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Editor's note:
Monique Verdin, a citizen of the United Houma Nation, is tired of fleeing her coastal Louisiana home in advance of hurricanes. Tired of cleaning up in their wake. “But I also think that you can’t run from climate change,” she told RNS national reporter Emily McFarlan Miller. Environmentalist Bill McKibben told RNS, according to estimates, “climate change will eventually be the biggest source of refugees the world’s ever seen.” McKibben is a member of the advisory committee for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which has been helping resettle refugees for more than 80 years. Increasingly, those refugees have been displaced due to climate disasters. Their needs can be unique, and the expected influx will demand adaptations from U.S. refugee resettlement agencies, most of them faith-based, to better serve climate displaced persons and to advocate for lasting protections, including, said LIRS, a pathway to citizenship for those unable to return home.
Religion News
Activist’s self-immolation stirs questions on faith, protest
The death of Wynn Bruce, a 50-year-old climate activist, has prompted a national conversation about his motivation and whether he may have been inspired by Buddhist monks who self-immolated in the past to protest government atrocities. By Deepa Bharath and Colleen Slevin/The Associated Press
Bringing the Torah’s ‘Sabbath of the land’ to Jewish American farmers
The tradition of shmita, a Jewish answer to how to fight climate change, is spreading beyond Israel. By Sara Badilini/Religion News Service
Pastor-run shelters have partnered with educators to help — either busing children to an alternative school that teaches everything from math to reading to dealing with emotions, or bringing in specially accredited teachers. By Giovanna Dell’Orto/The Associated Press
For Ukrainian Orthodox in US, war news casts pall on Easter
The rituals leading up to Easter were the same. But many members of Ukrainian Orthodox churches across the United States are finding it difficult to summon joy at a time of war. By Peter Smith/The Associated Press
The scientific meltdown over a controversial discovery of ‘biblical Sodom’
The remains of a city’s fiery demise near the Dead Sea have archaeologists at odds. By Jerry Pattengale/Religion News Service
Commentary and Analysis
Several US universities now recognize caste as part of nondiscrimination policies. Two scholars of South Asian studies explain how caste-based violence isn't limited to Hinduism, or to India. By Aseem Hasnain and Abhilasha Srivastava for The Conversation
Proper spiritual discernment could have sorted out Kennedy v. Bremerton School District years ago. By Jacob Lupfer/Religion News Service
A sociologist found in her research that many Americans who are opposed to abortion may nonetheless be willing to support a friend or family member seeking one. By Tricia C. Bruce for The Conversation
The kind of giving known as Zakat can include everything from donating to nonprofits to smiling at strangers. By Shariq Siddiqui, Micah A. Hughes and Rafeel Wasif for The Conversation
A woman takes part on a Good Friday ceremony inside the damaged Pokrova church, during Orthodox Easter, on the outskirt of Chernihiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 22, 2022. The church was damaged last month by an explosion of a mortar nearby. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
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- This Week in Religion is a publication of the Global Religion Journalism Initiative, a collaboration among the Religion News Service, The Associated Press and The Conversation U.S.
- The three news organizations work to improve general understanding and analyze the significance of developments in the world of faith.
