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The Bibles for the presidential inauguration are carried out the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Jan 20, 2017. Image via RNS/Win McNamee/AP.

The Bible also has the Trump name etched on the front cover. Upon his graduation from Sunday school — in 1955 at age 9 — it was signed by his pastor and Sunday school teachers. At his inauguration, the president also took the oath of office on the Lincoln Bible, which was also used by President Obama at his 2009 inauguration.

David F. Potter 3-16-2018

Image via Heather Wilson

Solidarity Cville, a “community defense network” of multiple local activist groups, is pressing Charlottesville Commonwealth Attorney, Joe Platania, to drop all charges against Harris. In addition to holding a vigil outside the police department in the District Courthouse on Thursday evening, the group is preparing a sustained response to Harris’ trial on Friday.

Image via Emily McFarlan Miller / RNS

Another issue that we know: In a number of states, pregnant women, when they give birth in the midst of their sentences, they’re forced to be shackled to a gurney in the midst of their delivery process. We know being born into that stress-induced state has irreversible cognitive impacts on the child, but we still haven’t changed the law in light of that.

Kimberly Winston 3-14-2018

British physicist Stephen Hawking delivers a lecture on "The Origin of the Universe" at the Heysel conference hall in Brussels May 20, 2007. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File photo

“What could define God [is thinking of God] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God,” Hawking told Diane Sawyer in 2010. “They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible.”

the Web Editors 3-14-2018

Image via JP Keenan/Sojourners

There were more than 3,136 demonstrations across the country, according to the Women's March Youth Empower website.  Students and supporters in states like Florida, New York, Michigan, and Virginia walked out of their schools with signs and chants.

JP Keenan 3-14-2018

On March 14, one month since a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. left 17 dead, thousands of students around the country staged a walkout from their schools. These are photos from the Washington, D.C., walkout that ended outside the White House.

A worshipper holds a cross during a protest in front of the closed doors of the Church of the HolySepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, February 27, 2018. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
 

“It is absurd for Jerusalem residents to fund municipal services for the churches … on their own, and for the municipality to be prevented from collecting enormous sums that could significantly improve the city’s development and services,” Barkat said.

Image via Kit Doyle / RNS

“The internet is public space,” said John Kutsko, executive director of the Society of Biblical Literature, the oldest and largest learned society devoted to the critical investigation of the Bible, with about 8,500 members, mostly scholars. “It’s our understanding that .bible was registered to be public space and not have the kind of restrictions that you would expect of a domain that was proprietary or brand-oriented.”

the Web Editors 3-13-2018

Activists install 7000 shoes on the lawn in front of the U.S. Capitol on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2018. REUTERS/Eric Thayer

Organized by Avaaz, a U.S.-based civic organization that emphasizes global activism, intends for the "Monument for our Kids" to put pressure on Congress to take action on gun control. Images of the striking visual have been widely shared on social media, with the hashtag #NotOneMore. 

the Web Editors 3-13-2018

Image via JuliusKielaitis / Shutterstock.com

Mason found that the magazine virtually ignored people of color in the U.S. until the 1970s who were not laborers and domestic workers, and consistently perpetuated people of color from foreign lands as "exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages—every type of cliché."

Pope Francis (L) meets Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican June 28, 2017. Picture taken June 28, 2017. Osservatore Romano/Handout via Reuters
 

In his letter, former Pope Benedict disputed suggestions by conservatives that Francis' academic qualities were lacking, praising his successor as a "man of deep philosophical and theological formation" and praising an "interior continuity between the two pontificates".

Rachel Frazin 3-09-2018

Since 26 students and teachers were murdered and two injured by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., there have been 10 more fatal shootings at American elementary, middle, and high schools. In all, 57 people were killed, excluding the shooters.

the Web Editors 3-08-2018

Activists and DACA recipients march up Broadway during the start of their 'Walk to Stay Home,' a five-day 250-mile walk from New York to Washington D.C., to demand that Congress pass a Clean Dream Act, in Manhattan, New York, U.S., February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that delayed the Trump administration's March 5 deadline, leaders from the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, Esperanza, Christian Community Development Association, Bread for the World, as well as U.S. Catholic bishops referenced Matthew 25 to address the biblical calling to "treat the immigrant with dignity, respect and love, providing the same welcome that we ourselves would hope for."

Image via Michael Wuensch/Creative Commons

“I am sure the largest currency used on the black market, for [buying] haram things, is the U.S. dollar. So if the question of a currency being haram is what it is used for, the dollar would be the most haram,” Sabree said. “Just because a tool is used for something haram, doesn’t mean the tool is haram.”

Image via Catherine Bebbington/Creative Commons

Speaking to members of Parliament on Wednesday, Spielman reiterated her concerns about religious extremism in English schools and said her inspectors had found in some private Islamic schools that children had been shown films of people being beheaded and that they had been taught that it is acceptable for men to beat their wives.

Image via Scott Chacon/Creative Commons

David Himbara, a Rwandan international development advocate based in Canada, called the government’s justification for the closures bogus and said the “real reason … is fear and paranoia.”

the Web Editors 3-07-2018

Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi walks towards her car after arriving at Air Force Station Palam in New Delhi, India, January 24, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

U.N. human rights officials have said Myanmar’s security forces may be guilty of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Since August, more than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since Myanmar began systematically targeting Rohingya armed groups.

the Web Editors 3-07-2018

A man prays as he waits for the newly elevated Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez at the grave of Mons. OscarArnulfo Romero upon his return at the Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador, El Salvador, July 4, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas/File Photo

The announcement follows past pushback by previous conservative popes who disapproved of Romero's leftist political views and liberation theology. 

Pope Francis talks to Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, as they arrive at the Cathedral San Juan Apostol y Evangelista in Lima, Peru, January 21, 2018. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/File Photo

"The Holy See has to work in whatever conditions arise. We can't [always] have the society that we would like to have, or the conditions that we would like to have," he told the Catholic news agency SIR.

FILE PHOTO: Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivers remarks before the National Sheriffs Association Winter Conference in Washington, Feb. 12, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo
 

The U.S. Justice Department will file a lawsuit against the state of California alleging it is interfering with the enforcement of federal immigration laws, escalating a long-simmering battle over "sanctuary" policies that try to protect undocumented immigrants against deportation, senior department officials said Tuesday.