A few weeks ago, realizing how quickly 2021 was racing toward 2022, I made a mental note of the year’s top religion stories so far.
On my quick list: Christian nationalism at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Battles over pandemic-era worship restrictions. Faith’s role in vaccine hesitancy. The biggest Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in many years. The Communion drama between President Joe Biden and U.S. Catholic bishops. Jewish connections to the Florida condo collapse.
Nowhere in my mind: Afghanistan.
But now — especially after the suicide bombings in Kabul on Thursday — it’s looking as if news (much of it tied to religion) in that war-torn nation will dominate headlines for weeks and even months.
As I noted last week, it’s impossible to keep up with all the rapid-fire developments, but these stories delve into compelling religion angles:
• Stranded at the airport (by Mindy Belz, World)
• Taliban follow strict Islamic creed that doesn’t change with the times, scholars say (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)
• Taliban’s religious ideology has roots in colonial India (by Sohel Rana and Sumit Ganguly, ReligionUnplugged.com)
• Who is ISIS-K, the group officials blame for the Kabul airport bombings? (by Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service)
• Desperate Afghan Christians turned away at airport, aid groups say (by Alejandro Bermudez, Shannon Mullen and Matt Hadro, Catholic News Agency)
• Kabul airport attacks strand Afghan contacts of Christian humanitarians (by Cheryl Mann Bacon, Christian Chronicle)
• Catholic bishops, church charities pledge to help Afghan refugees (by Timothy Nerozzi, ReligionUnplugged.com)
• As vulnerable Afghans flee Kabul, US faith groups prepare to aid them (by Jack Jenkins, RNS)
• From mattresses to halal food, U.S. refugee groups race to aid arriving Afghans (by Ted Hesson, Reuters)
• Houston's faith community prepares to receive Afghan refugees (by Lindsay Peyton, Houston Chronicle)
• Local mosque overwhelmed with donations as Afghan refugees arrive in Northern Va. (by Daniel Berti, Prince Williams Times)
• Don’t overlook how the Catholic church has helped Afghanistan for years (by Clemente Lisi, GetReligion.org)
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. Houses of worships struggle back, and tread lightly on vaccines: “Emptied out by the pandemic, most churches in New York City do not require worshipers to be vaccinated,” reports this story by Liam Stack, the New York Times’ Metro correspondent. “Rules vary from place to place.”
John Gehring with the advocacy group Faith in Public Life tells Stack: “Faith is a light to help you navigate through uncertainty and darkness, but what a lot of people have been grappling with is what do you do when church itself becomes a place of anxiety. Religious leaders want people to come back to church but to do that safely is a hard thing to do in an environment where there are so many unknowns.”
2. Amid a boom of plus-sized churches, one Catholic church wants to keep it small: And now for something completely different — or at least off the beaten path — Religion News Service’s Yonat Shimron profiles a little church in North Carolina.
“The explosive growth of Catholicism in the Diocese of Raleigh has led to building massive churches,” RNS explains. “One church has been fighting to keep things small.”
CONTINUE READING: “Out Of Nowhere, Afghanistan Might Be The Biggest Religion Story Of The Year” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.