Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Christians numbered around 1.5 million, but sectarian attacks on churches in Baghdad and other areas soon followed, and the population either headed north or left the country altogether.
Religious Freedom
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Poll: Fewer U.S. Catholics see Christian persecution as an urgent issue
The poll was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates for Aid to the Church in Need-USA, an international papal agency that supports suffering and persecuted Christians in more than 140 countries.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Justices to hear Philadelphia dispute over same-sex foster parents
With the addition of two appointees of President Donald Trump, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, the court seems poised to extend protections for religious objections to anti-discrimination laws.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Federal appeals court now says Florida Latin cross can stay
In 2018, the same appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that said the cross in the city’s Bayview Park had to be removed because it violated the Establishment Clause.
Posted inFaith, Features
This Syrian Catholic priest was kidnapped and tortured by ISIS. He still has hope in humanity.
I had traveled to Iraq to hear more about how this man had survived, a Catholic priest rescued by his Muslim friend. He would tell me that story, too.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
More U.S. companies are boosting faith-based support for employees
The top 10 in the rankings featured some of America’s best-known companies – Google’s parent company Alphabet, Intel, Tyson Foods, Target, Facebook, American Airlines, Apple, Dell, American Express and Goldman Sachs.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Catholic colleges finally win independence from the federal Labor Board
A federal court has ruled that religious colleges cannot be ordered to recognize adjunct faculty unions. John Garvey, the president of the Catholic University of America, explains why.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
More than two dozen countries launch new religious freedom alliance
The State Department announced Wednesday (Feb. 5) that 27 countries have joined the new International Religious Freedom Alliance that seeks to reduce religious persecution across the globe.
Posted inExplainer, Faith
Is all religious speech protected by law? The answer is complicated.
Regardless of federal funding rules, proselytizers, practitioners and preachers should be aware of state tort laws that impose liability for harmful speech. Whether religious speech is immune from defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims depends on the context and content of the speech.
Posted inFaith, News
Arizona court accepts religious liberty defense of immigrant rights activists
Activists in the case argued they were working with the group No More Deaths/No Más Muertes, an official ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, and thus were acting on their religious beliefs to save immigrant lives.