Alternative Faiths
Global interest in ayahuasca is leading to spiritual tourism and creating challenges for local communities
By Pardis Mahdavi — June 28, 2024
(The Conversation) — The psychotropic allure of the ayahuasca plant for hundreds of thousands of non-Indigenous consciousness seekers is raising many concerns.
Unitarian Universalists vote for action on Palestine, climate, LGBTQ+ issues and COVID-19
By Aleja Hertzler-McCain — June 24, 2024
Unitarian Universalists to vote on updated covenant, values at 2024 General Assembly
By Kathryn Post — June 21, 2024
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With world’s highest rates of religiously unaffiliated, East Asia remains spiritually vibrant
By Chloë-Arizona Fodor — June 17, 2024
(RNS) — While many East Asians do not identify with a religion, they continue to hold religious or spiritual beliefs in unseen beings, venerate ancestors’ spirits and engage in ritual practices, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center.
Afro-Cuban drums, Muslim prayers, Buddhist mantras: Religious diversity blooms in once-atheist Cuba
By Luis Andres Henao — May 17, 2024
HAVANA (AP) — Today, diverse beliefs can be found mixed together on altars in homes, with the Virgin Mary sharing space with a ceramic Buddha and a warrior spirit from the Afro-Cuban faith.
Anitta defends her Afro-Brazilian faith after new music video costs her some followers
By ElÉonore Hughes — May 16, 2024
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Anitta was already known for elevating marginalized populations such as women, residents of the working-class neighborhoods known as favelas, as well as LGBTQ+ and Black people.
Rastafarian whose locks were cut in prison appeals case to Supreme Court
By Fiona André — May 15, 2024
(RNS) — Damon Landor, who is backed in the case by a broad range of faith organizations, argues the prison infringed on his religious rights.
How the anime Demon Slayer films are driving ‘pop religion’ in Japan
By Bruce Winkelman — May 14, 2024
(Sightings) — The recent anime film both draws inspiration from Japanese religions and functions as a source of inspiration for religious practices.
Shunned for centuries, Vodou grows powerful as Haitians seek solace from unrelenting gang violence
By DÁnica Coto — May 10, 2024
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Shunned publicly by politicians and intellectuals for centuries, Vodou is transforming into a more powerful and accepted religion across Haiti, where its believers were once persecuted.
Michigan man accused of making explosives to target Satanic Temple in Massachusetts
By Associated Press — May 9, 2024
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Luke Terpstra was charged in western Michigan with two felonies: transportation of an explosive and possession of an unregistered explosive.
Taylor Swift’s ‘TTPD’: Religious imagery for a spiritually syncretic era
By Kathryn Post and Madeline Macrae — April 23, 2024
(RNS) — ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ speaks of good Samaritans and Jehovah’s Witnesses, altar sacrifices and prophecies.
Katie Pruitt continues to probe life as a ‘recovering Catholic’ on new album
By Aleja Hertzler-McCain — April 3, 2024
(RNS) — ‘Mantras,’ Pruitt’s sophomore album, explores the fraught nature of leaving one’s childhood religion.
For the Maya, solar eclipses were a sign of heavenly clashes − and their astronomers kept sophisticated records to predict them
By Kimberly H. Breuer — April 3, 2024
(The Conversation) — The skies and the gods were inseparable in Maya culture. Astronomers kept careful track of events like eclipses in order to perform the renewal ceremonies to continue the world’s cycles of rebirth.
New York inmates are suing to watch the solar eclipse after state orders prisons locked down
By Philip Marcelo — April 3, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — The suit filed Friday in federal court in upstate New York argues that the April 8 lockdown violates inmates' constitutional rights to practice their faiths by preventing them from taking part in a religiously significant event.
African spiritualities are attracting Black Americans as a source of pride and identity
By Fiona André — March 21, 2024
(RNS) — Ancestral veneration, Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Candomblé, Cuban Santería and Ifá have gained attention among Black adults, who see it as an occasion to reconnect with their heritage and celebrate their Blackness.
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