A quarter of U.S. adults do not affiliate with any religion, a new study shows — an all-time high in a nation where large swaths of Americans are losing faith.
But while these so-called “nones” outnumber any religious denomination, they are not voting as a bloc, and may have little collective influence on the upcoming presidential election.
The rapid growth of the religiously unaffiliated, charted in a survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute on Sept. 22, is raising eyebrows even among those who follow trends in American religiosity.
If our own election cycle has taught us anything, it’s that the voices that go unheard do not simply stop speaking. The Palestinian people are a necessary and vital part in any peace process — their concerns and internal diversity are our worth attention. The flourishing of representative elections ensures a more sustainable partner for peace. Ultimately we, too, lose if Palestinians are denied the vote.
On Sept. 21, Texas Governor Greg Abbott released a statement claiming that refugees “pose grave danger, like the Iraqi refugee with ties to ISIS who was arrested…after he plotted to set off bombs at two malls in Houston.”
This announcement comes months after Texas lost a court battle in June, in which the state attempted to keep Syrian refugees out entirely.
It has been a year since immigrant mothers made the impressive pilgrimage on foot from an immigrant detention center in Pennsylvania to the political seat of power in Washington, D.C. On Sept. 16, the women of last year’s 100 Women 100 Miles pilgrimage returned to the steps of the Supreme Court — singing, chanting, and praying for justice and mercy in the immigration system. Then, as part of an event organized by We Belong Together and The National Domestic Workers Alliance, they retraced a portion of their steps — a scaled-down anniversary pilgrimage, from the Supreme Court to the White House.
A Belmont University freshman “is no longer a student” at the Christian school after sending a racist Snapchat post about three African-American football players who had protested the treatment of minorities in America.
The post was sent under the Snapchat username “juswoodard97” during the Sept. 19 game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in Chicago.
It showed Eagles players Malcolm Jenkins, Ron Brooks, and Steven Means with their fists raised during the national anthem and was captioned with a racial slur followed by this threat: “Every one of them needs a damn bullet in their head. If you don’t like this country get the hell out.”
The man who led police to the bombing suspect in New York and New Jersey was [also] an Asian immigrant.
Harinder Singh Bains, a native of India who practices the Sikh faith, said he saw Ahmad Khan Rahami “right in front of my face” and made a call to the police after matching the man’s image with the one Bains saw on TV.
Rahami, who is accused of placing the bombs that exploded Sept. 17 in the Chelsea section of Manhattan and in Seaside Park, N.J., was sleeping in the doorway of Bains’ bar in Linden, N.J., when Bains spotted him.
Injustice is at the root of our problems as humans. When people aren’t being treated as equally beloved children of God and are denied equal opportunities for the things we all want, then division and anger grow. If we want peace, we have to be want justice. To be a peacemaker means to challenge the injustices.
Protests erupted in Charlotte, N.C., after a black man was shot and killed by police while they were serving a warrant to a different person, according to The Root. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released a statement saying Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was armed and "posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject." Witnesses and family members say Scott was unarmed and holding a book, among them, the victim's daughter, Lyric Scott, who streamed via Facebook Live from the scene.
Pope Francis met with refugees and leaders of religious faiths including Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus who joined him for a day of prayer for peace in Assisi, home of his namesake, the 12th-century friar St. Francis.
But it was the migrants he invited to join him for lunch on Sept. 20 who captured the headlines and illustrated the tangible impact of war and conflict.
Today the whole internet is talking about Donald Trump Jr.’s recent tweet comparing refugees to poisoned Skittles.
When I first saw the tweet, I was sickened by Trump Jr.'s — and by extension our country’s — inability to see refugees as human beings in need of help. But I also was reminded of a similar tweet with a vastly different response two years ago.