A lawsuit filed by the Satanic Temple alleges that an advertising company unfairly refused to display some billboards promoting a ritual offered by the group to help people bypass abortion rules in some states.

The group, based in Salem, Massachusetts, announced Wednesday that it has sued Lamar Advertising in Arkansas state court. The suit accuses the Louisiana-based company of religious discrimination.

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One hundred years ago on Sept. 19, the Indian yogi and guru Paramahansa Yogananda arrived in Boston as the Indian delegate for the Unitarian Conference of Religious Liberals. Yogananda’s arrival, along with an earlier visit by another Indian teacher, Swami Vivekananda, began yoga’s rise on these shores into a major industry, as well as one of the most significant examples of syncretism — a religious and cultural mashup — in the history of the West.

Yogananda’s contribution to the growing diversity of America’s...

Once taboo, tarot reading is considered spooky, and even wicked by some. But the form of divination that uses cards dates back to the 15th century—and has become the latest spiritual trend. Decks are sold at almost any store, and hundreds of thousands of Instagram and Facebook pages are dedicated to the art of divination. But some practitioners in the United States have been using the cards for decades as a tool in their spiritual practices as they turn away from Western religions for traditional African-centered and Indigenous spiritualities.

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“I can’t breathe!’” the crowd chanted, invoking the dying words spoken by George Floyd as a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck.

Religion is known to form the foundation of the black community, especially in the South, which is known as the "Bible Belt." 

Here, church isn't just a place, it's a lifestyle. That's exactly how R.S. Cole grew up. 

"My aunt was a pastor, my grandmother was on the usher board," Cole said. "They had me in debutantes, things of that nature, but they kept me in a Christian faith."

A recent Pew study shows eight in 10 African Americans self-identify as Christians, but now, more and more younger African Americans say they're not affiliate with just...

For the past 25 years, the number of Americans claiming no religion has steadily ballooned as more and more people quit church, synagogue or mosque and openly acknowledged being a  “none.”

The reality is particularly stark when looked at from a generational perspective. If 10% of people from the silent generation (born 1928-1945) consider themselves religiously unaffiliated, a whopping 40% of millennials (born 1981-1996) say they have no religion, according to ...

Before flying to my Santa Fe, N.M., resort, I received a list of at least 20 activities available during my stay. Yoga Nidra. Zen Qi Flow. Sound Healing Journey. Meditation in Motion. Temazcal Sweat Lodge. Petroglyph Art Hike. Awakening the Elements Within. Chicken Chats.

I circled the boxes for hiking, chi gong, visual arts — and put a question mark next to chicken chats. I was laying the groundwork for my first foray into spiritual tourism, to explore what is one of the fast-growing segments of the travel industry — and maybe return more rested and centered.

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The media have paid a lot of attention to the rise of the religiously unaffiliated in recent years, and for good reason. In 1990, just 1 in 20 adult Americans were not connected to a religious faith. Today, it’s closer to 1 in 4. The ripples of such a shift are still being sorted out by observers of American religion.

One of the most visible effects is that the pews are much emptier today than they were just 30 years ago. What does that decline look like, in the simplest terms?

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October is upon us, and with it the beginning of the pre-Halloween media season — for magic, the occult, witchcraft and, not least, the final season premiere of “American Horror Story,” TV’s homage to the slasher films of the 1980s. 

But the truth is we have been in an extended season for witches since at least the election of Donald Trump. The “witch aesthetic,” which features transgressive makeup and Goth-inflected fashion, is a counterculture look that says #resistance.

But...

“This is a worldwide, but certainly American, trend toward heterodoxy — toward individuals cooking up their own spiritual or religious stew and cooking it up their way,” Burklo said. “You’re seeing an aggregation of disaffiliation, people coming up with their own meaning-making and their own personal spiritualities.”

Source: How millennials replaced religion with astrology and crystals - Los Angeles Times

Williamson (probably) isn’t going to win. But she speaks for a broad swath of Americans.

Source: Democratic debate: Marianne Williamson’s beliefs are not rare in America - Vox

Source: Cannabis Church Sues County and CDFW for 1st & 14th Amendment Violations – Redheaded Blackbelt