On August 14, a Pennsylvania grand jury released a sweeping, 1400-page report on clergy child sex abuse in six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses.

Over the course of two years, the grand jury reviewed over 500,000 subpoenaed internal diocesan documents containing “credible allegations” of clergy sexual abuse of teenage and prepubescent youth—including babies as young as 18 months old.

In all, the grand jury found over 1,000 victims of sex abuse by clergy and named...

In early August, the Vatican released a notice that Pope Francis has changed the catechism of the Catholic Church to reflect a zero-tolerance policy toward the death penalty.

Declaring capital punishment “inadmissible,” Pope Francis closed a loophole that other popes—many of whom also opposed the death penalty—left open for exceptional cases.

“Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding...

During the Justice Department’s Religious Liberty Summit Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of a “Religious Liberty Task Force” designed to interpret and enforce a set of religious liberty guidelines instituted under the Trump administration.

“A dangerous movement, undetected by many, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom,” Sessions said Monday. “We have gotten to the point where...

In his third annual state of the Union address, 73-year-old Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte declined to discuss his ongoing battles with the powerful Catholic Church, instead focusing on his contentious drug war that has taken over 4,500 lives during his reign.

Duterte has been at odds with the powerful Catholic Church presence in the Philippines for years,...

Two months after the White House announced a new “zero-tolerance” policy for “illegal border crossings” on the Southwest Border, the Trump administration faced perhaps its most vociferous and bipartisan pushback yet. While the policy’s wording was vague, reports have indicated that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been charged with criminally detaining every person that arrives at the border—including asylum seekers, who have...

A new anti-bestiality bill has passed the Louisiana Senate despite pushback from 10 Republican members who fear the law would help overturn existing sodomy laws.

State Sen. J.P. Morrell, who proposed the bill, said the state’s current law—which bundles bestiality and sodomy together as illegal “crimes against nature”—is unenforceable and thus needs to be updated.

State laws prohibiting “crimes against nature” have historically been...

As many anticipate a release date for the second season of hit Netflix drama “13 Reasons Why,” one conservative Christian organization is lobbying for Netflix to pull it from production altogether.

The American Family Association (AFA), founded in 1977, has stated goals of “restrain[ing] evil by exposing the world of darkness” and “motivat[ing] people to take a stand on cultural and moral issues” by sending out mobilizing emails, promoting boycotts, and lobbying. While the organization typically associates with...

The Kentucky House passed a bill Thursday that would establish a state-recognized “Day of Prayer” on the last Wednesday in September every year.

The bill, sponsored by Republican representative Regina Huff and four other Republicans, received overwhelming support by House members, passing 83-5. It will now move on to the Kentucky Senate.

Huff said that the bill was inspired by students in her district, who she said “want to know that we are...

Just two weeks after a gunman killed 17 students, teachers, and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, worshipers gathered in Pennsylvania for an elaborate ceremony touting the same assault-style rifles used in the shooting.

According to leaders, the ceremony was intended to serve as a commitment ceremony for heterosexual couples. Participants donned wedding attire and carried rifles as emblems of their commitment to protecting themselves and their community. Several wore crowns made of bullets.

The ceremony was designed and carried out...

In the days following one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history, religious groups have mobilized to support a new swell of gun regulation activism. After a gunman killed 17 students, teachers, and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, students from the school have received unprecedented press attention as they have engaged with politicians, National Rifle Association representatives, and corporations in an effort...

Last week, the 66^th annual National Prayer Breakfast rounded off a three-day event promoting interfaith communication and understanding.

Compared to the 2017 prayer breakfast, during which newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump sparked controversy by promising to “destroy” the Johnson Amendment and mocking fellow reality TV personality Arnold Schwarzenegger’s television ratings, some saw Trump’s 2018 speech as being comparatively “subdued.”

The president’s 14-...

Hillary Clinton opted to keep on her senior faith adviser despite sexual harassment allegations during her 2008 presidential campaign, the New York Times reported late last week.

Burns Strider, a 52-year-old who has made a name for himself as a liaison between the Democratic Party and influential faith leaders, reportedly harassed a 30-year-old coworker with whom he shared an office. The ...

Two weeks after the death of leader Thomas S. Monson, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a new president.

93-year old Russell M. Nelson will take the helm as the 17^th president of the Church, LDS leaders announced via live broadcast Tuesday. Nelson’s “setting apart” was no surprise—the LDS Church operates according to a fairly predictable hierarchy, and as first counselor to President Monson, Nelson was expected to take his place.

In a live broadcast...

Earlier this month, Republican nominee in Alabama for the U.S. Senate Roy Moore came under fire for allegations of sexual misconduct with minors as young as age 14 in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

On November 9, The Washington Post reported that, while working as a prosecutor in Alabama’s Etowah County, Moore allegedly propositioned...

After a white supremacist rally resulted in the death of a counter-protester, President Donald Trump has been criticized from religious leaders of a variety of political leanings, but has largely retained the support of white evangelicals, who overwhelmingly voted for him in the 2016 election.

The Saturday, August 12 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia saw the coalescence of assorted white nationalist...