Conversion was often a violent affair, but that doesn’t mean it was 100% successful. Colonial Latin America was home to many different spiritual traditions from Indigenous, African and Asian cultures.
The absence of reliable quantitative data makes it difficult – if not impossible – to hold Home Affairs, the police and other state entities to account.
A scholar of Islam explains how Muslim religious leaders, starting around the year 1050, worked with political rulers to challenge what they considered to be sacrilegious influence on society.
Italian teenager Carlo Acutis, who died at the age of 15, is on the path to becoming a saint. A scholar explains the long history of child saints in the Catholic Church.
Documentary film Welcome to Chechnya looks at the government-sanctioned torture and murder of LGBTQ people in Chechnya – and the activists trying to help them escape.
The Uyghurs are a Muslim minority group living China’s Xinjiang region. It is now estimated over one million Uyghurs have been arrested and imprisoned in China’s vast network of “re-education” camps.
Some Australian Christians claim to be persecuted – this is not only wrong, it is an insult to thousands around the world who are at risk because of their religion.
Many in the US are celebrating LGBTQ rights for Gay Pride Month. But data show that most countries, including the US, need to do much more to protect sexual minorities.
Unless reconciliation efforts involve people at the grassroots, persecution of ethnic Rohingya will not stop. Indonesian should offer support for dialogue between communities in Myanmar.
Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity