Lead story
Editor's note:
Texas will require all public school classrooms – from kindergarten through high school – to display the Ten Commandments under a newly enacted law. It’s the latest in a surge of measures in Republican-controlled states that seek to insert religion into public schools. The Texas law is expected to draw a legal challenge from critics who consider it an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state. Two other states, Louisiana and Arkansas, have similar Ten Commandments laws. Louisiana’s is on hold as federal courts have ruled it unconstitutional. In Texas, another newly enacted bill allows school districts to provide students and staff a daily voluntary period of prayer or time to read a religious text during school hours.
Religion News
First US center to train Catholics on canonization process to open in 2026
The six-day certification course aims to teach ‘how to honor deserving candidates and expedite their path to sainthood in the Vatican,’ according to the center’s website. By Fiona André/Religion News Service
Pope Leo XIV affirms celibacy for priests, demands 'firm' action on sex abuse
Pope Leo XIV has affirmed that priests must be celibate. And he has insisted that bishops take 'firm and decisive' action to deal with sex abusers. By Nicole Winfield/The Associated Press
The director of the US budget has declared that Christians should be 'stewards of a blessing that has been God-given: to live in this land, this particular land.' By Jack Jenkins/Religion News Service
Syria says the Islamic State group was behind the deadly attack on a Damascus church
Syria's Interior Ministry said the sleeper cell behind a deadly church explosion near Damascus belonged to the Islamic State group. It also said the group had plans to target a Shiite shrine in a similar attack. By Ghaith Alsayed and Kareem Cheyayeb/The Associated Press
Supreme Court will hear case of Rastafarian whose dreadlocks were shaved by Louisiana prison guards
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a former Louisiana prison inmate whose dreadlocks were cut off by prison guards in violation of his religious beliefs. By Mark Sherman/The Associated Press
Commentary and Analysis
A scholar of extremism writes that the use of the term often obscures deeper societal issues such as rising political violence and is dangerously simplistic. By Art Jipson for The Conversation
Casual remarks by the current leader of Tibetan Buddhism invite us to ask what possibilities might arise if we extend moral agency not just to the environment or other species, but AI. By Elaine Lai/Religion News Service
Young writers in Germany are challenging one-dimensional stereotypes about Jewish and Muslim identities. By Agnes Mueller for The Conversation
The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or the CREC, has a highly patriarchal and conservative interpretation of Scripture. By Samuel Perry for The Conversation
Women at a yoga studio perform an exercise on International Day of Yoga in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
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