News
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
For the first time, Religions for Peace USA organized a National Interfaith Prayer Service for Healing & Hope via Facebook and Zoom.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
The numbers are most telling among those who consider themselves religious, with 56 percent of those affiliated with historically black Protestant churches saying their faith has been strengthened by the pandemic, followed by 42 percent of evangelicals. Catholics and Protestants follow at 27 percent and 22 percent respectively.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
In 1654, the first Jews arrived in New Amsterdam (present day New York City). Commemorating more than 350 years since that first landing, President George W. Bush proclaimed May 2006 the first annual Jewish-American Heritage Month.
TOLERANCE
As the numbers of hate crimes, and other expressions of intolerance and bigotry continue to rise, and as actions once considered unacceptable have increasingly become the norm a ray of light surfaces each year at the fourth month of the calendar: Celebrate Diversity Month.
TOLERANCE
“Let us renew our faith in one another and draw strength from the good that is gathering in troubled times as communities of diverse faiths and ethical traditions unite to care for one another. Together, we can and will defeat this virus—with cooperation, solidarity, and faith in our common humanity.”
TOLERANCE
This year’s Holocaust Day marks the 75th anniversaries of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the end of the Holocaust and the end of World War II. Recent polling from the Pew Research Center, however, shows a lack of knowledge amongst Americans on the basic facts of the Holocaust and of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. Out of 13,000 polled, fewer than half correctly answered multiple choice questions about those subjects.
TOLERANCE
In an iconic show of unity and brotherhood, a Muslim and a Jew, paramedic partners in Israel, paused during one particularly busy day to pray—the Muslim kneeling on his prayer rug facing Mecca; the Jew donning his prayer shawl, facing Jerusalem. The photo, snapped by a coworker, garnered thousands of likes within hours. One twitter user wrote: “One fight! One victory! Let's unite.”
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
“In every battle against ignorance and bigotry we have fought, we sought greater freedom for all faiths,” said STAND International Director Edward Parkin. “Our purpose is to enable every person on this earth to believe as he or she chooses, exactly in alignment with the European Convention on Human Rights.”
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
In the year since the ban, which applies to teachers, police officers, judges, prison guards and other public servants, many religious Canadians in the public sector have seen their lives change. Some who can, have simply gone “underground,” wearing their insignia under their clothing, as many Catholic women have done, covering their crucifixes with their sweaters or tucking them under their blouses.
