All posts filed under: Philosophy

Catholic, evangelical leaders condemn public execution plan of Fort Hood gunman

Catholic, evangelical leaders condemn public execution plan of Fort Hood gunman

Published by Sam Flores

Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free! (RNS) — Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is joining evangelical faith leaders and others in condemning plans by the Pentagon to livestream the execution of the man who shot and killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, with the Catholic prelate calling the military’s proposal a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death.” The outcry Friday (Oct. 9) follows the announcement that the Pentagon will livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army officer who also wounded 32 people during the 2009 shooting. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously stated that the execution, which will be conducted by a firing squad, will be “public.” “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it,” Hegseth said Thursday. Coakley railed against the news in a statement Friday morning. “Our God is the God of life,” Coakley’s statement read. “In no way can Hasan’s actions be condoned, but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a …

Catholic Iowa bishop steps up in case of immigrant from Ivory Coast facing deportation

Catholic Iowa bishop steps up in case of immigrant from Ivory Coast facing deportation

Published by Sam Flores

Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free! (RNS) — Last week, Bishop Dennis G. Walsh did something he’d never done before.  Walsh, the bishop for the Catholic diocese of Davenport, Iowa, wrote a letter to the Trump administration urging it to halt the deportation of an Ivory Coast native, who is being held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, to Sierra Leone. While some Catholic leaders have publicly opposed the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, it’s uncommon for them to intervene in individual cases. Walsh’s letter comes as more clergy and parishioners are raising concerns over the administration ramping up its enforcement operations. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement rounded up 50,000 people in July, the highest since January 2025, according to an Associated Press analysis of government data.  “This is the only time that I’ve done that,” Walsh said about sending the letter advocating for the woman, Fatou Traore, 43. “The facts I do know just bring into question whether this was a legal detention or not.” The bishop wrote …

Exploring Egypt’s Ninth Plague: Three Days of Darkness

Exploring Egypt’s Ninth Plague: Three Days of Darkness

Published by Sam Flores

The Ninth Plague of Egypt: Thick Darkness for Three Days 172 | Does the Storm Stela Confirm One—or Maybe Two—of the Exodus Plagues? FOLLOW OUR PODCAST ON (search opentheword): PODCAST NOTES: Hi, my name is Dean Smith. Many have questioned the account of the ten plagues that God unleashed during the Hebrews’ exodus from Egypt because they are not mentioned in Egyptian records. But that is simply not the case. In fact, the plagues may have been mentioned, but we have to look about three hundred years earlier to find them. First there is the Ipuwer Papyrus which describes several events that resemble the plagues. However, it was simply a letter written by a concerned Egyptian citizen to government officials. We also have an official Egyptian record of at least one of the plagues: the “Ahmose Tempest Stela” also known as the “Storm Stela.” It seems to describe the ninth plague. A stela is an upright slab of rock used to commemorate significant events in a nation’s history. Many Christians have traditionally believed that Rameses …

How Jim Bakker became the Johnny Carson of Christian TV

How Jim Bakker became the Johnny Carson of Christian TV

Published by Sam Flores

Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free! (The Conversation) — When I was researching my 2017 book, “PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire,” I interviewed dozens of former staffers and supporters of PTL, the ministry, television and theme park empire that the Bakkers built starting in the 1970s. Time and again, I heard the same thing. PTL – sometimes known as “Praise the Lord” or “People That Love” – was both the best and worst thing they ever did. The worst has been recounted at length, sometimes tinged with schadenfreude: the financial fraud, sex scandals, federal trials and prison time that plagued Jim Bakker, who died on Oct. 5, 2026, at age 86. But it’s also worth remembering PTL as a pioneering force in Christian broadcasting. Working with a dedicated core of energetic young believers, Jim and his wife, Tammy Faye, built PTL from scratch, demonstrating how religion could be fused with pop culture and entertainment to better connect with American Christians. From …

AI is changing pilgrims’ journeys, but sacred journeys have always adapted to new technology

AI is changing pilgrims’ journeys, but sacred journeys have always adapted to new technology

Published by Sam Flores

Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free! (The Conversation) — In 2025, two scholars of religion decided to make a multiday pilgrimage along the Kumano Kodō trail – an ancient route in Japan connecting Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples – guided by an artificial intelligence assistant. The two – Wayne E. Arnold and John A. Shultz – trained an AI companion on a smartphone to suit their travel needs, including translation. But they were also curious to see how AI would shape their pilgrimage experience. “Our hike became a test case for how pilgrimage might evolve in the digital age – not being diminished by AI, but reimagined through it,” they wrote later in the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. AI tools are moving quickly into the realm of religion, including going on a pilgrimage. I have studied trails both ancient and modern and undertaken significant journeys on foot in the Middle East. What happens when an ancient and meaningful practice, often rooted in sacred texts, is affected …

Middle East churches must protect children orphaned by war, says Christian leader

Middle East churches must protect children orphaned by war, says Christian leader

Published by Sam Flores

Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free! (RNS) — As secretary general of the Middle East Council of Churches, Michel Abs said Christian humanitarian efforts in the region must prioritize children who have been traumatized, many of them orphaned, amid multiple Middle East conflicts. MECC, headquartered in Beirut, aims to bring together Christian leaders across denominations to advance dialogue and peace in the region. Established in 1949 shortly after the Nakba, which led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and the creation of the modern state of Israel, it aimed to assist Palestinian refugees. Today, advocacy for Palestinians remains at the core of MECC’s efforts. I spoke with Abs about his organization’s emergency response in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank, Christian emigration and the problems it causes and protecting children who are vulnerable to trafficking. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Tell us about the challenges of doing humanitarian work in Palestine and Lebanon. Humanitarian action in Palestine and Lebanon during wartime requires …

Rabbi Deborah Waxman: How progressive Judaism can build a better future

Rabbi Deborah Waxman: How progressive Judaism can build a better future

Published by Sam Flores

Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free! (RNS) — When I came out as a lesbian in 1994, toward the end of my first year of rabbinical school, my mother was apprehensive, observing, “It will already be so hard for you as a woman rabbi. How much more so as a lesbian?” She had a point. I was part of the second generation of women rabbis, and many of my predecessors and peers were still encountering tremendous sexism. There were only a handful of out LGBTQ rabbis, most working in congregations serving, in the terminology of the day, the gay and lesbian community. This reality was one of the reasons why I enrolled at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, a small, progressive seminary that, from its founding, has recognized diversity as a strength and thus sought to widen the boundaries of who is a part of the Jewish community without compromising standards. In 2014, when I was inaugurated as the president of Reconstructing Judaism, Reconstructionism’s central organization, I joked, “Mom, I …

Why an interfaith coalition is pushing to change Bosnia-Herzegovina’s constitution

Why an interfaith coalition is pushing to change Bosnia-Herzegovina’s constitution

Published by Sam Flores

Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free! SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (RNS) — Thirty years after the end of the Bosnian War, religious leaders across Bosnia and Herzegovina are calling to change the country’s constitution, which they say entrenches divisions between religious communities and keeps the country locked in the shadow of war.  National elections on Sunday (Oct. 4) saw a record-low turnout and a resurgence of nationalist leaders — some backed by Trump advisers — in several parts of the country. Many critics believe the outcome and lackluster participation are the result of Bosnia’s political structure, tied to a peace treaty that, while once necessary, has become antiquated. “I’m not sure that we are in position for any democratic election because we don’t actually have a democratic constitution,” Emir Zlatar, the general secretary of the Council of the Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals (VKBI), told RNS at his office in Sarajevo last month. VKBI is a nongovernmental organization that aims to protect the Bosniak ethnic group’s cultural, historical and national identity.  Zlatar, …

Reconciling the Model with the Terrain

Reconciling the Model with the Terrain

Published by Sam Flores

We view our religions through lenses forged in early childhood. Because we grow intimately accustomed to these frames of reference, identifying internal flaws or systemic contradictions becomes an extraordinary cognitive challenge. Inherited dogmas feel intuitively correct simply because they are familiar. Yet, a fundamental philosophical question remains: Does the psychological satisfaction derived from a belief guarantee its objective reality? I was born into a traditional Hindu family, completely immersed in its cultural and theological certainties. At 15, I first encountered a classmate who openly declared he did not believe in God. The very concept of unbelief felt profoundly alien; I had lived under the assumption that God’s existence was an absolute, undisputed fact of human reality. Though startled, I quickly pushed the revelation aside and went about my life. By my late teens, a persistent friction developed between the theological narratives and the empirical world unfolding around me. I started to notice striking inconsistencies in the foundational stories surrounding the divine. The scriptures routinely depicted a God who displayed supernatural powers historically, yet curiously failed …

Let’s show up this election season with love, not fear

Let’s show up this election season with love, not fear

Published by Sam Flores

Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free! (RNS) — As Election Day approaches, our democratic system is once again being tested. How we make it through this challenge will be determined not only by our political leaders, but by ordinary people standing up to ensure that our elections remain free, fair and safe for everyone. Living up to the principle of “one person, one vote” has been an ongoing struggle since our country’s founding 250 years ago. People of color, Indigenous communities, women, poor people, formerly incarcerated individuals and other marginalized groups have had to organize and stand up to a voting system that was, from the beginning, shaped by racism, sexism and classism. For many, the right to vote has been hard won, and efforts to roll back that progress have often been as deliberate as they have been swift. That is why the responsibility to vote — and to protect the right of others to do the same — must be taught to every generation. Today, our voting …