Author Archives: Jillian O'Connor

The Religious Underbelly of a Diplomatic Debacle

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Jillian O'Connor

by Melissah Yang Devyani Khobragade, a deputy consul charged with committing visa fraud and providing false statements to allow Sangeeta Richard, her nanny, to enter the U.S., returned to India on January 10 after a diplomatic standoff threatened relations between … Continue reading →

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Vatican says pope’s comments on gay couples don’t mark policy change

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Jillian O'Connor

Pope Francis has taken another step toward making the Catholic Church more inclusive by telling priests to rethink how they reach out to the children of gay and separated parents. But the Vatican warned Sunday against reading too much into the … Continue reading →

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Malaysia’s Islamic authorities seize Bibles as Allah row deepens

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Jillian O'Connor

Islamic authorities in Malaysia on Thursday seized 321 Bibles from a Christian group because they used the word Allah to refer to God, signaling growing intolerance that may inflame ethnic and religious tension in the Southeast Asian country. The raid … Continue reading →

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Women Take the Wheel in Saudi Arabia

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Jillian O'Connor

In this week’s issue of the New Yorker, Katherine Zoepf writes about an emerging women’s revolution in Saudi Arabia. Yesterday, we posted a slide show focussing on the inroads that women have made in the workforce, particularly in the retail sector, in a … Continue reading →

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It’s Salafist vs. Salafist in Syria’s civil war

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Jillian O'Connor

DAMASCUS — Some extremist Sunni clerics help foment sectarian violence in Syria, one indication of how a popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s government became a civil war. Both sides use religion to justify their grab for power. Egyptian Imam Sheikh Yusuf … Continue reading →

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LDS Church, US Government Swap Positions on Polygamy

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Jillian O'Connor

Every other year when I was growing up, my family attend a reunion for all the descendants of all seven wives of one of my great-great-grandfathers. Born in Bavaria in 1825, John, who anglicized his name when he joined the … Continue reading →

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Syrian Christians Battered by Extremist Rebels

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Jillian O'Connor

Fighting between government troops and rebels continues in Syria. Christian areas of Damascus are under attack from rebel mortars, and tens of thousands of Christians have fled the country. Correspondent Reese Erlich filed this story for CBS Radio News from … Continue reading →

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His Life in Our Hands: Remembering Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Jillian O'Connor

    On February 11, 1990, the day Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison, I was driving from downtown Los Angeles to my apartment near Venice, having detoured through a sketchy part of Culver City in an … Continue reading →

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Putting religious differences aside, Tanzanians craft new constitution

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Jillian O'Connor

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania – Political divisions in this East African nation are so profound that to achieve some sort of unity may, paradoxically, require dividing the country even further—into as many as three governments within a single state. That’s the proposal … Continue reading →

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For Roger Mahony, clergy abuse cases were a threat to agenda

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Jillian O'Connor

A year after arriving in Los Angeles, the youngest archbishop in the U.S. Catholic Church had a schedule and an agenda befitting a presidential candidate. Roger Mahony raced around the city in a chauffeured sedan, exhorting labor leaders to support … Continue reading →

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