World Religions News

Throughout Israel’s history, in moments of crisis and uncertainty, the Jewish Diaspora has stood alongside the country through Israel Bonds.

The post Unbreakable Bond: From Einstein’s $500 Bond to $57 Billion in Israel Bonds appeared first on Jewish Journal.

For me, and probably every other Iraqi Jew, kitchri is the quintessential meal of the Nine Days.

The post Kitchri—Comfort and Culture in a Bowl appeared first on Jewish Journal.

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The post A Moment in Time: On Sabbatical appeared first on Jewish Journal.

Justice For All

The post Table for Five: Devarim appeared first on Jewish Journal.

(RNS) — A controversial Tennessee pastor has claimed federal officials broke down his door and raided his house after former members of his church accused him of financial impropriety.

The Rev. Greg Locke, pastor of Global Vision Bible Church in Lebanon, Tennessee, said he was lying in bed about three weeks ago and heard a knock on the door. Outside, he said, about 60 federal agents had surrounded his house for an early morning raid.

“By the time I got my robe on and got out of the bedroom, a team of federal agents had batter-rammed our front door,” Locke told church members during a service on Sunday (July 12). “In riot gear, they had me on the ground. I was screaming, ‘I’ve got kids in the house, don’t shoot, don’t shoot.”

Locke claimed federal agents told him they were there because of reports of “misappropriated funds” and said agents had search warrants for his home and a church building. Those agents, he alleged, took his cell phone and computers and bank records. It’s not clear which federal agency raided Locke’s home.

“I’m not even telling you what three-letter agency it was,” he told church members.

The Tennessean newspaper reported that the IRS, and not the FBI, was involved in the raid. It’s also not clear what day the raid took place — Locke claimed it happened three weeks into a six-week sabbatical he had taken following the death of his son in May.

A spokesman for the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office said it had no records on an investigation into Locke or Global Vision Bible Church.

Two former pastors at Global Vision resigned last year, alleging spiritual abuse and financial mismanagement at the church, according to The Roys Report, a Christian watchdog site. Locke said allegations on a webpage had led to the raid but did not give any details.  

The subdued announcement was out of character for the firebrand pastor, who has used social media to build a national following, with posts on everything from witchcraft and stolen elections to Christian nationalism and bathroom policies at Target in the past. In recent years, he has pivoted from political MAGA sermons to what he has called “deliverance” ministry, which claims to cast out demons.

He also runs a media company and held a revival recently with Sean Feucht, an activist who runs patriotic worship protests, but Locke made no mention of the raid until this past weekend.

“I could have went live the first day it happened and caused riots in the streets with the size of our platform, but the Lord said, ‘No, no, no! I will vindicate you. You don’t have to fight them. Amen,’” he told church members, according to a recording of the service posted online.

Locke told members that the congregation’s bank accounts have been closed as well as his personal accounts. He also said the church’s online giving provider had no place to send donations because the accounts were closed.

“We’re praying that the Lord this week will do a Red Sea miracle and give us a bank so we can put the checks in,” he said.

Locke said he expects the church will be cleared of any wrongdoing. 

“We have nothing to hide, and they’re figuring that out,” he said. “And I’m not fighting them.”

He also said the plan for now is to wait the investigation out. Locke, a fierce defender of Donald Trump, also said the church will return to its more confrontational strategy in the future.

“You’ll know when it’s time for us to fight the governments when the Antichrist shows up, and we’ll fight that Joker, and we’ll go down swinging, and we’ll use the platform God’s given us for it,” he said. “But now is not the time to fight. Now is the time to believe God for a water-walking miracle.”  

(RNS) — Two days after a man allegedly stabbed a Muslim worker in a Utah mall at least 15 times, religious groups are warning of the effects of escalating anti-Muslim rhetoric.

“The hate crime is so abhorrent because it does not only affect the victim. It affects the whole Muslim community,” said Imam Shuaib Din, who leads the Utah Islamic Center in West Jordan, Utah. 

The 48-year-old suspect told police he targeted the victim because of his religion and said he “intends to kill Muslims,” according to a probable cause statement.

According to police records, Peter Michael Larsen  approached Syed Sohail Uddin, a worker at a kiosk at the Valley Fair Mall near Salt Lake City, and asked him where he was from and what his religion was. Soon after, Larsen pulled out a knife and stabbed Uddin repeatedly. Court records and videos of the incident show bystanders punching and pinning down the suspect to get the knife from him.

Police said he posed a threat if released because of “his violent actions … ideologies and pre-planned mass casualty events. Larsen was held without bail at the Salt Lake County jail and charged with attempted ⁠murder and ⁠prohibited dangerous weapon conduct, ⁠jail and court records showed.

The Utah Muslim Civic League condemned the attack, calling it in a statement Tuesday a hate crime. The group praised bystanders who intervened, saying “their courage embodies the very best of our Utah community.”

Uddin is grateful he survived, said Din, who visited him at the hospital Tuesday. The husband and father of two will require multiple surgeries for his hands, heart and lungs, says a GoFund page me set up by his friend to help him pay medical expenses.

The Council on American Islamic Relations said in a statement that the stabbing is “a reminder that anti-Muslim rhetoric has real-world consequences.” 

Less than 1% of Utah’s population is Muslim, according to Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 religious landscape study. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) make up 50% of the state’s population, the same study shows. 

While data from the Utah Department of Public Safety shows there were seven hate crimes against Muslims in Utah from 2021-2026, hate crimes, in general, tend to be underreported, according to Liz Paige, associate director of the United Jewish Federation of Utah. As a member of the nonprofit Community Partners Against Hate, she works with officials and community leaders to improve reporting of hate crimes. 

The stabbing follows several recent incidents targeting religious minorities in Utah. Last July, a Hindu temple in Utah was attacked three times, raising concerns about anti-Hindu violence. And in South Salt Lake, a man was charged with a hate crime for assaulting a woman wearing a hijab. A man who made anti-semitic threats online last year was also charged with multiple felonies, including for making pipe bombs at his home. And in 2023, another Utah man was charged with a hate crime for allegedly spitting on and yelling at a Muslim mother and her child.

“Unfortunately the rhetoric of the day has increasingly become hostile and normalized,” Paige said. “And when it becomes normalized, language can, and often has, led to violence.”

FBI crime data shows hate crimes across motivations doubled from 2015 to 2024. A poll conducted last year by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding found that 63% of Muslim Americans said they experienced religious discrimination.

The Rev. Curtis Price, chair of the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable, said the stabbing and other recent hate incidents are jarring, especially because Utah has a thriving interfaith community that is generally welcoming of minority faith groups.

“We’re shocked and really taken aback and dismayed by it,” said Price, who is also pastor at First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City. He said the Roundtable and other interfaith groups have worked in recent years to counter hateful rhetoric.