Hindus around the world celebrate the divine feminine. Vietnamese activists work to improve religious freedom in their country. And what happens to mainstream Christianity when American culture shifts? It's Faithful Friday, our weekly discussion of faiths and religious communities from around the world. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!
Have you ever heard of Navratri? Every autumn Hindus around the world celebrate the festival (which means "nine nights" in Sanskrit) in honor of Durga and other forms of the divine feminine. Learn more about the festival and how it's celebrate here at The Huffington Post.
Another annual festival in honor of the divine is the Osun-Osogbo festival among the Yoruba people in Nigeria. Celebrated along the banks of the river Osun in August, the festival is held in honor of the river's namesake deity and is also a ritual of cleansing for the neighboring city of Osogbo.
Have you ever experienced a miracle? Hindu writer Ambaa Choate feels like she has. In this post she talks about her experience with a guru whose advice and spiritual guidance has helped her through life as well as an unexpected good fortune she experienced recently after meeting with him.
Communism and religion have long had a complicated and fraught religion. Despite in some cases sharing similar values communist leaders throughout the world but historically both religious leaders and communist parties have regarded one another as enemies. In nominally communist Vietnam this legacy continues as activists seek to improve the country's freedom of religion.
For a generation, Christian leaders have referred to their followers as the "moral majority," indicating that most Americans believe in and support conservative religious values. But what happens when most Americans declare their support for same-sex marriage? What happens when the moral majority comes into conflict with the actual majority? Laura Turner, writing for Atlantic Monthly, considers this question in an article about the future of conservative Christianity in America.
Top image by Vincent Hudry
