A Look Again at 2022

As the brand new yr approaches, we take a look at the occasions of the previous yr—each on this planet of faith and in World Faith Information.

The reversal of Roe v. Wade 

The reversal of Roe v. Wade by the SCOTUS choice in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group opened the door for states to ban abortions. Some maintain that abortion is antithetical to their religion, whereas others imagine the restriction of abortion is a rights violation.

In its wake, the polarization of American tradition discovered a brand new focus, with nearly half of U.S. states “prone to enact new legal guidelines as restrictive as doable or search to implement present, unconstitutional legal guidelines prohibiting abortion,” based on the Middle for Reproductive Rights. “We’re seeing states divide into abortion deserts, the place it’s unlawful to entry care, and abortion havens, the place care continues to be obtainable. Hundreds of thousands of individuals dwelling in abortion deserts, primarily within the South and Midwest, are pressured to journey to obtain authorized care, which ends up in many individuals merely being unable to entry abortion for quite a lot of monetary and logistical causes. It’s vital that ‘Not Protected’ states create a state proper to abortion, and that the ‘Protected’ states enact legal guidelines and insurance policies that transfer them into ‘Expanded Entry.’”

Antisemitic hate crimes

The New York Police Division introduced a 70 % enhance in hate crimes in November and a spike of 125 % enhance in antisemitic assaults. New York Instances columnist Michelle Goldberg identified that whereas antisemitism has an extended historical past in America, for instance, this yr noticed it shifting into the mainstream, with thought leaders like Kanye West’s, now referred to as Ye, brazen assaults on Jews.

Is the U.S. a Christian nation?

And talking about mainstream, the Pew Analysis middle reviews that if latest tendencies proceed, Christians may make up lower than half of the U.S. inhabitants inside a couple of a long time.

Non secular persecution unabated

Persecution on the nationwide scale continued in areas resembling Burma with tens of millions of Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh and different neighboring areas. And the persecution of Uyghurs in China continued with over one million arbitrarily detained.

2022 has been an awesome yr for World Faith Information.

We did a full facelift with a brand new look and new options.

We additionally opened up our web site to distinctive content material from bloggers, journalists and anybody wishing to have a voice with regards to faith to submit an article or weblog. We wish to make this a discussion board for all voices, irrespective of the place they fall within the spiritual or social spectrum. All we ask is that the article or weblog is unique content material (no plagiarism), and we won’t publish hate or antireligious content material. Present your unique pictures or these coated by an applicable license.

Our hope is that it will enhance the vary and number of the dialog on this very important topic.

Among the many important information tales coated this yr at World Faith Information was Kanye West’s (Ye) dive into antisemitism and the robust response by Jamie Lee Curtis, hate speech on Elon Musk’s Twitter, the inhabitants of Earth crossing the 8-billion mark, and the rise of censorship in America affecting spiritual liberty.

Many fashionable artists discovered their religion within the public eye and on WRN this yr together with Dolly Parton, Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian, and Montell Fish. And faith in movie and TV together with Mark Wahlberg in Father Stu, Ray Liotta in Syndrome Ok, and Dallas Jenkins’ crowdfunded on-line collection The Chosen.

Many collection of articles ran in 2022, together with the “Presents of…” collection, going faith by faith to see the constructive outreach efforts completed by every faith, together with Wicca, Taoism, Islam and Judaism. And the “Homes of Worship” collection highlighted outstanding spiritual websites with Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, the Qatar State Grand Mosque, and the Lotus Temple.

Particular due to Sam Subject who created the favored collection “Profiles in Religion,” a collection of transient biographies of leaders within the discipline of faith. We mourn the lack of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of many true icons featured within the collection, who handed in December 2021.

The biographies coated the spiritual spectrum from Pope Francis to Neville Callam, head of the Baptist World Alliance, and from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to the Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Ali Al-Huseinni Al-Sistani, and from Paula Clark, Bishop of the Chicago Episcopal Diocese, to Russell M. Nelson, now 98, who took over the presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints in 2018.

Some of the fashionable profiles, and one on the reverse finish of the age spectrum from Nelson, was of David Miscavige, chief of the Church of Scientology. Miscavige was 12 when he grew to become an “auditor” (the Scientology time period for spiritual counselors), maybe the youngest ever to be so licensed. As famous in his Profile in Religion, as a younger man, he labored immediately with Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard and he joined the ranks of these chargeable for the faith’s “worldwide administration.”

A faith not often segues from the management of its founder or prophet to that of its successor with out upheaval. The profile sheds mild on how Miscavige completed the transition whereas accelerating church enlargement. The article additionally covers Miscavige’s private supervision of the venture to confirm, publish, protect and archive 500,000 pages of writings and three,000 recorded lectures from Hubbard that comprise the Scripture of Scientology, and having it translated into 16 languages. Not the least of Miscavige’s accomplishments was decision of a decades-long battle with the United State’s IRS, ensuing within the recognition of Scientology as a tax-exempt faith. 

We at World Faith Information are pleased with our work and our new web site and are wanting to tackle extra territory over the approaching yr. Be a part of us as a reader, a blogger or a contributor, or be part of the dialog in social media—all to supply a voice for faith within the public house and make 2023 an much more spectacular yr. 

Pleased New 12 months to all from World Faith Information.