Religion News Service

 The Rev. William Barber II, a progressive activist and pastor, addressed the executive committee of the Democratic National Committee on Aug. 23, calling on party leaders to host a presidential debate focused on poverty and to do more to address the concerns of poor and low-income Americans.

It started with a call on Facebook to demonstrate against the country’s increasingly hostile immigration policies.

On the same day that a prominent woman urged greater inclusion of female leaders in Religions for Peace, delegates to the 10th World Assembly of the interreligious global organization elected their first woman secretary-general.

"Myself and Bono, we weren't like the other kids in the street and we knew we weren't," Guggi told Religion News Service recently during "My Cup Overflows," an exhibit of his new works at Arcane Space, a gallery in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles co-owned by Morleigh Steinberg, wife of U2 guitarist The Edge.

Does President Trump have a Messiah complex? No, according to some of his most loyal evangelical Christian supporters — but one could see how he might get the idea that he is here to save the world.

The 10th Religions for Peace World Assembly launched Aug. 20 with calls for religious groups to take decisive action on the main geopolitical issues of the day, and ending with an unusual “statement of commitment” aimed at fostering multi-religious cooperation.

In politics, it is common to have disagreements over values and goals. What makes government decision-making even more difficult today is that we disagree not only on goals but also on the facts.

The largest presidential election forum focused on the concerns of Native Americans drew several leading Democratic presidential candidates in its first day, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

A letter signed by nearly 30 leading theologians in the liberal Catholic journal Commonweal forcefully rejects any link between nationalism and Christianity and asserts that such a connection can "threaten the integrity of Christian faith."

Three Democratic presidential hopefuls fielded questions from black church leaders on Aug. 16, bouncing between politics and prayer as they vied for support from an audience of about 5,000 black millennials.

"This is not just a celebration for women, or women of color or for the LGBTQIA+ community." 

Signs of the Times: There has been a lot of clerical hand-wringing of late about Catholics who don’t believe what the church teaches about Christ's presence in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. 

A truck attempted to barrel through a group of Jewish protesters who were demonstrating outside a detention center in Rhode Island.

Police in Wyoming are recommending sex abuse charges against two unnamed Catholic leaders in the state.

In no state in the U.S. does even one-quarter of the population say abortion should be illegal in all cases, a new survey shows.

A new social statement from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America labels patriarchy and sexism as sins and acknowledges the church’s complicity in them.

Our age of nonstop communication has brought an array of resources, online and off, for those who wrestle with suffering and loss, and people are employing new ways to support each other when tragedy arrives.

Background checks may give churches a false sense of security, experts say — whether that's due to incomplete sex offender registries, or questions about whether registries really do prevent crimes.

A Chaldean Christian immigrant who was deported from Michigan to Iraq has reportedly died because he was unable to obtain insulin to treat his diabetes.

The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 activists are charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor and face up to 25 years in prison each for trespassing on a U.S. Navy base in Georgia.