Friday, April 29, 2022

This Week in Religion - Faith-based refugee groups feel climate change's effects

Lead story

Donald Dardar, left, and Russell Dardar look toward the eroding shoreline of Bayou Pointe-au-Chien in southern Louisiana on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021. The brothers have lived along the bayou all their lives as shrimpers and fishermen. They now also work to preserve the coastal land from further erosion by refilling canals and developing living shorelines. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

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.

A portrait photo of Roxanne Stone, Managing Editor at Religion News Service.
 

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

A girl looks at her mother while holding a candle during Good Friday service at St. Mary's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, Friday, April 22, 2022, in Allentown, Pa.. While Easter is the most joyous of holy days on the church calendar, marking the day Christians believe Jesus triumphed over death, many members of Ukrainian Orthodox churches across the United States are finding it difficult to summon joy at a time of war. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

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 lights candles as part of a Good Friday ceremony inside the damaged Pokrova church, during Orthodox Easter, on the outskirt of Chernihiv, Ukraine. There are images of religious figures on the table beside her and on the walls surrounding her.

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.
 
 

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