Throughout history, solar eclipses have had profound impact on adherents of various religions around the world. They were viewed as messages from God or spiritual forces, inducing emotions ranging from dread to wonder. (Bharath, Crary & Fam, AP News)
Read MoreSubmitted in a downtown Los Angeles court as part of a years-old civil lawsuit against Scientology, the document referenced a purported effort by the church to “derail” the criminal proceedings against Masterson. (Queally, Los Angeles Times)
Read MoreAmnesty found that Iran executed 853 people in 2023, the highest number recorded since 2015, and that more than half of those executions were carried out for offenses related to Iran’s renewed war on drugs. (Tabrizy, The Washington Post)
Read MoreThe author or coauthor of nearly 100 books, she has sold more than 25 million copies, according to Simon and Schuster (Its Atria imprint has published her latest novels). Three of her books have become Hallmark movies. A fourth, “A Thousand Tomorrows,” was adapted as a series for the faith-based streaming site Great American Pure Flix. (Soloski, The New York Times)
Read MoreMaybe religion, for all of its faults, works a bit like a retaining wall to hold back the destabilizing pressure of American hyper-individualism, which threatens to swell and spill over in its absence. (Thompson, The Atlantic)
Read MoreThere are hard-liners and extreme voices who self-identify as Christian nationalists — Nick Fuentes and his America First group, for example. There are the extra-ecclesial groups, like Eternal Word Television Network or the now-defunct Church Militant. And then there are Catholic integralists, who often insist they aren’t nationalists at all. (Jenkins, Religion News Service)
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