Latest Religion and politics News
US gives Israel a 'fail' grade on improving aid to Gaza so far
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is stepping up criticism of Israel for not doing enough to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza as a 30-day deadline looms for Israeli officials to meet certain requirements or risk potential restrictions on military assistance. State...
Some US Muslims struggle to find a candidate they can tolerate supporting for president
ATLANTA (AP) — With the death and destruction in Gaza on her mind, Soraya Burhani agonized over how to cast her vote for president. “For us, Muslims, I see that there’s no good choice,” she said. With the U.S. handling of the Israel-Hamas war and conflict in...
Latino evangelical voters torn between their faith and harsh rhetoric around immigration
The Rev. Arturo Laguna leads a largely immigrant church of about 100 followers in Phoenix. His job as a pastor, he says, gets complicated come election season. Laguna's church, Casa de Adoracion, is in Arizona — one of seven closely-watched swing states that could possibly decide...
GOP works to turn out pro-Trump Jewish voters in swing states to trim Democrats' edge
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (AP) — Rachel Weinberg calls herself a religious Jew first, then a proud American. She said she has only one choice for president: Donald Trump. “I don't like everything he says,” the 72-year-old retired preschool teacher from Michigan said after...
Arab American voters make their choice — Harris, Trump or neither — in the election's final days
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Bowls of labneh and platters of za’atar bread covered the tables in a Lebanese restaurant near Detroit, yet no one seemed to have much of an appetite. On one side were Kamala Harris ’ top emissaries to the Arab American community. On the other were local...
Republicans seek votes among the Amish, who rarely cast them, in swing-state Pennsylvania
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — On a recent weekday afternoon, an Amish man in a horse-drawn buggy navigated through a busy intersection of auto traffic in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, past a billboard proclaiming: “Pray for God’s Mercy for Our Nation.” The billboard featured a...
A down-ballot candidate from the right throws a wrench into the Indiana governor's race
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun's bid to become governor of Indiana seemed fairly straightforward until he got the running mate he didn't want: a pastor and self-proclaimed Christian nationalist who finessed his way onto next month's ballot. Micah Beckwith, a...
Judge hears arguments to block Louisiana's Ten Commandments displays in schools
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal judge heard arguments at a hearing Monday on whether he should temporarily block a new Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom by Jan. 1. Louisiana, a reliably Republican state in the Bible...
Trump boosts a hard-right Christian worldview that paints the election as 'spiritual warfare'
LIVONIA, Mich. (AP) — Standing before hundreds of people in a suburban Detroit chapel, at an event organized by Donald Trump's campaign, Marlin J. Reed declared that God had called on them to vote for the former president. “You are being called upon to stand up and face down this...
What's a 'Jezebel spirit'? Some Christians use the term to paint Kamala Harris with a demonic brush
Christian nationalist leaders are telling followers that Vice President Kamala Harris is under the influence of a “Jezebel spirit,” using a term with deeply racist and misogynistic roots that is setting off alarm bells for religious and political scholars. The concept is inspired...
