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Asylum-seeking migrants from Mauritania pray after walking in the mountains for hours to reach a main road on the U.S. side of the border in Barrett Junction, Calif., on June 5, 2024. REUTERS/Go Nakamura
Dioulde and Jallo are two of 20 Mauritanians living in a space that used to be rented out for quinceañeras in the largely working-class area of southeast Los Angeles, where the population is 89.1 percent Latino. Now, in a space that families used to celebrate their daughters’ 15th birthdays under the sprinkling lights of a chandelier, there are rows of futon-style beds lined up against the walls, with folded Muslim prayer rugs, gallon-sized water bottles, and plastic sandals neatly stacked alongside.
Kimberly Morris holds up a notice a police officer gave her giving her 72 hours to move her tent from the park in Grants Pass, Ore., on April 18, 2024. REUTERS/Deborah Bloom/File Photo
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld on Friday anti-camping laws used by authorities in an Oregon city to stop homeless people from sleeping in public parks and public streets — a ruling that gives local and state governments a freer hand in confronting a national homelessness crisis.
Presumptive presidential nominess President Joe Biden and former U.S. President Donald Trump stand at their podiums at the start of a presidential debate in Atlanta, Ga., on June 27, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Faith leaders have supported abortion rights since before 1973, but after Roe, even some theologically conservative denominations supported the ruling.
A child carries rainbow flags while he takes part in a march during the annual Gay Pride Parade in New York on June 28, 2015. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
For years, Dietz Osborne and his colleagues at Miriam’s Promise adoption agency in Nashville, Tenn. had quietly worked with LGBTQ+ couples looking to adopt children. It was not something the United Methodist-affiliated agency advertised or promoted, but when a same-gender couple came to them, Miriam’s Promise unassumingly welcomed them as clients.
Frankie Leigh (right) and Skye Michelle hold a pride flag in front of protesters at Douglas County Pride in Roseburg, Oregon, in July 2023. Image courtesy of Frankie Leigh to The 19th and republished with permission.
It was a simple wave that changed things for Frankie Leigh. Last summer’s Douglas County Pride festivities were wrapping up. It had been eight hours in near 90-degree heat, eight hours of picketers yelling at Leigh that they were going to hell. And just as the crowds were scattering, a protester called to Leigh. “See you next year!” Leigh couldn’t help but laugh. “It was that realization of like, I am going to see you every year,” Leigh said. “And I’ll probably see you in the grocery store and at the school board meeting and at these other places, too.”
Katelyn MacDonald plays the chimes in Duke Memorial United Methodist Church’s bell tower. Courtesy Katelyn MacDonald.
On June 1, for the North Carolina residents of downtown Durham, the morning’s new mercies came in the form of Chappell Roan’s song “HOT TO GO!” being played from the century-old bell tower of Duke Memorial United Methodist Church.
A sticker lays on the ground during abortion rights demonstrations outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on March 26, 2024 as the high court hears arguments in a case debating access to the abortion medication Mifepristone. Photo by Bryan Olin Dozier/NurPhoto via Reuters.
The Supreme Court has unanimously dismissed a case that would have limited access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in a medication abortion. The decision leaves access to the abortion drug unchanged for now.
Congregants take part in an annual “Freedom Sunday” service at the First Baptist evangelical Southern Baptist megachurch in Dallas, Texas, June 26, 2022. REUTERS/Shelby Tauber
The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., on Wednesday voted to condemn the use of in vitro fertilization, signaling the campaign by evangelicals against abortion is widening to include the popular fertility treatment.
Olympic Flame Lighting Ceremony in Ancient Olympia, Greece, on April 16, 2024. President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach gives a speech during the flame lighting ceremony for the Paris 2024 Olympics. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki
Sports and human rights organizations have called on International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach to help overturn a ban on French athletes wearing the hijab, saying it undermines celebrations of the first gender-equal Olympics.
Pope Francis attends the World Meeting on Human Fraternity, at the Vatican, May 11, 2024. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
The pope has again used a highly disparaging word against gay people for which he had already apologized last month, ANSA news agency said on Tuesday.
The church of St. Benedict stays dry from overland flooding, because of an earthen dike built around it after a flood in 1997, in southern Fargo, N.D., March 29, 2009. A dike holding back the swollen Red River failed early on Sunday and swamped a school in Fargo, N.D., but a backup dike contained the spill as cold weather favored flood fighting and evacuation efforts. REUTERS/Eric Miller
In every U.S. congregation, there are likely people experiencing grief, fear, or anger on behalf of creation. Most Americans now know that the climate is changing; according to recent surveys, a majority now also feel some level of climate-related stress or anxiety. But when terms like “climate grief” and “eco-anxiety” show up in the news, stories often point people toward individual behavior changes or activism, according to a recent study in the journal Environmental Research: Health. Missing from the conversation is the spiritual dimension of the climate crisis and the role that faith communities can play.
Emily Worthmore and additional “Girls State” participants in Girls State, now streaming on Apple TV+. Courtesy Apple.
Heading into an election year, directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss knew the importance of chronicling how young people, especially young women, are working through political disillusionment. The directors follow up their 2020 release of Boys State with a “sibling” documentary in 2024’s Girls State, which follows the week-long experience of 500 high school girls who gather for a mock-government camp in Missouri.
President Joe Biden gives remarks on the southern border and asylum seekers in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., after signing an executive order that will temporarily shut down the asylum seeking process. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA
Many faith leaders expressed deep disappointment at the announcement. While they agree something needs to be done about increased numbers at the border, they told Sojourners that Biden’s unilateral actions are the wrong approach. They also expect the executive order to be struck down in the courts.
Trump supporters Rally at Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., in October 2020. Picture Architect/ Alamy via Reuters Connect
Latinos do not always support candidates with progressive immigration policies — including policies that expand legal pathways to citizenship, enforce fewer penalties for those who immigrate without documentation, or end sanctions that devastate economies and fuel immigration. Experts and members of the community say Latinos of faith, with or without an immigration background, can feel torn between theologies that emphasize respect for the rule of law, a cultural emphasis on the family, allegiances to denominations that encourage support for conservative candidates, and their own personal trajectories.
Attendees at the Texas GOP Convention in San Antonio on May 24, 2024. Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune
From his booth in the exhibit hall of the Texas GOP’s 2024 convention, Steve Hotze saw an army of God assembled before him. For four decades, Hotze, an indicted election fraud conspiracy theorist, has helmed hardline anti-abortion movements and virulently homophobic campaigns against LGBTQ+ rights, comparing gay people to Nazis and helping popularize the “groomer” slur that paints them as pedophiles. Once on the fringes, Hotze said Saturday that he was pleased by the party’s growing embrace of his calls for spiritual warfare with “demonic, Satanic forces” on the left.
Cochise County Sheriff's Criminal Interdiction Team deputy Christopher Oletski speaks with a driver who exhibited what he felt were nervous driving behaviors, prompting him to initiate a traffic stop to clear the vehicle for undocumented persons before allowing the driver to proceed, near the U.S.-Mexico border in Tombstone, A.Z., on May 22. REUTERS/Rebecca Noble
“Immigration, whether you live in the south of the state or the far north, is a part of life here,” said Adam Burke, a Lutheran pastor in the Arizona city of Prescott, which is between Phoenix and the northern city of Flagstaff. “Whether you see it or not,” he said, “it impacts Arizonans every day.”
That is why in poll after poll in early 2024 — like those conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, Morning Consult, and the UK-based Redfield and Wilton Strategies — immigration is, along with reproductive rights and the economy, a top issue among Arizona voters.
Pope Francis attends the weekly general audience, in Saint Peter Square at the Vatican, May 22, 2024. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
Pope Francis, widely quoted as having used a highly derogatory word to describe the LGBTQ+ community, did not intend to use homophobic language and apologizes to anyone offended by it, the Vatican said on Tuesday.
People gather at the University of California, Los Angeles, as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Los Angeles, Calif., May 1, 2024. REUTERS/David Swanson
Since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a terror attack against Israel, young people across the country have looked with alarm at Israel’s military action and the U.S. support for it.
“As soon as that day happened, I felt I was just kind of flung into high gear,” said Logan Crews, who is a first year Master of Divinity student at Yale University. “I began talking to friends right away and just processing through what was happening.”
Entrance signs to Whitewater, Wisconsin. Photo: Birgit Tyrrell via Reuters Connect
Nestled in the heart of the flat, fertile lands of southeastern Wisconsin, Whitewater is a small city of around 15,000 with a college-town feel. When Samuel Schulz, a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran pastor, moved there after graduating from seminary last year, one of the first things he noticed was a large presence of Spanish speakers around town.
Ruben Garcia, executive director of Annunciation House, speaks at the March and Vigil for Human Dignity in El Paso, Texas on March 21. REUTERS/Justin Hamel
Faith-based migrant ministries in Texas are used to operating in tough circumstances, including finding the right resources, meeting migrant needs, and funding their day-to-day work. But recent legal challenges have left some Texas faith leaders uncertain about the future of their ministries.