.
Gene J. Puskarg/AP
A new film on beloved children’s television icon Fred Rogers hits theaters next month. Rogers’ moral values contributed to the power and appeal of his neighborhood.