Views on abortion differ not only among major religious traditions, but within each one.
Protestant Christians have been debating – and more often than not, supporting – modern contraceptives since they first appeared.
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Conservative Christians have cheered restrictions on some birth control. But many decades ago, Christian leaders’ support helped contraceptives become acceptable in the first place.
The Reformation’s leading figures had diverse views, and some might have recognized themselves in “spiritual but not religious” people today.
Rijksmuseum
Joe Biden has taken control of the Democratic nomination with a string of big primary wins. The ongoing coronavirus epidemic is in part responsible, but the role of religion should not be overlooked.
Pope Francis giving a boy his first communion at the Church of the Sacred Hearth in Rakovsky, Bulgaria, May 2019.
EPA-EFE/Maurizio Brambatti
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.
Christian fundamentalists have become a politically powerful group since the movement’s foundation in 1919.
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Moralistic talk about food, exercise and bodies has its roots in Christianity and is perpetuated by corporations. Collectively, we can resist.
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, detailing the grim fate of Protestant clerics Latimer and Ridley, is one clue as to why Baldwin hesitated before publishing his irreverent book.
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In the mid-16th century, William Baldwin wrote a satire on Catholicism but waited a decade before publishing it. Sensible man.
Brazil’s jailhouse preachers may not explicitly condone violence against people of other faiths, but they’ve remained largely silent as their well-armed followers wage a holy war.
Reuters/Ricardo Moraes
Robert Muggah, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
As hard-line Pentecostalism spreads across Brazil, some drug traffickers in gang-controlled areas of Rio de Janeiro are using religion as an excuse to attack nonbelievers.
As well as his 95 Theses, Luther took on the awesome challenge of a new German translation of the Bible in which he set out to challenge both doctrinal and social beliefs.