Yale Divinity School broke tradition on Sunday, holding its first-ever non-Christian service in the two centuries since its founding. The event, held in honor of Earth Day, saw around 80 students in attendance. Master of divinity student Tasha Brownfield led the event, which she described as "Indigenous- and Black ecology-based with a sprinkle of cosmology and Pantheistic mysticism." In her opening speech, Brownfield spoke of "land acknowledgment" and a call for attendees to "honor and respect the enduring relationships that exist between Native peoples and their land." Brownfield lamented the lack of worship spaces for "people who fall outside a very particular Protestant lens" and told the Yale Daily News she is trying to launch and curate "pantheistic mysticism" as a religious practice. Continue reading.

PornHub parent company MindGeek is facing a $500 million class-action lawsuit headed by a Canadian woman who claims that she was featured in pornographic videos uploaded online without her consent. Christine Wing alleges that three videos of a sexual nature were posted to Pornhub in May 2020 without her knowledge and the website didn't verify whether she consented to them being online. Law firm Diamond & Diamond Lawyers announced last Thursday that it filed the class-action litigation against MindGeek on behalf of the Ontario resident. Last February, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Information, Privacy, and Ethics heard testimony from victims who had images of their abuse distributed online and American lawyer Michael Bowe, who told the committee that his investigation found hundreds of sexual abuse and trafficking cases hosted on MindGeek sites, including one video which showed the rape of a 15-year-old girl. Continue reading.

The Satanic Temple has filed a civil suit against Northern Elementary School in Pennsylvania just days after the Dillsburg-based Northern York County School Board rejected the establishment of an After School Satan Club at the school. Samantha Groomer, the mother behind the proposal, said she suggested the club as a secular alternative to the Joy El Christian club, which operates in nine of 16 of the county’s school districts and offers off-campus activities. Mathew Kezhaya, general counsel for The Satanic Temple, says the issue being litigated is whether the school board discriminated against the Satan-worshipping group. Continue reading.

Between 2009 and 2021, the share of American teenagers who say they feel "persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness" rose from 26% to 44%. Atlantic journalist Derek Thompson says this figure, which represents the highest rate of teenage sadness ever recorded, can be traced to four key issues: social media, social isolation, the extra-stressful global situation, and today’s parenting styles. In this op-ed, John Stonestreet and Kasey Leander discuss teen mental health and why the core issue is a "culture-wide loss of meaning." Continue reading.

In part one of this two-part series, Dr. Julie Harren Hamilton, a licensed marriage and family therapist, discusses her work with individuals who have unwanted same-sex attractions and why the church has grown silent on these challenging issues. Hamilton reasons that many pastors lack the expertise to tackle homosexuality and gender dysphoria, while others worry about detracting from the Gospel, offending others, or facing repercussions that stem from taking an unpopular stance. Continue reading.

How would you like to become smarter in just five minutes? It's possible with Morning Brew, the witty business newsletter that over three million people read daily. Subscribe for free today.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is recommending that the U.S. State Department designate Afghanistan as a country of particular concern as the Taliban’s takeover has led to a surge in the persecution of religious minorities. This marks the first time in 20 years that the organization has made such a recommendation. During a press conference on Monday, USCIRF Chair Nadine Maenza spoke about the 2022 Annual Report, which highlights both state and non-state actors that are engaged in the most egregious violations of religious freedom, explaining, "While we had long been concerned about conditions in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s return to power has had a chilling impact on religious freedom and [the] broader human rights environment." Continue reading.

Actor Andrew Garfield, who is known for his superhero role in "Spiderman: No Way Home," said during an interview with Vanity Fair that he's drawn to films that deal with faith and spirituality. "Questions of faith and spirituality, and the mystery of a spiritual life, is what I’m drawn to the most," he explained, noting that he would "be doing some kind of theological study" if he didn't work in acting. Garfield's religious views have come up in interviews before. In 2016, he told The Hollywood Reporter, "I’m not a Christian person. I consider myself pantheist, agnostic, occasionally atheist, and a little bit Jewish, but mostly confused." In 2017, he said during an interview with America magazine that he had "[fallen] in love" with Jesus while playing a priest, Father Sebastiao Rodrigues, in Martin Scorsese’s film, "Silence." Continue reading.