(RNS)—At cross-cultural gatherings in Bethlehem, West Bank, groups of children and adults turn to a 67-year-old, colorful comic book with Martin Luther King Jr.’s image on its cover, his tie and shirt collar visible beneath his clerical robe.

As they read from “Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story,” the group leader is prepared to discuss questions about achieving peace through nonviolent behavior.

“What are the teachings we have from Martin Luther King?” asks Zoughbi Zoughbi, a Palestinian Christian who is the international president of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and founder of Wi’am: The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center.

“How can we benefit from it, and how do we deal with issues like that in the Palestinian area under the Israeli occupation? How to send a message of love, agape with assertiveness, not aggressive?”

Available in six languages

In a phone interview with RNS, Zoughbi said the comic book, published in 1958, remains a staple in his work. It is available in six languages, including Arabic.

Over the decades, it was used in Arabic in the anti-government Arab Spring uprisings, in English in anti-apartheid activism in South Africa and in Spanish in Latin American ecclesial base communities, or small Catholic groups that meet for social justice activities and Bible study.

It continues to be a teaching tool and an influential historical account in the United States as well. The book was distributed in January at New York City’s Riverside Church and has been listed as a curriculum resource for Muslim schools.

It remains a popular item, available online and in print for $2, at the bookstore at Atlanta’s Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Store director Patricia Sampson called it “one of our best sellers.”

The 16-page book was created by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a Christian-turned-interfaith anti-war organization. It was written by Alfred Hassler, then FOR-USA’s executive secretary, in collaboration with the comic industry’s Benton Resnik.

A gift of $5,000 from the Ford Foundation’s Fund for the Republic, a nonprofit advocating for free speech and religious liberty, helped support it.

“We are a pacifist organization, and we believe deeply in the transformative power of nonviolence,” said Ariel Gold, executive director of FOR-USA, based in Stony Point, N.Y.

“And where this comic really fits into that is that we know that nonviolence is more than a catchphrase, and it’s really something that comes out of a deep philosophy of love and an intensive strategy for political change.”

‘The Comic Book That Changed the World’

The comic book bears out that philosophy, in part by telling the story of King’s time in Montgomery, Ala. King was chosen to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association as Black riders of the city’s buses strove to no longer have to move to let white people sit down.

Their nonviolent actions, catalyzed by Rosa Parks’ refusing to give up her seat in 1955, eventually led to a Supreme Court decision that segregated public busing was unconstitutional.

The comic book ends with a breakdown of “how the Montgomery method works,” with tips for how to foster nonviolence that include “decide what special thing you are going to work on” and “see your enemy as a human being … a child of God.”

Ahead of publishing, Hassler received “adulation and a few corrections” from King, to whom he sent a draft, said Andrew Aydin, who wrote his master’s thesis on the comic book and titled it “The Comic Book that Changed the World.”

The name of the comic book’s artist, long unknown, was revealed in 2018 to be Sy Barry, known for his artwork in “The Phantom” comic strip, by the blog comicsbeat.com.

In an edition of FOR’s Fellowship magazine, King wrote in a letter about his appreciation for the comic book: “You have done a marvelous job of grasping the underlying truth and philosophy of the movement.”

The book quickly gained traction. The Jan. 1, 1958, edition of Fellowship noted the organization had received advance orders for 75,000 copies from local FOR groups, the National Council of Churches and the NAACP. An ad on its back page noted single copies cost 10 cents, and 5,000 could be ordered for $250.

By 2018, the magazine said some 250,000 copies had been distributed, “especially throughout the Deep South.”

Graphic novels highlight civil rights struggles

The comic book has led to other series in the same genre that also seek to highlight civil rights efforts, using vivid images that synopsize historical accounts of the 1960s.

March, a popular graphic novel trilogy (2013-2016), was created by U.S. Rep. John Lewis, along with Aydin, his then-congressional staffer, and artist Nate Powell, about Lewis’ work in the Civil Rights Movement. A follow-up volume, Run, was published in 2021.

“It was part of learning the way of peace, the way of love, of nonviolence. Reading the Martin Luther King story, that little comic book, set me on the path that I’m on today,” said Lewis, quoted in the online curriculum guide on FOR’s website.

More recently, a new grant-funded webcomic series, “Bad Catholics, Good Trouble,” was inspired by both the King comic book and March, said creator Matthew Cressler.

Described as a “series about antiracism and struggles for justice across American Catholic history,” it chronicles the stories of Sister Angelica Schultz, a white Catholic nun who sought to improve housing access for African American residents in Chicago, and retired judge Arthur McFarland.

As a teenager, McFarland worked to desegregate his Catholic high school in Charleston, S.C., and later encouraged the hiring of Black staff at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Continued use in diverse educational settings

Cressler said the King comic book’s continued distribution and use in diverse educational settings “make it one of the most significant comics in the history of comics—which is something that might seem wild to say, given how when most people think about comic books, they think of superheroes like Superman or Batman.”

Though different in topic and artistic style, Cressler said, the MLK comic book can be compared to Maus by Art Spiegelman and On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder—more recent graphic novels about a Jewish Holocaust survivor and threats to democracy, respectively—“as a medium through which to teach, to educate and specifically to politically mobilize.”

Anthony Nicotera, director of advancement for FOR-USA and an assistant professor at Seton Hall University, a Catholic school in South Orange, N.J., uses the King comic book in his peace and justice studies classes.

“People are using it in small ways or local ways or maybe even in larger ways,” he said, “and we don’t find out until after it’s happened.”

Gold, a progressive Jew who is the first non-Christian to lead FOR-USA, said future versions are planned beyond the six current languages to further share the message of King, the boycott and nonviolence.

This year, she said, her organization is aiming to translate it into French and Hebrew, for use in joint Israeli-Palestinian studies and trainings on nonviolence, as well as for Jewish religious schools.

“Especially in this political moment, I think we really need sources of hope, and we need reminders of the work and the strategy and the sacrifice that is required to successfully meet such an intense moment as this,” she said.

(RNS)—The board of a leading evangelical seminary voted during its May meeting to affirm its long-standing belief that LBGTQ relationships are unbiblical.

But in a May email to supporters, Fuller Theological Seminary’s president also acknowledged that some “faithful” Christian denominations approve of same-sex relationships, an unusual stance for an evangelical seminary.

The acknowledgment that denominations can disagree on the issue and remain faithful has led to confusion about whether married gay students who belong to affirming denominations might be allowed at the school. Or what will happen to faculty who affirm same-sex marriage.

When asked how the comments about affirming Christians might affect the seminary’s ban on LBGTQ relationships for students, a spokesperson confirmed there was no official change to policy.

“The board has made no changes to Fuller’s Community Standards, which all students commit to adhere to upon enrollment, and which states Fuller’s belief that ‘sexual union must be reserved for marriage, which is the covenant union between one man and one woman,” the school’s media contact wrote in an email to RNS.

The school’s current community standards—which apply to students, faculty and staff—also state “sexual abstinence is required for the unmarried.”

“The seminary believes premarital, extramarital, and homosexual forms of explicit sexual conduct to be inconsistent with the teaching of Scripture,” according to the community standards.

Community Standards have been tested

Those standards have been tested in recent years.

In 2019, a former student sued the seminary for discrimination after she was dismissed for having violated the policy. School officials discovered she was married to another woman during a review of the student’s tax return for the financial aid process. A second expelled student joined that suit, which eventually was dismissed.

In 2024, the seminary fired Ruth Schmidt, a senior director at Fuller and graduate of the seminary, after she refused to commit to supporting the school’s views of sexuality.

Fuller President David Goatley appointed a task force to review the school’s position on sexuality and look at possible changes. A draft policy that became public last year proposed keeping Fuller official beliefs the same but allowing students from traditions that affirm LGBTQ relationships “to live with integrity consistent to the Christian communities to which they belong.”

Last week, Goatley sent out an email with an update from the May board meeting, saying the school had affirmed its current position on sexuality.

“At the same time, we acknowledge that faithful Christians—through prayerful study, spiritual discernment, and lived experience—have come to affirm other covenantal forms of relationship,” Goatley wrote in the email update.

“Some evangelicals will disagree with this acknowledgment; others will resonate deeply,” the Fuller president wrote in an op-ed published at Churchleaders.com last week about the board update.

“Recognizing such differences does not weaken our commitment to historic Christian teaching. Instead, it reflects our effort to engage complex realities with theological integrity and pastoral sensitivity.”

No new policy adopted

Neither the board update email nor Goatley’s op-ed detailed how the school’s policies on sexuality will apply in the future. He did point out the school affirms both women and men as pastors, contrasting that with the views of some evangelical seminaries that teach only men can be pastors.

In the email update, Goatley wrote he would be “working with the Board of Trustees, the administration, and the faculty to develop guidelines to continue living out our commitments.”

The school’s president told RNS the official policy would continue to apply to faculty as well as students.

“The board introduced no new policies,” he said in an emailed statement. “They confirmed the institution’s existing commitments concerning marriage and human sexuality. We anticipate that faculty will continue to serve in alignment with the mission of the seminary.”

The current community standards barring same-sex relationships remain on the school’s website, which also states that students and employees must commit to following “all of the seminary’s published policies and ethical standards.”

Some faculty at Fuller have expressed support for LGBTQ affirmation, including one high-profile Fuller professor.

Christopher Hays, who teaches Old Testament at Fuller, recently wrote The Widening of God’s Mercy, which argues for affirming LGBTQ relationships, with his father, Richard Hays, a prominent New Testament scholar who died earlier this year.

Fuller is one of the largest evangelical seminaries in the country, with 1,620 students overall enrolled this past fall—the equivalent of 714 full-time students—according to data from the Association of Theological Schools.

Of those students, 370 were enrolled in the Master of Divinity degree program, while 507 were in a Doctor of Ministry program, both designed for pastors.

The school was founded in 1947 by radio evangelist Charles Fuller, host of “The Old Fashioned Revival Hour.”

PHILADELPHIA (BP)—From a global vantage point unique to its study of the Bible’s impact on U.S. adults, the American Bible Society said Americans revere Scripture, faith and church more than others in a geographical cluster described as the “Secular West.”

The United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand are included in the secular west cluster.

The American Bible Society said only 37 percent of secular west residents say the Bible is personally relevant. The United States is the outlier, with 51 percent of adults affirming Scripture’s relevance to them personally.

This mirrors a Lifeway Research study released May 13 showing 51 percent of American adults have read at least half of the Bible.

The American Bible Society includes the findings in the second chapter of its 15th annual State of the Bible, relying on data from the 2025 Patmos World Bible Attitudes Survey, with permission, with Gallup as the source research agency.

“These insights, made possible by invaluable contributions and expertise among our partner organizations, give us an unprecedented view of worldwide attitudes toward and engagement with the Bible,” said John Plake, chief innovation officer at the American Bible Society and State of the Bible series editor.

“This study helps us see where God’s word is spreading and his church is growing. We also see vast opportunities to share his word with the world.”

The American Bible Society draws on its membership in United Bible Societies, a fellowship active in more than 240 nations, in releasing the data.

In partnership with the British and Foreign Bible Society, the United Bible Societies and Gallup, the Patmos World Bible Attitudes Survey polled 91,000 people in 85 countries on Bible attitudes and practices.

The initiative draws from John’s letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor as recorded in Revelation, identifying seven geographical clusters and putting the United States in the fifth cluster described as the secular west.

Americans view Bible more favorably

In the secular west, the vast majority of adults do not find the Bible personally relevant, researchers said. Only 40 percent of residents in the cluster said religion is an important part of their daily life, compared to 69 percent of the global population.

But also in the secular west, Americans outpace other nations in key areas of biblical engagement, and judge the Bible more favorably.

While an average of 18 percent of adults in the cluster use the Bible “a few times a week or more,” 28 percent of Americans do so, compared to 18 percent of the Irish, the nearest ranking country in the cluster, and 8 percent of the French, the lowest use found.

While an average of 19 percent in the secular west attend church at least weekly, 28 percent in the United States do so, followed by 26 percent of Irish and 21 percent of Italians, with the lowest weekly attendance, 10 percent, found in France.

More than half of Americans, 53 percent, said religion is an important part of their daily lives, outpacing the average of 40 percent in the cluster who said so. Comparatively, 50 percent of Italians also said so, with Norwegians least often saying so at 17 percent.

When asked whether “It’s difficult to trust the Bible because it clashes with the scientific worldview,” the United States was the only nation with more respondents who said, “It’s not difficult to trust the Bible,” the American Bible Society noted.

“The U.S. is the only nation in this group with more disagreement (41 percent) than agreement (31 percent)—more who say it’s not difficult to trust the Bible,” researchers wrote. “The level of ‘strong’ disagreement in the U.S. (23 percent) more than doubles that of nearly every other nation in the cluster.”

Still, some U.S. responses varied.

When an average of 48 percent of respondents in the cluster disagreed or strongly disagreed that the Bible is a source of harm in the world, 55 percent of Americans said the same, outpaced by 65 percent of Italians.

And while 23 percent of Americans said the Bible is indeed a source of harm in the world—outpacing the secular west average of 22 percent—only 12 percent of Italians said so.

Other clusters in the Patmos Initiative are:

• The “Majority Muslim” cluster 1, West Africa, Chad, Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• The “Majority Christian” cluster 2, Russia, Eastern Europe and Portugal, citing a historical connection to Orthodox Christianity.
• The “Majority Muslim” cluster 3, North Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Central Asia.
• The “Majority Christian” cluster 4, Latin America, Caribbean, Philippines.
• The “Religiously Diverse” cluster 6, India, China, Indonesia, Japan.
• The “Majority Christian” cluster 7, Sub-Saharan Africa.

Fieldwork details for all countries can be found in the methodology chapter of The Patmos Survey report, available here.

The American Bible Society will release additional chapters of the State of the Bible monthly through December, focusing on trust, flourishing, identity and church and Bible engagement.

Good Faith podcast host Curtis Chang recently sat down with New York Times columnist David French and Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today, for a Zoom discussion about the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term.

Chang approached the conversation by having each panelist reflect on how his impressions have changed since Trump won his reelection bid. He played clips showing each panelist’s initial reactions to Trump’s reelection from a prior podcast on November 6.

Moore and French both reported feeling exhausted last November.

With Trump’s reelection, Moore said, he knew there was going to be a lot of drama—“drama that is going to be, you know, in every American’s life, all the time from now on.” And, he said he thinks actually, “a lot of people like that.”

But he felt reassured, because Americans had been intentional about who they elected. No one had been “hoodwinked,” and Moore said that was reassuring to him, because people “know the drama they’re signing up for.”

In November, he saw the challenge as being how to navigate the drama, spiritually, without being completely “driven down by it,” regardless of political persuasion.

Chang noted Moore seemed to be right about people being exhausted by the drama, citing recent polls that show 1 in 4 Trump voters now disapproves of the job Trump is doing.

But Moore said he’s less exhausted now than he was in November, because he’s developed a kind of “carbon monoxide detector” to help navigate the exhaustion.

Moore noted he discovered less time on social media resulted in him feeling “much less anxious and much less angry,” an anger he explained was rooted in “the fact that nobody seems to be angry or concerned about what is quite obviously … a crazy time in the country.”

But limiting how much social media he consumes has helped with those feelings, Moore explained.

On November 6, French noted a similar exhaustion after the election and wondered what that exhaustion “should lead us to do.”

Defend vulnerable people and tell the truth

French noted those like himself, who have the resources to weather the effects of the current political situation in the United States, still have a responsibility to “defend the vulnerable and speak the truth.”

“If we give in to despair,” French noted, “that’s going to lead us to retreat into our own sort of cocoon, our own bubble, right? So, we have to lean out of that and into the defense of people.”

French also said in November that even if one isn’t a lawyer or legislator, individuals can “stand up for the dignity, for the humanity of vulnerable people.”

Chang asked French to explain what he’d “seen done to truth and to the vulnerable” in the first 100 days of this Trump administration.

French said with a history of covering President Trump through the years, he “knew truth and defending the vulnerable would be a salient aspect of responding to these times.”

But he noted, “I had no idea how quickly and how dramatically we would reach a point” of vulnerable people being exploited and where the “truth was being destroyed.”

French emphasized he was “not new here,” and acknowledged from his time around Trump and the Trump movement for the past nine years, he “knew this was a movement that lies as easily as it breathes.”

He said he also knew to expect a major effort “toward mass deportations.”

“I had an intellectual knowledge that you would have dishonesty,” and that vulnerable populations would be attacked, he said.

“But I had no idea how comprehensively you would see an attack on the truth” and on the vulnerable, French said.

He noted another thing he “absolutely did not expect at all was how many powerful institutions would completely, not just abandon the field, but essentially just yield to Trump.”

In Trump’s first term, he’d taken comfort in many pieces of civil society—including resistance from within the Republican party and the administration and opposition from Democrats—who figuratively would “throw their body” in front of some of the worst actions Trump attempted.

But “by and large” this time the president is not surrounded by wise counselors and advisers, but by “enablers,” French said.

So, while the “attack on the vulnerable was so immediate and so dramatic, it is the breakdown of civil society, in response” and the lineup of billionaires at the inauguration and the oligarchy on display there that really surprised French, he noted.

He hasn’t been especially surprised by Trump’s behavior, French said, because “Trump is Trump.”

However, he has been surprised and alarmed by the response to Trump’s demands by some of the most powerful people and institutions in the United States.

French said the spectacle of wealthy, powerful law firms and institutions “tripping all over themselves to give into” Trump’s demands, even unlawful ones, was “staggering to [him].”

“They’re acting as if they hold no cards. They’re acting as if Trump can control them at a whim, and that’s just absolutely not the case. It’s shocking to me,” he observed.

Turning towards Ukraine

Chang’s November comments related to going into “avoidance mode.” He said the election was a “disaster for our country,” but a boon to his “to-do list.”

But after he stopped throwing himself into being busy, he realized what he was feeling about the election was anger, wanting to blame someone, sadness and even anguish—especially for immigrants, the vulnerable and the people of Ukraine.

So, he turned the conversation to what has happened in the Russian war against Ukraine in the first 100 days of President Trump’s second administration. He asked French to weigh in on Ukraine.

French said, again, he was aware of Trump’s history of disliking Ukraine before he returned to office, and was “extremely pessimistic” about how Trump would treat Ukraine in this term.

He noted for some extreme factions of MAGA, Vladimir Putin is a “hero” whom they admire as an example of strong Christian nationalism in opposition to the “woke, weak West.”

French also pointed out some conspiracy-minded MAGA diehards blame Ukraine for impeachment investigations into Trump and Russia after 2016 and consider Ukraine a “villain.”

But when “negotiations” got underway, he didn’t expect Trump to “lean entirely on Ukraine” with “Putin’s demands, in essence,” and on American allies to support Ukraine less, French noted.

And at first, he didn’t see the “trade war” with the United States’ closest allies for what it actually is. It’s not just isolationism, French asserted.

Trump sees things in terms of influence spheres, and Trump sees Ukraine as within Putin’s “sphere of influence,” French explained. The responsibility of the smaller country, in Trump’s estimation, is to “yield to the bigger country.”

“That’s what he’s demanding of Canada, Denmark and Mexico,” he said.

And he noted, this is Zelensky’s offense to Trump and a “very Putinesque” way of seeing things—which helps make sense of America “essentially switching sides in the conflict.”

In November, French only anticipated a “worst case scenario” of some sort of neutrality that benefitted Russia, “but we’ve seen something beyond that … a switching of teams.”

And it’s such an emergency in the “geopolitics of the moment” and “in the history of the world,” European countries are reacting dramatically to the shift, French said. This “shaking at the core of our alliances” can’t easily be undone.

Chang asked Moore how to listen to the dark observations from French and “maintain your carbon monoxide detector” for managing anxiety.

Moore said when people “feel powerless” about specific aspects of what’s happening—such as concern for Ukrainian churches being bombed by Russia or people being laid off by DOGE cuts—they want to do something, but don’t know what they can do.

Moore said sometimes the answer to managing anxiety is to “embrace the broken heartedness.”

Chang agreed, noting “grief” may be a necessary step to navigating the unclear path forward from here.

The full podcast can be watched here.

(RNS)—The Chicago Board of Education and New York’s David Lynch Foundation have agreed to settle a three-year-long class-action lawsuit that alleged public high school students were forced to practice Hindu rituals through the guise of a meditation program.

The “Quiet Time” initiative of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace implemented a twice-daily 15-minute meditation session in five Chicago high schools between 2015 and 2019.

The initiative—the late filmmaker’s project to bring Transcendental Meditation to “at-risk populations” around the world, including inner-city students and prison inmates—was part of a study designed to “decrease stress and the effects of trauma” for students living in high-crime neighborhoods.

More than 2,000 students participated in the study, co-run by the University of Chicago’s Urban Labs social and behavioral research initiative on community violence.

The foundation argued TM’s form of mantra meditation—the silent repetition of one word or sound to enter a state of self-hypnosis—was completely nonreligious.

Invocations of Hindu deities

Plaintiffs argued the Sanskrit invocations of Hindu deities and an initiation puja, called a “ceremony of gratitude” by instructors, felt distinctly religious.

“Everybody that I talked to was outraged and angry, particularly the students,” attorney John Mauck, who represented the 200 plaintiffs who filed claims, told RNS.

“They felt manipulated and lied to. TM lies. They say it’s not religious, but it plunges students into a religious ritual.”

More than 700 of the participants, who were under 18 at the time of the program, will be rewarded a portion of $2.6 million. They include students who were part of the control group and did not meditate, according to the settlement negotiation, ruled on by Federal Judge Matthew Kennelly.

Though representatives of the foundation and Chicago Public Schools asserted the program was not mandatory, several students said they were reprimanded or their academic standing threatened if they refused.

Various participants in the lawsuit allegedly were told not to inform their parents of the TM practice, “especially if they were religious,” Mauck said. Some claimed they were told by instructors the Sanskrit prayer in the initiation process “didn’t have any meaning.”

Placing an offering at a shrine

Kaya Hudgins, the Muslim student at the forefront of the class-action lawsuit, told RNS she and her classmates were taken individually to a small room. They were instructed to place an offering of fruit at an altar with brass cups of camphor, incense and rice and a photograph of Brahmananda Saraswati.

Also known as Guru Dev, Brahmananda Saraswati was the master of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Hindu guru who started the global TM movement in 1955.

Students were asked to repeat the Sanskrit words a representative uttered and, at the end of the ceremony, were given a one-word mantra and told not to repeat it to anyone.

The CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, Bob Roth, testified in the case’s deposition saying instructors never asked the students to participate in the puja ceremony. Roth has also refuted that the mantras have “any deity connection,” despite Maharishi’s statements the mantras “fetch to us the grace of personal gods.”

In another instance, Roth has called the initiation ceremony a “lovely cultural tradition, and not religious in any way,” again contrary to the founder’s views, according to former TM instructor and key witness Aryeh Siegel.

“They (The David Lynch Foundation) consider the puja an inviolable requirement for learning TM, because TM teachers believe the ceremony ties the participant spiritually to the gurus being worshipped,” Siegel, the author of Transcendental Deception, told RNS in an email.

Neither the David Lynch Foundation nor UChicago’s Urban Labs responded to requests for comments. No results from the “Quiet Time” study have been publicly released.

Prior legal troubles for TM

This is not the first time TM has gotten into legal trouble. A New Jersey case from 1979 titled Malnak vs. Yogi found TM in schools to be “unlawful,” after a thorough review of the meanings behind the Sanskrit incantations.

Mauck’s firm has settled two other similar cases, one in which a Christian student was awarded $150,000 in damages after refusing to “kneel before anyone except the Lord God.”

According to Mauck, who used the word “demon” interchangeably with “Hindu deity,” there is “only one God to believers, the monotheists.”

“If you talk to the most knowledgeable Muslims, Jews or Christians, they would agree that all these little gods are not gods at all,” he said.

Mat McDermott, the communications director for the Hindu America Foundation, bristles at the claim Hindu gods are demonic, saying such accusations “show a profound religious bias and lack of understanding about anything related to Hinduism.”

“Calling TM demonic shows an utter lack of understanding about the techniques actually taught in TM,” McDermott said.

TM rests ‘within a Hindu context’

Even so, McDermott and the Hindu America Foundation agree TM sits “within a Hindu context of meditation techniques,” and McDermott said there are other, less religious ways to do meditation in schools.

“(It’s) entirely possible to teach many breath-focused meditation techniques without any religious component to them, and not run afoul of separation of church and state issues,” McDermott said.

“Focusing on the breath alone has powerful benefits for calming and concentration. If that’s all you do, I’d still call it meditating, and that has no inherent religious or spiritual component.”

Retired journalism professor Joseph Weber, who wrote the book Transcendental Meditation in America: How a New Age Movement Remade a Small Town in Iowa, agrees meditation itself should not be demonized.

“The idea of meditation in schools—especially troubled ones—seems like a positive thing,” he told RNS in a written statement. “Anything that helps kids settle their minds seems useful. The problem with TM-oriented work in schools, however, is that it can be propagandistic for the TM organization.”

“One wishes that a secular group untainted by the TM group, would teach the meditation, not the TM folks. It would be like yoga teachers uninvolved with the practice’s history teaching it as a stretching and fitness technique. That would seem fine.”

Squire Parsons Jr., a native of West Virginia and longtime Southern Gospel singer, died May 5. He was 77.

Parsons’ father, who was a choir director and deacon at his church, taught his son how to sing using shaped notes.

Parsons held a bachelor of science degree in music from West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery, where he was trained on the piano and bassoon, and received an honorary doctorate from the university in 1999.

After graduating from college, he taught at Hannan High School in Mason County, W.Va., and served as music director of various churches.

He began singing Southern Gospel music professionally when he joined the Calvarymen Quartet in 1969 before he graduated from college. He went on to sing with The Kingsmen, where he served as the baritone for the quartet.

His voice became the standard for several songs, including “It Made News In Heaven,” “Hello Mama,” “The Lovely Name Of Jesus,” “I’ve Got A Reservation,” “Master Of The Sea” and “Look For Me At Jesus’ Feet.”

Parsons focused on a solo ministry in 1979. He is known for writing several songs, including “Sweet Beulah Land,” “He Came To Me,” “The Broken Rose,” “The Greatest Of All Miracles,” “I’m Not Giving Up,” “I Sing Because” and “I Call It Home.”

He was ordained as a minister in 1979 at his home church, Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C.

Parsons also worked with Squire Parsons & Redeemed (1984–1991) and The Squire Parsons Trio (1995–2009). He appeared during a Billy Graham Crusade in Arkansas and performed with the Gaither Homecoming Choir.

“Sweet Beulah Land” was voted song of the year in 1981 by readers of Singing News Magazine, where he was voted favorite baritone (1986–1987), favorite male singer (1988) and favorite songwriter (1986, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995).

He received a Dove Award nomination in 1999 for contributing to a Dottie Rambo tribute album.

Parsons was inducted in the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2008. He had also been inducted in the Gospel Music Association’s Hall of Fame in 2000 as a former member of The Kingsmen.

Parsons retired from traveling in 2019 and only made limited appearances after that.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

An international survey reveals a strong correlation between regular attendance at religious services and higher levels of individual flourishing.

The link between well-being and regular attendance at religious services was among the key insights gleaned from the first wave of data released April 30 from the Global Flourishing Study.

The study is a collaborative research project carried out by Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, Gallup and the Center for Open Science.

Launch of Baylor Institute for Global Flourishing

In conjunction with the release of the first round of data, Baylor University announced the launch of its Institute for Global Flourishing, an initiative university officials said aligns with the university’s Pro Mundo (for the world) vision and its Baylor in Deeds strategic plan.

“I am grateful that Baylor’s mission aligns so perfectly with the bold vision to launch the Institute for Global Human Flourishing,” said Byron Johnson, inaugural director of the Institute for Global Human Flourishing, co-principal investigator of the Global Flourishing Study and current director of the Institute for Studies of Religion.

“This extraordinary commitment positions Baylor to be a leader not only in advancing scientific knowledge via the Global Flourishing Study and related research, but it will also provide the infrastructure to offer much needed resources and tools to support the application of this knowledge to power a global flourishing movement.”

Creating the Institute for Global Flourishing advances Baylor’s “vision of human flourishing that is evidence-based, practical, faith-animated and inspirational,” said Provost Nancy Brickhouse.

“The Institute for Global Human Flourishing is uniquely positioned to serve as a catalyst for transformative impact on individuals and communities, while also engaging students, alumni, faculty, staff, Texas and the world in a shared pursuit of human flourishing, fostering a life of purpose, well-being and meaningful contribution,” Brickhouse said.

First round of data offers insights

The five-year, longitudinal Global Flourishing Study involves about 200,000 individuals in more than 20 countries, representing 45 languages.

Researchers measure global human flourishing across six domains including happiness and life satisfaction, physical and mental health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, and financial and material stability.

“The first round of findings from the study showed attendance at religious services appears to be an important element related to flourishing across almost all countries,” the report “What Contributes to a Life Well-lived?” states.

“Attendance is generally associated with greater flourishing, even after controlling for other well-known predictors.”

In most countries, the report notes, the positive relationship between flourishing and attendance at religious services is more prevalent than between flourishing and civic participation.

“A statistically significant positive relationship exists between flourishing and religious service attendance in 21 out of 23 countries and territories, compared with 15 out of 23 between flourishing and civil society participation,” the report states.

About 50 Global Flourishing Study researchers spent the past year gleaning insights from the first wave of data.

In addition to the correlation between flourishing and attendance at religious services, they identified two other key insights.

• Global differences in flourishing: The study revealed many middle-income developing countries were doing better in terms of meaning, purpose and relationships than the richer developed world. Countries like Indonesia, Mexico and the Philippines fared particularly well, while other nearby countries like Japan, Turkey and the United Kingdom did not.
• Younger generations lagging:The study revealed younger people appear to be not doing as well as older people when compared to the generations that came before them. Flourishing tends to increase with age in many countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Many the youngest age group (18- to 24-year-olds) reported the lowest levels of flourishing.

Based in part on information provided by Lori Fogleman of Baylor University Media and Public Relations.

NASHVILLE (BP)—Although a recent Pew Research study says more teens are becoming aware of the negative effects of social media, that doesn’t mean they’re ready for anything resembling a large-scale break from it.

The study says nearly half (48 percent) of teens say social media sites have a mostly negative effect on peers, an increase from 32 percent who said so in 2022. The increase could be linked to a focus on mental health among teens, who have turned to platforms like TikTok for information on the subject.

The 16-point swing in such a short time toward seeing social media as a negative influence on mental health may lead to the conclusion that teens are on the cusp of a movement away from it. However, the same study also revealed only 14 percent of teens felt social media affected them personally in a negative way.

In other words, it’s everyone else’s problem.

That points to social media’s cultural hold not just on teens, but on society in general, said Chris Martin.

Martin, director of content for Moody Global Media and author of The Wolf in Their Pockets: 13 Ways the Social Internet Threatens the People You Lead, wonders about the correlation between social media sentiment and its use.

“I have found what teenagers say about their social media usage and their actual practices to be at odds,” he said.

So, that doesn’t mean teens are using it less.

“People engage in habits and substances they think are bad for them, because they are afraid of what may happen if they stop,” Martin said.

‘It’s not going away’

Social media has become much more than staying in touch with friends, said Zac Workun, a Lifeway Student Ministry training specialist based in Tulsa, Okla. It is where they get education as well as entertainment.

“It’s not going away,” Workun said. “Teens may not be aspiring to be the influencers we thought they would, but TikTok and YouTube have become their key media platforms for learning about the world.”

Teens’ mixed feelings about the negative effects of social media may be the reason flip phones have seen a resurgence, “but they’re probably not going to quit it,” Workun said.

While more teens are acknowledging how social media can affect one’s mental health negatively, Workun pointed out another factor observed more often by student ministry leaders.

“They’re distracted,” he said. “Even if in the room, so many of them aren’t present. Adults can also be guilty of that, of course. We’ll try to be in multiple places at once and on our phones to answer an email or text.”

Many youth ministries create “phone-free zones” to keep kids’ attention in the room.

A significant number of teens said social media hurt the amount of sleep they get (45 percent) and their productivity (40 percent).

However, they also said social media helped rather than harmed friendships, 30 percent to 7 percent. Most (43 percent) described such platforms’ effects in neutral terms.

And while 44 percent of teens said they have cut back on their social media and smartphone use—an increase from 39 percent for social media and 36 percent for phone use in 2023—more than half (55 percent) say they have not cut back on either.

NASHVILLE (RNS)—American organized religion is a bit like a scene from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” It has been on the decline for decades, but churches aren’t dead yet.

A new survey from Nashville-based Lifeway Research found 94 percent of Protestant pastors believe their church will still be open in 10 years, with 78 percent strongly agreeing that will be true.

Four percent of pastors say their church will close, with the other 2 percent saying they don’t know, according to the survey released April 15. Conducted over the phone, it surveyed 1,003 randomly selected Protestant pastors between Aug. 8 and Sept. 3, 2024.

Those pastors may be right, say researchers who study the American religious landscape.

Duke University sociologist Mark Chaves, who runs the National Congregations Study, said past studies found about 1 in 100 churches close each year. So, the idea that most churches will be around in 10 years isn’t surprising.

“An interesting thing about churches as organizations is that they have ways of staying alive in a very weakened state,” Chaves said in an email. “Other organizations would close, but weak churches have ways of staying alive.”

Short-term optimism

Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, said the long-term trends for congregations are more worrisome. But in the short term, congregations have become more optimistic.

In a 2021 study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on congregations, 7 percent of church respondents reported their existence was threatened, and 5 percent said their church was in serious financial difficulty.

By 2023, 3 percent of churches surveyed said they were in serious financial difficulty. That same year, in a study about how the pandemic has affected churches, 2 percent of church leaders said they were feeling very negative about their church’s future, while 9 percent were somewhat negative.

Lifeway’s findings that few pastors thought their churches would be closing were “within the ballpark,” Thumma said.

He also said small churches with few staff members and that have paid off their building can keep going for a long time. They may have already seen some decline and know how to cope with it.

Things are harder, he said, for midsize churches that no longer have enough people or money to sustain themselves.

“Small churches can be resilient for a long time, especially when their building is paid for,” said Scott McConnell, director of Lifeway Research.

Twenty-year outlook not good

While many churches may survive the next decade, the 20-year outlook is bleaker.

“People who are in their 70s now won’t be gone in 10 years, but they will be gone in 20 years,” Thumma said. “That’s where you’re going to see the real drop.”

Count Nic Mather of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Longview, Wash., among the pastors who are optimistic for the future. The church has seen a slow but steady stream of newcomers in the last few years, mostly people who are seeking spiritual meaning and the kind of close-knit community the church offers.

“There’s a power of being in community with others,” he said. “And that ethos and sense of community is so strong here that it continues to attract people.”

Mather said his congregation is aware people don’t come to church in the way they did in the past. That’s made it focus more on reaching out to neighbors. The church also allows a number of community groups to use its building, seeing it as a resource for those neighbors.

“We are truly a hub for our community. So many people come into our building for things that aren’t church that I can’t imagine this place not being here,” he said.

Bob Stevenson, pastor of Village Baptist Church in Aurora, Ill., also is optimistic about his congregation’s prospects.

“We’re 40 years old and we have weathered quite a bit, and so unless there is some scandal or some major change socioeconomically in our area, I don’t see anything changing in terms of the church itself,” he said.

Stevenson said the church, which draws about 120 worshippers and is ethnically diverse, has taken steps to “future-proof” itself. That includes paying attention to the integrity of its leadership, something some churches have ignored to their peril.

He also said the church has a strong, committed core of members, which will help it continue for the long term.

Still, he said, COVID-19 taught him and other church leaders that no one can predict the future.

Know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em

Ryan Burge, a former pastor and author of The American Religious Landscape, said it’s hard to know when a church is ready to close. Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University, was the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in downstate Mount Vernon, which closed last summer.

His church, which was more than 150 years old when it closed, had been on the decline for years but rallied more than a few times. Eventually, as older members of the congregation died, there were no young people to take their place.

“All it takes is two or three people to die in close succession, and it’s game over for a lot of those churches,” he said.

The new Pew Religious Landscape Study found 85 percent of Americans ages 65 and older identify with a religion, and 78 percent identify as Christian. However, only 54 percent of Americans under 30 identify with a religion, including 45 percent who say they are Christian.

Lifeway Research found some indication the rate of churches closing might have increased. The survey includes a look at data from the Southern Baptist Convention showing that 1.8 percent of congregations disbanded or closed in 2022, the last year with data available.

If that annual percentage were to hold steady over the next decade, it would mean about 18 percent of churches would close during that time, which is more than pastors surveyed would have predicted.

McConnell also said some of the churches that closed may not have had a pastor, which could explain the difference between how pastors feel and the statistics.

“But if we assume the pastors’ survey is accurately reaching enough churches close to shutting down, then yes, Southern Baptist pastors would seem to be more optimistic than the statistics say they should be,” he said in an email.

Still, Burge said pastors are by nature optimistic about the future. That’s part of the job.

“Revival is always around the corner—if we just get one thing to break our way, things will be better,” he said. “You don’t want to have the mentality that we are going to close.”

And even if pastors know churches will close, they may often believe it will happen to other churches, but not theirs.

“Everyone thinks that churches are going to close,” Amanda Olson, the longtime pastor of Grace Evangelical Covenant Church on Chicago’s North Side, told RNS in 2022, just before the church’s last service. “But nobody thinks it is going to be their church.”

(RNS)—In the 1890s, a pair of British archaeologists began digging in an ancient rubbish heap at the edge of the ruins of Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, looking for a glimpse into the city’s past.

They’d eventually find tens of thousands of documents, written on papyrus and preserved in the desert for centuries, ranging from official documents to personal letters. Among them was a fragment about 11 inches long and 2 inches wide that detailed shipments of grain on one side.

On the other side were the music and lyrics to a song. That song would turn out to be one of the oldest Christian hymns ever found.

“We have about 50 examples of musical compositions with musical notation from antiquity,” said John Dickson, a former songwriter turned biblical scholar.

“This is the only Christian one. And it predates any other notation of a Christian hymn by many centuries.”

Scholars have known about the fragment, known as P.Oxy. 1786 or the Oxyrhynchus Hymn—a reference to the Oxyrhynchus Papyri collection—since 1922, when the text of the hymn was first published in English.

The song is filled with Christian imagery, with worshippers telling the stars and wind to be silent as they praise God, “the giver of all good things,” but the tune is hard to sing. It’s not the kind of song to turn up in a megachurch worship service.

The late Martin Marty, a famed Christian historian, once wrote: “If you complain that it’s a bit bumpy and hard to sing, or that it’s ‘one of those old hymns’ and not catchy like the ones that show up on screens, you are right.”

New old hymn debuts—again

But Marty, who was wrong about few things, might have spoken too soon. A new version of the Oxyrhynchus Hymn debuted last week, courtesy of a new translation from Dickson and help from Chris Tomlin and Ben Fielding, two of the most popular modern worship songwriters.

Christened as “The First Hymn,” the new song arrived just in time for Holy Week, along with a documentary about the hymn that debuts this week at Biola University in Los Angeles and at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

Dickson said there are earlier Christian hymns—including several in the text of the New Testament—but none of them has the musical notation found in the P.Oxy. 1786.

He said scholars can still read that notation, which comes from an ancient Greek style of music, and so they know what the hymn would have sounded like. The documentary features Dickson singing a bit of the original melody in the ruins of an ancient cathedral.

“I think the most theologically significant thing is that it’s a hymn to the Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the century before the Nicene Creed,” he said.

A former songwriter and musician who now teaches biblical studies and public Christianity at Wheaton College in the Chicago suburbs, Dickson said he’s long dreamt of hearing this ancient hymn sung by modern worshippers.

Ancient text, modern melody

But there were a few challenges. One was the hymn’s original melody likely would not work for a modern audience. The other was some of the words of the hymn were missing in the fragment.

So, he wrote a new translation of the lyrics that remain and gave them to the two songwriters to work with. They used all of his translation and added a more modern melody.

A studio recording of the song begins with an Egyptian vocalist singing along with a guitar part that echoes the original melody of the hymn, followed by a new melody from Tomlin and Fielding.

There is also a live version of the song recorded at a stadium-style concert, and one sung with a choir.

“All powers cry out in answer,” the new lyrics read. “All glory and praise forever to our God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, we sing amen.”

Marc Jolicoeur, director of worship studies at Kingswood University in New Brunswick who is part of a worship leader worship project, said other adaptions of old, traditional hymns and texts—such as the Doxology, the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostle’s Creed and a blessing from the Book of Numbers—have been adapted into popular modern worship songs that “meet a Venn diagram of needs.”

He hopes to use this new version of the first hymn in worship.

“It’s quite appealing to me as a worship leader—beautiful song, laid out in a familiar and engaging arrangement, deeply connected to the ancient pillars of the faith,” he said.

Jolicoeur also said the new version from Tomlin and Fielding is a bit of a “Ship of Theseus” puzzle—in that the song has some new lyrics, in a new language and melody.

The Ship of Theseus is a reference to a philosophical puzzle—if all the parts of a ship are replaced over time, is it still the same ship or something new? Is The First Hymn really the old hymn resurrected or a hymn inspired by an ancient song?

Song of joy in midst of persecution

Shannan Baker, a postdoctoral fellow at the Dunn Center for Christian Music Studies at Baylor University, said the new hymn is different from some of the other work Tomlin and Fielding have done.

Tomlin is best known for songs such as “How Great Is Our God” and “Good, Good Father,” while Fielding co-wrote “Mighty to Save” and “What a Beautiful Name” for Hillsong, the Australian megachurch.

“There is a draw toward things that feel more authentic because they are from the ‘early church,’” said Baker.

Dickson said the song comes from a time when Christians were under persecution in the Roman Empire. Yet, they sang with joy about their faith, something he hopes will inspire modern listeners.

“I look at this hymn and think it’s joyful confidence in the midst of persecution, instead of Christians punching back,” he said.

He also hopes Christians of all kinds of backgrounds will embrace the song.

“Here is a version of Christianity before all our squabbles, before all our denominations,” he said. “I like to think of the song as a token of unity.”

It’s a misconception Russians worship a strong central government and have no place for freedom of conscience or religious freedom in their history, historian Wallace Daniel said.

“It doesn’t hold true to the reality,” Daniel asserted.

Daniel is distinguished professor of history at Mercer University and emeritus professor of history at Baylor University. He introduced his latest publication, Freedom and the Captive Mind: Fr. Gleb Yakunin and Orthodox Christianity in Soviet Russia as part of the Baylor Libraries Author Series.

Daniel’s lecture, titled, “Speaking Truth to Power: The Revolt of a Russian Priest,” countered the “widespread view that the Russia people are essentially authoritarian by nature.”

Rather, if one looks closely at Russian history, many examples of nonconformists, dissidents and “of people who do not agree with the state” will be found, Daniel said.

As evidence that “the belief dissidents and nonconformists don’t exist among Russians” is a “western construct,” Daniel cited dissenting Baptists.

He also pointed to “a famous group called the Old Believers, or many of the most violent peasant rebellions in modern European history that attempted, and almost did on several occasions, overthrow the state,” and other writers and thinkers who went up against the state in Russia’s past.

“One of the most courageous and one of the most outstanding of those nonconformists, those dissidents” is Father Gleb Yakunin, Daniel claimed.

“Father Gleb fought for freedom of conscience in some of the most difficult conditions that one can imagine, through some of the darkest years of Soviet Russia in its history,” he said.

When Vladimir Lenin came to power, he decreed war on religion, “the belief of the naïve,” Daniel explained, and saw it as something that must be overcome in order to create a scientific, industrial civilization.

To overcome Christianity, Lenin believed it must be attacked from all sides, externally but also from within the religious tradition, Daniel said, setting the backdrop for his talk on Yakunin.

Yukunin finds his way to faith

Yakunin’s father died when he was 9 years old. His mother, a bookkeeper who was devout in the Russian Orthodox faith, raised him in a house filled with candles and religious icons.

However, schools were atheistic and required students to take classes in atheism. At the age of 14, “Yakunin declared himself to be an avowed atheist,” who would never change.

“But he did change,” Daniel noted, through a relationship he developed in university with Alexander Men, a man whose witness and friendship would “reshape his life.”

The two bonded over books, the sciences and world religions. Before Men and Yakunin became friends, he was already on the road to becoming a Christian or had at least developed an interest in the religion, Daniel recalled Yakunin telling him.

But, “Men convinced Yakunin that there was a much deeper and more interesting world than he’d been exposed to in his schooling,” Daniel said.

Additionally, Yakunin sought out banned books in Moscow’s bookstores and was especially interested in Eastern religions. “He was a rebel,” a nonconformist, who came to believe the Bolshevik requirement to worship a strong leader was wrong.

“I was a born fighter,” Daniel recalled Yakunin saying. And he chose a fighting vocation, when he was ordained to the Russian Orthodox priesthood in the 1960s at age 26, Daniel said.

Yakunin gained worldwide attention for being a dissenting voice from within the Russian church and for letters he wrote about religious persecution asking global Christians to come to the aid of Christians who were suffering.

Daniel explained it was astounding to Westerners of the time that such a letter was coming out of the Soviet Union.

Then, in 1976, Yakunin held a press conference in Moscow, with Western and Soviet journalists in attendance, where he announced the creation of a “Christian committee for the defense of believers’ rights in the Soviet Union.”

“‘Our purpose,’ he said, in that committee, ‘was to collect stories of priests and stories, also, of believers who were being persecuted,’” Daniel quoted Yakunin.

The stories were sent to an entrepreneur in San Francisco who published them in 12 volumes, nine of which are housed in the Keston collection in Carroll Library at Baylor University.

Confronting truth and telling it

Yakunin confronted, with facts, the Soviet Union lie that there was no religious persecution happening, and he had “no fear” of confronting the hierarchy of the church or the government or of violating the Soviet Constitution.

He knew doing so was dangerous and he might pay a heavy price, but he “spoke truth to power” anyway, Daniel said.

Yakunin believed “wholeheartedly” in freedom of conscience, “that it was a person’s right to believe or not to believe.”

He also said, “When Christianity and nationalism become entwined with each other, when the mind becomes captive to power, the person, and a whole society will lose their way,” Daniel noted.

Yakunin uncovered and made public corruption and duplicity at the highest levels of his country.

Daniel explained Yakunin saw speaking the truth as his Christian calling. He said a society should not be afraid to look at every part of its history and bring it out. It must do so to be healthy.

Yakunin believed, “Truth, not duplicity nor fantasy, would cleanse us.”

“That statement is as relevant to Putin’s Russia today as it was when Yakunin wrote these words. It is also relevant to our own country—to healing its wounds, to bringing us together again as a people,” Daniel concluded.

The Keston Center for Religion, Politics and Society was established by Baylor University to receive, maintain, preserve, expand and make available to scholars the Keston Archives and Library—the world’s most comprehensive collection of materials on freedom of conscience and religious persecution under communist and other totalitarian regimes.

The Keston collection, originally located at Keston College in Oxford, arrived in Waco in 2007. The Keston Center became part of the Baylor Libraries in 2012.

NEW YORK (RNS)—A 17th-century letter considered the blueprint for religious freedom in the United States was displayed for the first time in seven years at the New York Public Library on April 8.

The Flushing Remonstrance, signed by 30 settlers and opposing a ban on Quaker worship, will be on display through April 10.

The “Flushing Remonstrance: Let Everyone Remain Free” exhibition celebrates the 60th anniversary of the New York City Landmarks law. For the occasion, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, which selects landmarks and historic sites, partnered with the New York State Archives to display the highly protected document.

“I always look for some symbolic project to start the anniversary,” said historian Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, an organizer of the event and chair of the New York City Landmarks60 Alliance.

A preservationist, Diamonstein-Spielvogel thought this forgotten episode of New York’s history would be a perfect fit.

“I was thinking of something worthy. And of course, I think this document is hallowed,” she said of the 1657 letter widely considered to have inspired the religious freedom clause in the First Amendment.

Though most people know about the First Amendment, few outside of Colonial history enthusiasts know of the Remonstrance, noted Brent Reidy, director of New York Public Library’s research libraries.

The exhibition is a “fantastic opportunity to share a piece of American history that is so vital but maybe is not forward in people’s minds as it could be,” he said.

“Something of this magnitude and rarity is really a special occasion for our public,” Reidy added.

The Flushing Remonstrance was sent by residents of that community—now the Queens borough of New York—to Peter Stuyvesant, the administrator of New Netherland, and condemned his ban of Quaker worship in the Dutch colony.

In 17th-century Colonial America, Flushing stood out in the New World for its tolerance toward religious minorities. In 1645, the Flushing Charter, an agreement between the first English settlers and the Dutch West India Co., granted “liberty of conscience” according to the “custom and manner of Holland” to the new residents of Flushing.

The religious openness attracted European immigrants fleeing persecution, including French Huguenots, Swedish Lutherans and Portuguese Jews.

Quakers targeted

A 1656 ordinance issued by Stuyvesant banned all religious practices outside of the Dutch Reformed Church. Stuyvesant’s ordinance targeted Quaker worship, promising fines and evictions for anyone hosting a Quaker meetinghouse.

As a result, dissent grew in the colony, and a group of 30 Flushing residents, eight of whom were among the 18 English settlers who founded the town, wrote a letter strongly condemning Stuyvesant’s decision. Their Christian beliefs, read the letter, compelled them to stand up against the ordinance.

“We cannot condemn them (Quakers) in this case, neither can we stretch out our hands against them, for out of Christ God is a consuming fire, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” state the settlers.

The document lauds the colony’s religious freedom standards as a great Dutch legacy that should be continued.

“The law of love, peace and liberty in the states extending to Jews, Turks and Egyptians, as they are considered sonnes of Adam, which is the glory of the outward state of Holland,” reads the letter.

The exhibition also features documents from the trial of John Bowne, a Flushing resident who publicly opposed the ordinance. Bowne, an English settler, was arrested and sent back to Europe for hosting Quaker meetings in his house.

During his trial with the Dutch West India Co., Bowne invoked the “liberty of conscience” principle enshrined in the Flushing Charter. He was exonerated in 1664 and allowed back to the Colonies.

“That trip took him three years from beginning to end, and it was the first successful legal test of religious freedom in America, and 100 years later, there it was codified in the First Amendment, because of the John Bowne trial, the right to assembly and freedom of speech,” said Diamonstein-Spielvogel, who is also a steward of the New York State Archives Partnership Trust.

Before the archives agreed to lend the Remonstrance, it ensured that the library met the environmental and security standards required to display the letter.

To avoid damage, the letter is rarely exposed to light or transported. As its brown curly edges show, the document was damaged in the 1911 New York State Capitol fire.

The letter is now maintained and transported in a special storage unit equipped to monitor humidity level and temperature.

“Whilst we’re very protective of the document, we also appreciate that the purpose of keeping documentary evidence is so that people can see it, appreciate it, enjoy it,” said Monica Gray, director of archival services at the New York State Archives.

Seeing “the original gives you that connection with the past, which is, I think, really thrilling for most people.”

The exhibition also will include documents providing context on religious practices of that era in Flushing, such as photographs of a Quaker meetinghouse and records on Quaker practice in the community.