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When the U.S. Department of Justice released its report on “eradicating anti-Christian bias” last week, the argument it sought to settle had long hardened along familiar fault lines. For some, the document confirmed what they see as a years-long sidelining of Christian voices in public life. For others, it read less like a civil rights diagnosis and more like a reframing of political grievances as religious persecution.
Faith leaders joined civic leaders in raising alarm over a recent Supreme Court ruling that experts say could significantly reshape how states apply one of the country’s core protections for minority voting rights. The Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais to block Louisiana from using a racially contested congressional map did not formally overturn Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, but in her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan warned that the ruling has rendered it “all but a dead letter.”
Civil rights organizations and faith leaders immediately shared the sentiment that the conservative court was continuing to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act of 1965 one section at a time.
“The Supreme Court’s decision falsely claims fidelity to the law while stripping it of its power,” said the National Council of Churches in a written statement. “By invalidating a district created to reflect Louisiana's racial and political diversity, and comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court decision silences voices that the Voting Rights Act was designed to uplift. Such an action does not restore our democracy; it wounds it. At a time when the nation should be working to strengthen representation and public trust, this decision moves us backward.”
The Supreme Court has sided with a coalition of anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers in its fight against the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, finding a subpoena that state investigators issued for donor information unconstitutionally chilled the centers’ free speech and association rights.
In a unanimous decision issued Wednesday, Justice Neil Gorsuch reversed an appellate court’s ruling that had prevented First Choice Women’s Resource Centers Inc., from airing their constitutional objections to the state’s probe and investigative practices in federal court. Gorsuch’s ruling returns the case to U.S. District Court.
When Jim Hall and Bob Bruce, who have been best friends for over 50 years, heard about the Buddhist monks who walked for peace earlier this year, they had an idea: What if they did a walk of their own, one that focused on building bridges across faith and politics?
The plan quickly took shape, leading to the kindness walk that the duo have planned Aug. 12-20.
The nine-day walk will cross nearly 90 miles and several faith communities between Shoreline and Olympia, Wa.
The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a bid by the Archdiocese of Denver and other Catholic entities to be exempted from a Colorado preschool funding program’s nondiscrimination requirement.
The justices took up an appeal of a lower court’s decision that found that Colorado’s program did not violate the religious rights of the Catholic plaintiffs under the Constitution’s First Amendment.
The program provides state funds for preschools. The Catholic plaintiffs objected to the state’s requirement that schools receiving funding under the program give all children “equal opportunity” to enroll in preschool regardless of certain characteristics, including the sexual orientation or gender identity of students or their family members.
Police on Thursday were investigating a bomb threat made to the Chicago-area home of Pope Leo’s brother John Prevost after a search found no explosives or hazardous materials.
A bomb threat was reported Wednesday evening at the home of John Prevost in New Lenox, Illinois, according to media outlets that cited police. Prevost lives on the same street cited as the location of the attack by police. New Lenox police did not return a call for comment on the report.
The Justice Department accused the Biden administration of unfairly prosecuting anti-abortion activists the day after it fired at least four attorneys who were involved in prosecuting those cases.
The accusations come in the first report from the Justice Department’s “Weaponization Working Group,” which has been tasked with going after law enforcement officials who have investigated President Donald Trump, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former special counsel Jack Smith.
The report defends Trump’s mass pardoning of 23 people who were convicted under the Biden administration for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, also known as the FACE Act. The law prohibits obstructing people from entering medical centers and was passed in 1994 after a spate of violence against abortion providers, including the 1993 murder of Dr. David Gunn.
On Monday, Pope Leo XIV responded to ranting criticisms from President Donald Trump, saying in part that he had no interest in being perceived as a politician.
“The message of the church, my message, the message of the gospel: Blessed are the peacemakers,” Leo told journalists as he arrived in Algeria. “I do not look at my role as being political, a politician.”
Trump attacked Leo late Sunday night as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” at the beginning of a lengthy post on Truth Social.
“I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States,” he wrote. “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician.” The president also posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus, though he later deleted the post and claimed he thought it was him as a “doctor … a Red Cross worker.”
President Donald Trump issued an attack on Pope Leo late on Sunday, calling him “WEAK on Crime” and “terrible” for foreign policy after the religious leader criticized Trump’s foreign and immigration policies.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on Truth Social.
When Elly Cohen chose to terminate her pregnancy in 2022, it aligned with her understanding of Jewish law that life begins at birth, not conception.
Cohen and her husband were eager to give their then 4-year-old daughter a sibling. But her fetus had been diagnosed with Trisomy 18, a severe chromosomal disorder that, in most cases, leads to death before birth or within the first year of life. She decided to end the pregnancy.
Had she gotten pregnant just a few months later, she might not have had that choice. She lives in Indiana, one of 13 states that enacted near-total bans on abortion following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
Iran showed no sign of accepting Donald Trump’s ultimatum to open the Strait of Hormuz by the end of Tuesday, while the U.S. president threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight” unless Tehran reached a last-minute deal.
Trump has given Iran until 8 p.m. in Washington—3:30 a.m. in Tehran—to end its blockade of Gulf oil, or he will destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran. Iran says it would retaliate against U.S. allies in the Gulf, whose desert cities would be uninhabitable without power or water.
As Christians across the globe remember Jesus’ journey through Holy Week, Israel is taking the unprecedented steps of restricting access to holy sites in Jerusalem.
Israel is blocking access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as the Western Wall, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex indefinitely after the outset of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, impacting typical observance of the Christian Holy Week, Ramadan, and Passover and restricting travel into East Jerusalem.
For Palestinian Christians, it would mark the first time that access to the church—which is known as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection—is blocked over Easter. Historically, thousands of Christians around Jerusalem have traveled to the city and church as part of their Easter celebration.
There are congregations that would brand her a sinner. But here at St. Cecilia’s Roman Catholic Church in Boston, Rachel Burckardt gives voice to the angels.
She’s 71, transgender, a civil engineer by day, and a composer of spiritual music by nights and weekends.
While religion has been used for decades to ostracize many transgender people, Burckardt has found that faith drives acceptance in her community. It has been the bedrock on which she has formed her closest friendships, found moral clarity in challenging times and built radically inclusive communities in greater Boston.
The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Tuesday that a Colorado ban on conversion therapy for youth violates the free speech rights of a Christian counselor, clearing the way for a practice that goes against the recommendations of every major medical association in the country.
Anyra Cano learned a little bit about César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, and the United Farm Workers movement growing up in the 1990s in El Paso, Texas, but the state curriculum didn’t go deep. It wasn’t until she became a pastor that she began to dig into the work of the legendary civil rights leaders. She knew she wanted to dedicate her ministry to social justice for the most vulnerable.
On March 28, one day before celebrating Jesus’ procession into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, millions of Christians processed through the streets to declare “No Kings!”
Protesting the Trump administration’s authoritarianism, Christian nationalism, violence at home and war abroad, people of faith joined their neighbors to stand for democracy. More than 3,000 events took place across the globe, mostly in the U.S., with Minnesota—where there has been strong, communal resistance to immigration agents’ violence—serving as the flagship event.
Sojourners asked our readers to send us their photos and reflections from their own participation in No Kings protests. Below are your contributions.
Pope Leo said on Sunday that God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars and have “hands full of blood”, in unusually forceful remarks as the U.S.-Israel war with Iran entered its second month.
Addressing tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, the celebration that opens the holy week leading up to Easter for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, the pontiff called the conflict “atrocious” and said Jesus cannot be used to justify any wars.
“This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Leo, the first U.S. pope, told crowds in brilliant sunshine.
Civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with Cesar Chavez and fought alongside him for decades to expand labor rights in the U.S., on Wednesday accused Chavez of sexually assaulting her in the 1960s.
Huerta said in a statement that she was sharing her story in light of a multi-year New York Times investigation, also published on Wednesday, that detailed a larger pattern of sexual misconduct allegations against Chavez, who died in 1993 at the age of 66, including testimonies by women who said he molested and raped them when they were minors.
Whatever you may have heard about the Target boycott ending, here’s the truth: The boycott is not over for many Black women. It probably never will be.
A year ago, Black women started the movement to boycott the retail giant after it made a U-turn on its numerous commitments to racial equity—and particularly the Black community. That movement took various forms: Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner called for a national boycott, as did grassroots activists in Minneapolis, where Target is based. Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant of Atlanta’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church also launched a 40-day “Target fast” that stretched into nearly 400.
The boycott played a key role in a year of declining sales and profits that forced CEO Brian Cornell to step down. Target’s stock price dropped about 30 percent in 2025.
Maranatha Church, Jasmine Ministries, and Creole Resources have served the Haitian population in Spokane, Wa., for years—most recently by creating job and housing opportunities made scarce to them due to social and legal barriers created by the Trump administration.
Only a month ago, many Haitians in Spokane nearly saw the end of their Temporary Protected Status, leaving them with the choice to return to Haiti or find a new way to achieve legal status in the U.S.
Even though a federal judge barred the expiration from taking effect, public uncertainty about the longevity of their TPS has made it hard for Haitians in the U.S. to do things like rent an apartment or apply for jobs.