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Articles on Religion and society

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Southern Baptist Convention leaders believe women’s ordination violates biblical teaching. Women have long protested against such views. AP Photo/Julie Bennett

How women in the Southern Baptist Convention have fought for decades to be ordained

Southern Baptists are calling for an investigation into the ordination of three women. A scholar explains why this continues to be a fraught issue, even though 2,500 women have been ordained to date.
Muslim women in India protesting against the use of Sharia as a tool for oppression. anjay Purkait/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Muslim women are using Sharia to push for gender equality

Sharia is often portrayed as being brutal and barbaric. However, in many parts of the world, women are using Sharia to stop oppressive practices.
Muslims pray at the Mihrab, a niche in a wall indicating the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca, at the Foundation Stone, located under the Dome of the Rock in the Al- Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City. Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images

Why the Al-Aqsa Mosque has often been a site of conflict

The Masjid al-Aqsa of Jerusalem is linked in the Quran to the story of the night journey of Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and has deep religious meaning for Muslims across the world.
Nothing demonstrates our reliance on each other like a highly contagious disease. Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

COVID-19 upended Americans’ sense of individualism and invited us to embrace interconnectedness – an idea from Greek philosopher Epicurus

A British literature scholar explains how philosopher John Locke’s theory of selfhood will not help the pandemic recovery, if individuals fail to see themselves as interconnected.
A condolence message and candles for the victims of a stampede during a Jewish ultra-Orthodox mass pilgrimage to Mount Meron, projected on a wall of Jerusalem’s Old City. Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images

Lag BaOmer pilgrimage brings Orthodox Jews closer to eternity – I experienced this spiritual bonding in years before the tragedy

The Lag BaOmer pilgrimage, in which 45 people died recently, takes place each year to what is believed to be the gravesite of the second-century Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
An image from a police body camera shows bystanders including Darnella Frazier, third from right, filming a Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee on George Floyd’s neck. Minneapolis Police Department via AP, File

The ‘bystander effect’ is real – but research shows that when more people witness violence, it’s more likely someone will step up and intervene

A game theory expert explains why a witness to a troubling situation who is in a group may feel a lesser sense of personal responsibility than a single individual.

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