AuthorJosh Axelrod

Domineque Ray had a last request before the state of Alabama took his life in February 2019. The Muslim man, convicted of killing a 15-year-old girl in 1995, wanted an imam beside him as he was put to death. But Ray’s request was denied — because the prison in Atmore, Alabama, only had a Christian chaplain on staff — and he was executed in isolation.  Just a month after Ray’s...

A diverse coalition of faith leaders flocked to Capitol Hill Wednesday for a day-long vigil to demand President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda be passed, as it encounters significant roadblocks in its home stretch of negotiations. Invoking doctrine and scripture, representatives from groups including Bread for the World, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, Interfaith Power &...

With more than two months to go until Dec. 25, Republicans are already trotting out their yearly complaints about the “War on Christmas,” the disproven idea that throngs of people are skulking about, looking for any opportunity — whether it’s targeting holiday card greetings, school choirs, or supermarket displays — to snuff out public celebrations of the holiday. All month...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott oversaw his 55th execution on Tuesday. Rick Rhoades, who was convicted of double homicide in 1991, was executed on Tuesday after spending 28 years on death row. Rhoades’ death marked Texas’ third lethal injection this year. Rhoades chose not to make a final statement before he was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital. He was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m...

In tears, a college student called Rev. Lauren Jones Mayfield from her dorm room. The teenager was distraught — her conservative parents had just disowned her over her choice in a partner, and after an unexpected pregnancy, she was in need of spiritual advice, Mayfield recalled. “She was scared to death that God was going to abandon her like her parents had,” Mayfield, a Louisville...

Twenty years ago, America underwent a paradigm shift. Following the Sept. 11 attacks, air travel transformed. The Department of Homeland Security was created, leading to the mass deportations of hundreds of thousands of people. And the United States invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, instigating a generation of unrest across the region still unfolding to this day. One overlooked change was the impact...

President Joe Biden did his best to placate Israel’s new prime minister on Friday in a meeting intended to recalibrate the two countries’ relationship, stating that the United States would “consider other options” if diplomacy surrounding the Iran nuclear deal fails. “We’re putting diplomacy first and we’ll see where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails...

Herschel Walker, the ex-football player who announced Wednesday his campaign to unseat Democratic Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, maintains close ties to Jerry Mungadze, a homophobic gay conversion therapist. Walker has the backing of former President Donald Trump, who mentioned a possible run by the Heisman Trophy winner in June. Trump’s enthusiastic support for Walker, who spent months...

The only thing that stood between the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center and a knife-wielding attacker who stormed into the mosque in May was an off-duty security guard who happened to be in the building at the time. The assailant had chased a woman as she entered the Seven Corners, Virginia, mosque and once inside, began swinging his knife at the unarmed, plainclothes guard. Staff were eventually able...

Shortly after Philip Linsen, an ice rink owner in San Diego, decided to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for his employees, a letter appeared in his email inbox. In it, a pastor attested to the “sincerely held religious objection to covid tests, masks, and vaccines” of one of Linsen’s employees. “[I]t is an affront to a Christian to inject their body with a man-made substance in...