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Refugees tell of violence, political strife in Burundi

(The Christian Science Monitor) Why the militia came for Nolasque Nduwimana, a history teacher at a girls’ Catholic boarding school in Burundi, was obvious.

“Yes, I supported the opposition,” he said. “Why should that mean I should be killed?”

Nduwimana learned that his name was on a hit list drawn up by local ruling party officials. He made up his mind to flee but wanted to finish marking his students’ exams first.

Jewish artist Tobi Kahn crosses religious lines

As Passover approached, Tobi Kahn worked in his studio in Queens, New York, putting washes of glaze on a silver-painted peg, a miniature sculpture soon to join 48 others.

The 49 pegs fit into a two-foot-high case. Hang the case on your wall, and you have a sculpture that evokes the grids of modernist art. Remove or add a peg daily, and you’re counting the Omer, a Jewish practice marking the days from Passover until the festival of Shavuot, which marks Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. This year it falls on June 11.

Theology faculties adapt Islam for Germany

While Germany’s politicians are loudly debating whether Islam is compatible with democracy, five of its state universities are quietly developing new Islamic theology faculties that are striving to ensure that it is.

The five universities—in Münster, Osnabrück, Frankfurt, Tübingen, and Erlangen-Nuremberg—recently passed their first official evaluations by Muslim and Christian experts and were granted 20 million euros ($22 million) to continue for another five years.

Harriet Tubman's image to be placed on $20 bill

Harriet Tubman will be depicted on the front of the $20 bill, the Treasury Department an­nounced April 20.

The move will make the abolitionist and Under­ground Rail­road conductor, who was an un­abash­ed Chris­tian, the first African American to be portrayed on the front of a bill.

Tubman was born in slavery around 1820 in Maryland and died free in 1913. After escaping in 1849 to Philadelphia, she returned to the South more than a dozen times, helping to lead hundreds of slaves to freedom, which earned her the name Moses.

Racial justice programming in many mainline churches focuses on privilege, power

Last year when the death of Freddie Gray and resulting unrest in Baltimore filled the news, Kathy Dwyer felt she had to do something.

“Every time I turned on the TV, I just felt like I was getting punched in the gut,” said the white pastor of a predominantly white United Church of Christ congregation in Arlington, Virginia.

Trending conservative, Poland considers tighter abortion laws

(The Christian Science Monitor) At first glance, Poland’s heated debate over a proposed total ban on abortion may seem familiar. A religiously driven proposal to end the practice draws abortion rights activists to the streets to protest.

But the emergence of the fight, which is relatively new for Poles, obscures complicated and evolving views. Despite church attendance being down, as it is in much of the West, Poles have become more conservative on the issue over the last generation.

Ruth Messinger entrusts American Jewish World Service to her deputy, Robert Bank

Ruth Messinger was a politician in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s before she took the helm of a respected but low-profile nonprofit focused on international development: the American Jewish World Service.

After 17 years, Messinger, 75, is giving up the presidency of AJWS, which grew into a major player in the fight against global poverty under her leadership. In 2015, the group gave out nearly $40 million for projects in 19 nations.

Displacement crisis grows as Boko Haram increases exploitation of girls

Two years after the abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants in Chibok, in northeast Nigeria, parents are still hoping their daughters will return home.

The same week as the anniversary of the kidnapping, UNICEF released a re­port titled Beyond Chibok, which called the conflict with Boko Haram “one of the fastest growing displacement crises in Africa,” with more than 1.3 million children displaced, 1,800 school closures, and 5,000 children separated from their parents.