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Many of the tombs in Japan are elaborately decorated. Nearby visitors can buy flowers, buckets. brooms and other gardening tools to tidy up the graves. John S Lander/LightRocket via Getty Images

Lack of burial space is changing age-old funeral practices, and in Japan ‘tree burials’ are gaining in popularity

In a Japanese tree burial, cremated remains are placed in the ground and a tree is planted over the ashes to mark the gravesite. Environmental responsibility is part of Buddhism.
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.

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