He was a slave from Senegal who wrote in Arabic. Or was he an Arab prince? He was a scholar who memorized vast passages of the Qur’an and mastered numerous Islamic texts. Or were his writings unintelligible? He was a devout Muslim. Or did he convert to Christianity?
As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, PBS has launched a multimedia storytelling project focused, in part, on faith and religion in the United States.
Using photo, video, and text message submissions, “American Portrait” aims to highlight the nation’s religious diversity—as well as its commonality. Participants will respond to prompts about what they were raised to believe, the religious traditions they maintain, and how they make sense of the world today.
It has become standard practice for US corporations to assure employees of support regardless of their race, gender, or sexual orientation. There’s now an intensifying push to ensure that companies are similarly supportive and inclusive when it comes to employees’ religious beliefs.
One barometer: more than 20 percent of the Fortune 100 have established faith-based employee resource groups, according to an AP report, and a high-powered conference took place last month in Washington aimed at expanding those ranks.
Pedestrians who encounter Rabbi Levi Greenberg, of El Paso, Texas, know that the Chabad rabbi, who wears a black hat and a long beard, is a Hasidic Jew. Sometimes they ask him why he dresses as he does.
Greenberg tailors his responses to the questions. He tells inquirers about his skull cap, a yarmulke, that it reminds adherents to be aware constantly of God above, and those asking about his ritual fringes, tzitzis, that the garment symbolizes the Torah’s 613 commandments.
Last month, Yale Divinity School received the largest gift commitment in the institution’s history when George and Carol Bauer pledged $15 million toward the construction of what is believed to be the world’s largest sustainable residential complex.
Neither George, a former IBM executive, nor Carol, a hospital chaplain, attended Yale Divinity School, although George serves on the dean’s advisory council.
In a statement published to the divinity school website, Dean Greg Sterling called the couple “visionaries who embody Christianity.”
On February 12, Potawatomi author Kaitlin Curtice was heckled during a chapel service at Baylor University in which she addressed God as “Mystery” and spoke about the need to decolonize Christianity and to dismantle “capitalist greed” and “toxic patriarchy.”
When Curtice stated that in many churches, men and women are not seen as equals, a student shouted, “No one even thinks like that!”
James Leo Garrett Jr., known as the “dean of Southern Baptist theologians,” died February 5 at the age of 94.
Garrett is credited with helping to shape the Southern Baptist Convention as it grew into the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. During his 48-year academic career, he taught theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Baylor University in addition to heading the Baptist World Alliance’s Study Commission on Cooperative Christianity and lecturing around the world.
Raphael Warnock, pastor of the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, announced that he’s running for the US Senate, challenging recently appointed Republican senator Kelly Loeffler.
With his influential pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Warnock immediately brings some Democratic star power to the race—and some powerful friends.
Within hours of entering the race, Warnock locked up perhaps the most coveted endorsement in Georgia Democratic politics when Stacey Abrams, the party’s 2018 nominee for governor, announced she’s supporting his campaign.
Lawan Andimi, the Nigerian Church of the Brethren pastor whose hostage video made waves on the internet last month, was executed on January 20, according to conflict and terrorism reporter Ahmad Salkida.
Andimi was reported missing on January 3 after Boko Haram or a splinter terrorist group attacked the town where Andimi was working as the director of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
His hostage video garnered international attention for what some called his Christian testimony.
Allen Hernandez wears his Christian faith and his indigenous Maya roots on his sleeves, literally.
His left arm is tattooed with images of the sacred heart of Jesus, a pair of hands clasped in prayer, and an angel praying over the tombstone of a friend.
His right forearm is emblazoned with a tattoo of a feathered serpent, a Mesoamerican deity worshiped by the Yucatán Maya people.
“I am indigenous. I am Mayan and I am Christian,” said Hernandez, 39, whose parents are from Guatemala. “I don’t know how these fit in the same sentence.”