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    Carol Kuruvilla

    Carol Kuruvilla

    Religion Reporter, HuffPost

  • Kim Kardashian And Her Kids Are Baptized In Historic Armenian Cathedral

    The reality star shared photos of Psalm, Chicago and Saint participating in the sacred ceremony at the Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin in Armenia.

  • Christians Plan National Day Of Prayer To Support Trump Impeachment Inquiry

    Progressive Christians across the country are asking Congress to shed the "light of truth" on Trump.

  • Tampa's Conversion Therapy Ban Is Struck Down By Federal Judge

    The judge argued that the Florida city didn't have the legal authority to ban therapy to change someone's sexual orientation or gender expression.

  • Texas Judge Defends Hugging, Gifting Bible To Botham Jean's Killer

    Judge Tammy Kemp noted that her Christian outreach to Amber Guyger happened after the trial was over.

  • Tiffany Haddish Is Studying Hebrew To Prepare For Her Bat Mitzvah

    The comedian, whose dad was an Eritrean Jew, said the hardest part of getting ready for the ceremony is learning to read another language.

  • Jewish American Activists Observe The High Holidays With Protests Against ICE

    During the Days of Awe -- the Jewish calendar's holiest season -- progressive Jews are advocating for the rights of undocumented immigrants.

  • Secular Groups Claim Judge Crossed A Line By Giving Amber Guyger Her Bible

    The Freedom From Religion Foundation accused Judge Tammy Kemp of violating church-state separation by proselytizing to the convicted former police officer.

  • New Vatican Statue Proclaims Pope Francis' Concern For Refugees

    Pope Francis made his priorities crystal clear by unveiling a sculpture honoring refugees and migrants at St. Peter's Square.

  • Evangelical Group Decries Trump's Latest Attack On Refugees

    Trump told evangelicals he would defend religious liberty. He's undermining that pledge by cutting refugee admissions, a Christian group says.

  • Progressive Christians Decry Pastor's Invoking Civil War Over Impeachment Effort

    Robert Jeffress warned of a possible "Civil War-like fracture" if President Donald Trump is ousted from office.

  • Trump Administration Sides With Catholic Archdiocese That Fired Gay Teacher

    The Justice Department agrees that Joshua Payne-Elliott’s lawsuit challenging his firing should be dismissed.

  • How 6 LGBT Catholics Kept Their Faith -- Despite Being Shunned By The Church

    It's a question that LGBT Catholics must come to terms with at some point in their lives. Official church doctrine asks Catholics to love the sinner and hate the sin -- a prospect that sounds compassionate from afar, until you realize it's your child, your friend, your lover or yourself who is being asked to stay celibate or leave the church. Catholic institutions have  fired or dismissed well-respected gay teachers, administrators, musicians and volunteers who have fallen in love and married their partners. New Ways Ministry, a Catholic LGBT advocacy group, estimates that since 2008 over 50 people have had employment disputes with Catholic institutions due to LGBT issues.

  • Pope Francis, Meet Bolivia's Pachamama

    As Pope Francis arrives in Bolivia on Wednesday, he’ll encounter a country where indigenous gods and religious beliefs are holding their ground. Bolivian miners take part in a ritual for Pachamama (Mother Earth) inside a shaft of the Hitos Nueva San Jose tin mine on the outskirts of Oruro, Bolivia, on February 8, 2013.

  • American Muslims Are Helping Rebuild Black Churches

    Muslims are bringing hope to Christian communities in the South after a recent spate of fires devastated black church buildings. Three Muslim organizations have teamed up to raise money to rebuild worship centers in Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina that were destroyed by fire the past few weeks. The “Respond With Love” campaign, organized by the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, the Arab-American Association of New York and Ummah Wide during the holy month of Ramadan, has already raised close to $25,000 with the help of more than 500 individual supporters.

  • More Than 100 Years Ago, A White Pastor Tried To Pass As Black

    The revelation about Rev. L.M. Fenwick, which came during a court case, caused a frenzy at Milwaukee’s St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church and eventually resulted in the pastor leaving his post, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Andrew Wender Cohen, an associate professor of history at Syracuse University, told The Huffington Post that he discovered Fenwick's story when he was digging through historical records in the weeks after the parents of Rachel Dolezal, the former president of an NAACP chapter in Washington, claimed publicly that their white daughter had spent years passing as a black woman. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

  • The Inspiring Faith Journey Of A Transgender Latina

    A self-professed church nerd, Garcia says she was “a good Catholic boy” when she was in her teens. Today, she is a candidate for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Last year, the ELCA welcomed its first openly transgender clergy member, Megan Rohrer, pastor at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in San Francisco.

  • Who Plays God In The Movies?

    The ancient Greeks used a crane to lift actors playing God onto the stage, where they'd promptly settle differences and bring the script to a swift, dramatic ending. Actor Morgan Freeman is perhaps Hollywood's most popular voice of God -- he's spoken for the deity in "Bruce Almighty" and "Evan Almighty." The 78-year-old will be using his holy credentials in an upcoming National Geographic series called "The Story of God," where he'll visit important religious sites around the world to examine humans' relationship to the Supreme Being. Watch the video above to get a sampling of the actors who have played God in the movies.

  • Israeli Couple Finds Ancient Mikvah Bath Under Their Floorboards

    JERUSALEM (RNS) An Israeli family experienced the surprise of a lifetime when, during a home renovation, workers discovered a 2,000-year-old Jewish ritual bath, called a mikvah. The discovery lends weight to what some archaeologists have long suspected: that a Jewish community existed in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem neighborhood during the time when Jesus lived. On Wednesday (July 1), the Israel Antiquities Authority briefly showed the ritual bath to journalists and awarded the owners, Oriah Shimshoni and her husband, Tal, a certificate of appreciation for reporting the discovery, which “contributed to the study of the Land of Israel,” the IAA said.

  • Cannabis Church Won't Have Marijuana At Its First Service

    The First Church of Cannabis won’t have cannabis for its inaugural service Wednesday, church founder Bill Levin said on his Facebook page on Monday (June 29). Marion County prosecutor Terry Curry and IMPD chief Rick Hite had a news conference Friday (June 26) to warn about arrests if people had marijuana. After that news conference, Levin said it changed nothing about his plans.

  • Meet The Evangelicals Who Cheered The SCOTUS Gay Marriage Ruling

    After the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on same-sex marriage last week, the heavyweights of evangelical Christianity -- like Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention -- charged forward to voice their discontent. About 100 evangelical pastors and leaders signed an online letter published Friday supporting the ruling, and then went one step further by calling on Christians around the country to continue to work for LGBT rights in other areas -- like bullying in schools and employment and housing discrimination.