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The Cathedral of our Lady of Victories in Yaounde, Cameroon.

In Cameroon, religious freedom can’t be separated from politics

By Commentaries/Opinions

By R. Drew Smith, RNS — American religion and politics have been stubbornly connected — except where we pretend they aren’t. Despite constitutional separations between church and state, religion has been more closely tied to politics and politics more closely tied to religion than most care to admit. And yet, advocates for international religious freedom often treat religious freedom and political freedom as totally separate and distinct domains. This separation…

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Buildings at Princeton University’s Princeton Theological Seminary are pictured in Princeton, N.J. Last year, the university released a report on the school’s role in American bondage. Although the seminary did not own slaves and slave labor was not used on constructing the school, slave owners were major donors and responsible for as much as 40 percent of the seminary’s revenue.

‘We are therefore demanding …’ : Reparations in the Christian church

By Editors' Choice, News & Current Affairs

By Wyatt Massey, Frederick News Post — The Rev. Dr. Ernest Campbell said no, James Forman could not speak at his church service the next day. Campbell was the senior pastor at Riverside Church, a predominantly white church on the west side of Manhattan. Forman, a black civil rights leader, wanted to read something to the congregation at the next day’s service on May 4, 1969, according to a history…

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Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota

The Fight Over Ilhan Omar Is a Fight Over the Identity of the Democratic Party

By Commentaries/Opinions

A House vote on bigotry underscored powerful changes in the party’s coalition, including among young Muslims. By Emma Green, The Atlantic — The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to condemn anti-Semitism, along with a litany of bigotries against Muslims, immigrants, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, LGBT people, and members of other religious minorities. The resolution followed a week of drama in the Democratic Party, with members clashing over…

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Henrietta Hilton, front left, daughter of tenant farmer William Hilton, and her fellow students, are seen in their ninth grade classroom in Summerton, S.C., June 4, 1954.

Race, Not Abortion Was the Founding Issue of the Religious Right

By Editors' Choice

Though opposition to abortion is what many think fueled the powerful conservative white evangelical right, 81 percent of whom voted for Donald Trump, it was really school integration, according to Randall Balmer, chairman of the religion department. By Margery Eagan, The Boston Globe — Here are some facts that might surprise you. In 1971, two years before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion, the biggest white evangelical group in America, the…

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The Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, on Oct. 5, 2015.

Southern Baptist Convention’s flagship seminary details its racist, slave-owning past in stark report

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Marisa Iati, The Washington Post — More than two decades after the Southern Baptist Convention — the country’s second-largest faith group — apologized to African Americans for its active defense of slavery in the 1800s, its flagship seminary on Wednesday released a stark report further delineating its ties to institutionalized racism. The year-long study by the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary found that all four founding faculty members owned slaves…

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Ghana’s goalkeepers, Stephen Adams (L) and Fatawu Dauda (R), pray before a 2014 World Cup match. Robert Ghement/EPA

Football and religion: two competing domains with a lot to offer Africa

By Editors' Choice

By Mohammed Girma, The Conversation — In this age of globalisation few events draw more attention than sport as the World Cup in Russia illustrates with billions of people across the globe glued to their screens. At this time in football crazy Africa, specialists and ordinary fans are watching, discussing and analysing the World Cup. But the excitement and euphoria come with a unique challenge to the continent’s religions. Africa remains firmly devout across…

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