World Religions News

“What if I accept that all I really want is a small, slow, simple life? A beautiful, quiet, gentle life. I think it is enough.” ~Krista O’Reilly-Davi-Digui

Why do we feel such pressure to dream big? I think it starts in childhood when parents, teachers, and other adults start asking the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

One of the many problems with this question is its premise. In the classroom, at church, at youth camp, and at home, you are not alone, and you’re able to hear, understand, and internalize how others might answer …

(RNS) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday (March 31) struck down Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, siding with a therapist who argued her First Amendment rights were violated by a state law prohibiting her from working with clients to attempt to change their sexual orientations. While conservative Christians and pro-conversion therapy groups like the Changed Movement are celebrating the decision as a victory, many queer Christians who have survived so-called conversion practices, like myself, see this as a moment of lament.

Kaley Chiles, the therapist at the center of the case, argued bans in Colorado prevented her from exercising her free speech to offer counseling aligned with her Christian religious beliefs, which include assisting clients who wish to live in accordance with their religious convictions. In an 8-1 majority, the court agreed.

What the court may not fully understand is what that kind of speech actually does to a person.

Today, conversion therapy is often framed as talk therapy and marketed as a compassionate response for people questioning their sexuality. But the reality is that in every organization or ministry that promotes these practices, there’s no rulebook and no formal certification process. It’s all based on a mix of pseudoscientific theories adopted from the McCarthy era, dressed up with spiritual undertones.

I know this because I lived it for eight years. The guidance I was given ranged from the practical — “Don’t watch gay porn” — to the outlandish — “By developing platonic relationships with other men, my sexual desires for them would disappear.” But what it truly does is try to disintegrate a person’s body, mind and spirit.

Through these “therapies,” I was taught to bring my body into submission, to hate my flesh and to do all I could externally to be more like a man. I was told the sound of my voice, my mannerisms and expressions needed to be policed and moderated. I was made to believe that my first thought was the wrong thought and to never trust my instincts, which led to a state of hypervigilance and anxiety. In therapy sessions, I was repeatedly told I was broken because of trauma I had endured, and that if I healed my wounds from the past, my sexual attractions would change. When, after eight years, they hadn’t, I was told I hadn’t tried hard enough.

And worse, all of this was presented to me as my only means of salvation. If I wanted to honor God and walk in integrity, my only choice was to pray and believe for God to change me. And when God didn’t answer my prayers, I thought it meant divine rejection.

Throughout my time in conversion therapy, I met hundreds of people who were on the same path as I was. None of us received the miracle we’d been promised. For the few that stuck with the program and got married to a spouse of the opposite gender, all would admit their attractions never changed; they’ve just willingly suppressed their desires. Or, they’ve since divorced and are now living openly gay lives. 

And it isn’t just anecdotal. Conversion therapy has been discredited by every major medical and mental health organization as ineffective and harmful. Youth subjected to it report higher rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts, especially within the first year after exposure to these pseudoscientific practices. And a recent report by The Trevor Project suggests an uptick in the number of LGBTQ+ youth exposed to conversion practices, which rose to 15% last year among its survey participants. And based on this week’s ruling, that number will only continue to grow as challenges to conversion therapy bans in other states are likely.

Many who leave conversion therapy report ongoing anxiety, depression and the inability to form lasting relationships. Others have difficulty trusting licensed clinical therapists and miss out on the opportunity to get sound psychological support. Others struggle with substance abuse and addiction. And people who have experienced it in religious environments deal with long-term spiritual trauma, many abandoning their faith altogether and believing they had been abandoned or rejected by God for failing to “change.” Others have found a way to reconcile their faith and sexuality in LGBTQ-affirming churches or through the work of Q Christian Fellowship or The Reformation Project.

Meanwhile, back in 2014, nine former leaders of the so-called ex-gay movement, including a co-founder of Exodus International, one the largest organization in the world promoting conversion therapy, signed a statement denouncing the practice. “We know first-hand the terrible emotional and spiritual damage it can cause, especially for LGBT youth,” they wrote, urging parents to love and accept their LGBT children as they are, and challenging churches to embrace and affirm LGBT persons with full equality and inclusion. 

But their voices were ignored, and others took up their mantle. Today’s practitioners would be quick to distance themselves from the conversion therapy ministries of the past, discrediting the former leaders as having been deceived and survivors like me as not having tried hard enough or not being true believers. But the truth is, today my relationship with God is the strongest it’s ever been. And I believe I am loved by God, just as I am, as a gay man.

When I walked out of my therapist’s office for the final time in January 2010, that didn’t mean I was suddenly free. It would take me more than a decade to feel like I’d truly started to break free from the shame and trauma I carried with me.

As much as I would have hoped the court would have done everything within its power to protect another generation of LGBTQ+ youth from this soul-crushing and potentially life-ending practice, it didn’t. But those of us who have walked this path will do all we can to protect them. We will share our stories and experiences to bring a human face and voice to the harm these practices cause. We will try to educate parents and faith leaders. And we will do all we can to ensure people seeking help in therapeutic settings are protected from any practices that seek to diminish them in body, mind or spirit.

(Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez is a writer and LGBTQ+ advocate whose work explores the intersection of faith, sexuality and belonging. His forthcoming memoir, “Conversion Therapy Dropout: A Queer Story of Faith and Belonging,” tells the story of his eight years in conversion therapy and his journey to healing. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

(RNS) — “I don’t have a belief in any form of resurrection,” declared the Rev. Duncan Littlefair, then-pastor of Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to NBC’s Frank McGee on the “Today” show in April 1973.

Wearing a white turtleneck and navy blazer, the pastor explained that he viewed the idea of Jesus’ physical resurrection as “absurd” and the notion of being saved only through Christ as a “totally provincial, Western view.”

In the days that followed, both NBC and Fountain Street faced backlash as viewers caught wind of the pastor’s unconventional beliefs. But even in the 1970s, Fountain Street, a historic church founded in 1869 that had earned a reputation as a dogma-free activist outpost, wasn’t the only church where Jesus’ resurrection could be called into question. In 1961, the Unitarian Universalist Association had formed, a noncreedal tradition whose theological heritage saw Jesus as a moral exemplar, not God incarnate.

These days, the landscape of noncreedal faith traditions has grown to encompass not just Unitarian Universalist congregations or historic, independent churches like Fountain Street, but also newer faith communities that emerged from an evangelical context and resist specific doctrines. And during Holy Week, when Christian congregations around the world commemorate Jesus’ triumphal entry, crucifixion and resurrection, many of these communities have a different emphasis, often interpreting resurrection as a spiritual metaphor or call to political action.  

One of those groups is Aldea Spiritual Community, a “post-religious” gathering that meets on the northern outskirts of Tucson, Arizona.

“Beliefs aren’t really that important to us,” said Aldea pastor Jake Haber. “We call ourselves more of a values-based spiritual community.”

Originally an evangelical church, Aldea has its share of ex-evangelicals and, more recently, has welcomed members who’ve always been spiritual-but-not-religious. This year, Haber said, Aldea opted not to add additional services for Holy Week, instead doing a three-week series focusing on the symbolism of each day of Easter weekend: Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter. At last week’s service about Holy Saturday, attendees sang John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change” and U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” heard Haber’s message about transformation in liminal spaces and were led in a breathing meditation about surrendering to the unknown.

“Easter is, for a lot of people, a day of certainty,” Haber told RNS. But at Aldea, he explained, the point is embracing doubt, not necessarily believing in Jesus’ resurrection as historical fact.

Dylan Bovill, who didn’t grow up religious and began attending Aldea last year, said this is the first time Easter has meant anything significant to them.

“For Jake to present in this much more metaphysical way … as being about transitions, and the loss of things leading to the beginning of new things, that’s something that’s universal,” said Bovill. “That’s something that in so many different ways, everyone can relate to.”  

At Heartway, a church in Davie, Florida, with a low-church aesthetic that aims to be pluralistic and nondogmatic, pastor Danny Prada says he focuses on the broader meaning of the Easter season, leaving room for people with a range of views. And at Vinings Lake near Atlanta, Georgia, resurrection is taking on symbolic meaning, too. Another spiritual community with evangelical origins, Vinings Lake lost hundreds of members in the wake of the 2016 election. In the years since, it has become a community that no longer expects attendees to adhere to specific beliefs or doctrines (though they are explicitly LGBTQ affirming) and sees itself as an ever-evolving spiritual collective, with an emphasis on fighting injustice. And, with those shifts, Vinings Lake has grown. Last month, pastor Cody Deese said, they ran out of parking spots.

“If you know our story, you know, that’s resurrection,” he said.

Despite its growth, this Easter season, Vinings Lake won’t hold additional Easter or Holy Week services — “Our community isn’t looking for more religious activity. If anything, they’re recovering from it,” said Deese. But they are doing a series called “A Creative Resistance,” which looks at Jesus’ death and resurrection in the context of overcoming empire, rather than personal salvation from sin.

“Resurrection is God exposing the limits of political power. Empire can arrest the body. Silence a voice. Seal a tomb. But it cannot control what grows after truth has been planted,” said Deese, reading an excerpt from his forthcoming Easter sermon.

The theme of resisting empire is also part of the theological context at the Unitarian Church of Barnstable, a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Cape Cod. But while congregants will likely sing “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” this Easter, resurrection won’t be the focus of the service. The Rev. Kristen Harper, who has ministered the church for over two decades, noted that she empowers her Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Humanist and atheist congregants to explore their own beliefs, rather than telling them what to think. Still, when she shares her perspective on the story of Jesus in her Easter sermons, she said, she’s most likely to focus on what he did before his crucifixion.

“The death and resurrection mean very little to us,” said Harper of her liberal congregation. Instead, she focuses on Jesus as a prophet whose ministry embodied radical inclusion and who might inspire others to act in the face of injustice.

“Even if we don’t believe Jesus was divine, which most of us do not, we do believe that he was one of the great prophets, great teachers of the world,” she said.

Unitarian Universalism is known for drawing spiritual inspiration from a variety of sources, and at Sunnyhill Unitarian Universalist Church of the South Hills in Pittsburgh, the Rev. Jim Magaw often relies on two texts each Easter: the original ending of the Gospel of Mark, which hints at the mystery of Easter with its abrupt ending about women fleeing the empty tomb, and the poem “Easter Exultet” by James Broughton.

“Nothing perishes; nothing survives; everything transforms,” Magaw said, quoting the poem. For him, he said, belief in a historical resurrection is less powerful than metaphor. “I feel like transformation happens at that deeper metaphorical level, much more than it does at a literal level.”

While some noncreedal congregations prefer metaphor, these days, Fountain Street’s current minister, the Rev. Nathan Dannison, isn’t against a literal resurrection. After all, he said, the world is “inherently miraculous.” The interreligious congregation remains committed to free speech and independent thought and expects its ministers to speak truthfully without enforcing their views on others. Ultimately, the Easter season at Fountain Street is about hope and social witness rather than uniform doctrinal claims.

That Easter hope was hinted at during Palm Sunday. Dozens of children came to the front of the sanctuary, grasped bunches of palm branches and dipped them into the baptismal font, blessing them and then handing them out to congregants. After the service, those same palm branches were taken by roughly 80 Fountain Streeters nearly 70 miles away to Lansing, where they joined a Palm Sunday Protest against Christian nationalism.

“The Easter tradition at Fountain Street, it’s very incarnational,” said Dannison. “It’s extremely embodied. And it’s lived through physical action.”

(RNS) — Donald Trump thought he could wage a quick and successful war against Iran, but he was wrong. He had multiple goals, including regime change, destroying Iran’s military, making it impossible for Iran to develop nuclear weapons and stopping Iran’s support for militia forces in the Middle East.

We are more than a month into the war. Thousands of missiles, drones and bombs have been exchanged on both sides. The Persian Gulf states have been pulled into a war they did not want, and thousands of civilians have been killed or injured.

Although it has lost many of its top leaders, the Iranian regime is still in place and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard has the weapons to brutally suppress any uprising by its citizens. Many of Iran’s missiles and drones have been destroyed, but it still is hitting American and other targets in the Middle East. Nuclear sites have been bombed, but without an international agreement and inspections, Iran can rebuild. And Iran’s clients, Hezbollah and the Houthis, are attacking Israel.

In other words, the Iranian military has been degraded but every other goal of the war has failed.

Meanwhile, Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, cutting the world’s oil and liquid natural gas supplies by 20%. Oil and LNG prices have jumped, threatening the world economy and ruining the lives of millions of people. This has already forced Trump to lift sanctions on Russian and even Iranian oil and LNG.

At first, markets went up and down on every word that came out of the White House, but the credibility of the Trump administration has run out. Oil prices are over $100 a barrel. Gasoline prices in the U.S. have gone up a dollar a gallon. Global stock markets have lost an estimated $7 trillion to $11.5 trillion in market capitalization, with the S&P 500 dropping 7.4 percent from its February high.

If the war continues and oil prices hit $200 a barrel, we will go from the Trump slump to the Trump recession, affecting the lives of all but the richest elites.

The president continues to promise the war will be over in two weeks, but destruction and death continue throughout the Middle East, with Iran giving no indication it is ready to quit.

Is there a way out of this quicksand?

Trump is sending more troops to the area for a possible invasion, but every expert has said a military solution will be costly and not guaranteed. Our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan should show us that wars in the Middle East are not easy. Nor have we been very good at regime change. Despite everything he said in the past, Trump is now telling the nation, “Regime change was not our goal.” But he could change his mind again tomorrow.

Using the military to keep open the Strait of Hormuz would also be costly. Although the strait is 20 miles wide, the navigation channels are only a couple of miles wide. Tankers and their naval escorts would be sitting ducks for mines, drones and missiles. Even a small speedboat with a shoulder-launched missile would be a threat. 

Protecting tanker traffic would require not only naval and air power but also clearing missiles and drones from Iranian territory 50 to 100 miles inland along the Persian Gulf. It might require the installation of radar and air defense weapons on Iranian soil. Inevitably, American ships and personnel would become targets. And how long would they have to stay? And that is only for the Strait of Hormuz. It is likely the Houthis will also disrupt shipping in the Red Sea.

Finally recognizing how difficult it would be to protect shipping, Trump appears to have washed his hands of the strait, saying the countries in Europe and Asia that depend on oil from the Gulf “must take care of that passage.” In his address to the nation on Wednesday (April 1), he said, “They must grab it and cherish it.” Against all reality, he said, “It should be easy.” 

There was also talk of using American troops to retrieve Iranian enriched uranium. Trump now recognizes this would require occupying parts of Iran for months since the stockpiles were stored in deep, underground tunnels that were buried by U.S. and Israeli bombings. His solution now is to watch the sites and if Iran attempts to retrieve the enriched uranium, he will resume bombing. 

Trump will soon have 50,000 American troops in the area, but he may need twice this number if he decides to invade.

In his address, Trump said, “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.” Such language and actions would push Iranian citizens into the arms of the regime because although they want the regime gone, they do not want their country destroyed.

He has also threatened to destroy Iran’s oil facilities to cut off its income, but Iran has promised to retaliate by doing the same to the oil and gas facilities in Gulf states. This would guarantee very high prices for the next five to 10 years that it would take to rebuild these facilities whenever the war ends. This would be disastrous for the world economy, while enriching Russian and American oil and gas producers.

As Pope Leo and other world leaders have said, the only way out of this mess is through diplomatic negotiations, but neither side trusts the other. Trump does not trust Iran, which he believes is secretly developing nuclear weapons. Iran does not trust Trump, who has attacked Iran twice while diplomatic negotiations were going on. Negotiations under these circumstances could take months.

Trump appears to want negotiations and a quick end to the war, although he is also preparing for an invasion of Iran. With his eye on the polls, the stock market, the price of oil, the price of gasoline and the November election, Trump is in a hurry to declare victory, but Iran literally has him over a barrel at the Strait of Hormuz.

Currently, the best Trump can hope for is reopening the Strait of Hormuz and a nuclear deal much like the one negotiated by the Obama administration, which he unilaterally rejected. The regime will stay in place, sanctions will be eased and Iran will rebuild its military. Iran is both weaker and stronger than before the war. Its military is weaker but the world now knows it can close the Strait of Hormuz whenever it feels threatened.

The war has also taught the Persian Gulf states that the United States cannot protect them from Iran. The American military is too slow to adapt to drone warfare and too attached to its expensive toys. The Gulf states will have to turn to Ukraine for the technology needed to deal with Iranian drones. While higher oil and LNG prices are currently helping Russia pay for its war, Ukraine may be helped in the long run by getting Gulf partners with deep pockets.

This war was unnecessary, stupid and immoral. It began without a plan and will end not with a bang, but a whimper.

(RNS) — The Islamic Society of Milwaukee said its president was detained by immigration agents on Monday (March 30).

Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian American businessman and community advocate who leads the largest Muslim group in Wisconsin, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as he left his Milwaukee home. His lawyers and advocates say Sarsour was targeted for his Muslim faith and advocacy for Palestinians. 

Sarsour has been living in the country as a lawful permanent resident since 1993, according to the Muslim Legal Fund of America, which is representing him.

Attorneys with MLFA noted his visa application was approved and vetted by the U.S. nearly 33 years ago, and they said his detention was politically motivated. 

“As attorneys, we are alarmed by this administration’s renewed attempt to circumvent the Constitution by leveraging the immigration system to suppress free speech and silence advocacy for Palestinian rights,” staff attorney Jinan Chehade said in a statement. 

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. 

Sarsour is also a board member of American Muslims for Palestine,  which describes itself as a national organization focused on educating the American public about Palestine. 

The organization condemned Sarsour’s arrest. In a statement, AMP said his arrest reflects a troubling trend of the Trump administration’s effort to wield immigration courts “to silence Palestinian voices and advance a racist anti-Muslim agenda.”

Sarsour was taken to the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, and then to the Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana. 

The Islamic Society said Sarsour is married and has raised six children in the Milwaukee area, all of whom are U.S. citizens. 

Sarsour’s lawyers are challenging his detention, filing a writ of habeas corpus and a request for a temporary restraining order. He is scheduled for an immigration court hearing on April 13 in Chicago. 

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Almost one year after Pope Francis made his final public appearance on Easter, Pope Leo XIV is approaching his first celebration of the feast as pontiff — a moment that offers a more defining glimpse into a papacy focused on unity, peace and social justice.

While Leo’s first year has largely implied continuity with Francis, analysis of his leadership style highlights his willingness to empower clergy and delegate authority.

On Holy Thursday (April 2), which commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples, Leo departed from one of Francis’ most symbolic gestures. In past years, Francis used the washing of the feet ceremony to highlight marginalized groups — including prisoners, migrants and women — underscoring his outreach to those living on the peripheries of society.

This year, though, Leo washed the feet of 12 priests from the Diocese of Rome at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. The move reflects both a return to tradition — Benedict XVI, who was succeeded by Francis, was the last pope to wash the feet of diocesan priests in Rome — but also his focus on empowering clergy and promoting a more missionary role for priests.

“The great missionaries bear witnesses to quiet, unobtrusive approaches, whose method is the sharing of life, selfless service, the renunciation of any calculated strategy, dialogue and respect,” Leo said during the Chrism Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday, as priests renewed the promises made during their ordination.

Leo’s style of governance is becoming visible in balancing continuity and reform. Breaking with Francis, who chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae at the Vatican as a sign of simplicity, Leo has returned to the Apostolic Palace.

The move last month came as senior Vatican officials, who handed in their resignations after Francis’ death, are awaiting confirmation or replacement. Leo’s recent reshuffling of top Vatican posts suggests a preference for experienced curial officials, while also elevating a cohort of English-speaking prelates known for their efficiency and pragmatism. It also reflects Leo’s own experience heading the powerful Vatican department overseeing bishops before becoming pope, and his efficiency-driven style of governance.

Leo tapped Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, a seasoned Vatican diplomat with deep curial experience, as substitute for general affairs at the Vatican Secretariat of State — the third-highest-ranking position at the Vatican. But Leo also pulled in policy specialists from the United States, including immigrant advocate Dylan Corbett, to the Vatican department for Integral Human Development, the Vatican’s social doctrine-focused office.

As a member of the Augustinian order, Leo has also shown a more collaborative approach to leadership. Unlike the more centralized and mission-driven structure of the Society of Jesus, to which Francis belonged, the Augustinian tradition places a strong emphasis on community life and shared responsibility.

And no department within the Vatican has been more empowered by Leo than the Secretariat of State. Weakened by scandals and a preference for informal diplomacy lines under Francis, it is now taking center stage in the Vatican’s messaging on politics and social issues. 

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has become increasingly active both publicly and behind the scenes. He was among the main architects in proposing a nonviolent exit for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — before the U.S. military operation captured him on Jan. 3. Parolin also negotiated the Holy See’s decision not to join President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace and recently met with the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See to discuss disruptions in Holy Week celebrations in the Holy Land.

The topic of peace has been a recurring issue for this pontificate, especially in the days leading up to Easter. Asked by CNN on Tuesday about whether he had a message for U.S. and Israeli leaders regarding the war in Iran, Leo said he hoped Trump was “looking for an off-ramp” to stop the violence and the war. The pope also called for a truce to the war during the Easter celebrations.

In his Easter address to faithful and nonfaithful all over the world, called Urbi et Orbi, Leo is expected to once again turn his gaze outward and address the many conflicts — including those in the Holy Land and in Ukraine — that are tearing at the world today.

The pope will then pick up his stride immediately after the Easter celebrations, publishing his first encyclical and embarking on a major trip to the African countries of Algeria, Angola, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.

The encyclical is expected to address the world’s rapidly changing economic and technological landscape, including the rise of artificial intelligence, offering a Catholic perspective on the dignity of humans and the protection of workers, people and the environment. Leo has said he chose his name in honor of Pope Leo XIII, who was known for his 1891 encyclical “Rerum Novarum” (On New Things), which addressed inequality and the working class, and laid the groundwork of Catholic social justice movements.

The papal trip to Africa, scheduled for April 13-23, will be a chance for Leo to pay homage to his Augustinian roots while also addressing exploitation of natural resources and communities in those countries.

And as a relatively young and physically active pontiff, at 70, Leo will be the first pope to carry the cross himself across the 14 stations of the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum in Rome on Friday. Regarding his decision for carrying out the tradition, “It will be an important sign because of what the pope represents: a spiritual leader in today’s world, a voice to say that Christ still suffers,” Leo told Vatican journalists. “And I carry all these sufferings in my prayers as well.”