Weekly religion news roundup (August 28-September 3, 2026)
Photograph by Utsav Srestha via Unsplash
Hannah Estifanos
Palestinians in fear as Israeli forces mount pogroms on West Bank mosques. Palestinian witnesses recount the coordinated Israeli army and settler attacks on mosques in the occupied West Bank. (Al Jazeera)
Symbolic funerals held in Nepal for those feared lost as some missing tourists make contact. Some families in Nuwakot, one of Nepal’s worst-affected districts, have held symbolic funerals for relatives still missing, hoping to free their souls after they were presumed dead. In Hindu tradition, cremation is an important final rite, and for some families, performing the ceremony even without the bodies of their loved ones provides a sense of spiritual release. (Associated Press)
Wendell Berry, writer and farmer, was extolled by many as a modern-day prophet. The Kentucky farmer, who died on August 31 at 92, wrote lyrical poems, novels, and essays about agriculture, small family farms, food, and community, and was considered something of a prophet by Christian seminarians, theologians and religion scholars. (The Christian Century)
EEOC pursues claim against Apple for religious accommodation. Apple Inc. will pay $150,000 and update its religious-observance policies to settle a discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEOC said the litigation resulted from Apple’s refusal to grant a Jewish employee time off for sabbath observances because the request conflicted with new weekend scheduling requirements. (Baptist News Global)
CIA and Vatican visits converge in Moscow with messages on Ukraine. The CIA director made an unannounced visit to Moscow Aug. 25 as the Vatican's foreign minister led a five-day mission to the Russian capital, in disparate attempts to influence an end to the war in Ukraine. (National Catholic Reporter)
Mourners file into church in Haiti where gangs killed dozens of people in latest rampage. More than 100 mourners attended funerals Wednesday inside a church where gangs recently executed more than 30 people in an attack that shook the troubled country. (Associated Press)
Each week in The Christian Citizen, we publish a Religion News Roundup with summaries of religion news stories and links for those who want to read more.
Samaritan’s Purse turns down $300M from State Department for humanitarian relief. Franklin Graham, one of President Trump’s most stalwart evangelical allies, did not offer any reasons for rejecting the federal funds, which would have been used for ‘immediate life-saving assistance to people affected by natural disasters.’ (Religion News Service)
No Democrat has won a Kansas Senate seat in a century. Can a megachurch pastor change that? Adam Hamilton has spent decades trying to bring people to Jesus as founder of the nation’s largest United Methodist church. Now he wants to bring Kansas voters to the polls as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. (Associated Press)
Violence reaches Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, where Christians once found refuge. ‘These are the areas where we have reported attacks on religious leaders, and these incidents are unusual for the region, which has known high levels of peaceful co-existence between faiths,’ said Kiri Kankhwende of Christian Solidarity Worldwide. (Religion News Service)
‘Demonic oppression’ and ‘girly convos’: the podcast wooing young women back to Christianity. Girls Gone Bible is on tour in the US, touting a regressive ideal of femininity through discussions of abstinence and mental health struggles. (The Guardian).
In Bangladesh, An Indigenous Buddhist Revival Takes Root. Buddhism is experiencing a revival in northern Bangladesh as thousands of Indigenous Oraon people have embraced the faith since the mid-1990s. Relics found in the region suggest that Buddhism was once a widely practiced religion here. In the last three decades, it has started to return. (Religion Unplugged)
Hannah Estifanos is the copyeditor of The Christian Citizen.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
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