Alex Milan Tracy for Underscore
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The dozens of independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news organizations that make up the Rural News Network are developing the broadest news alliance reporting on rural America. These newsrooms are pursuing coverage that provides a more complete picture of what it means to live and work in these communities.
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LATEST NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
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Spiritual connection focus of Native American church
October 29, 2025
A typical service begins with check-ins, communal prayer and a “long talk,” a reflective discussion on a spiritual theme.
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How Maine churches are reckoning with fear of immigration raids
August 24, 2025
Faith leaders are working to set up protocols for interacting with federal agents and ensuring immigrants know their rights, as well as helping to launch an ICE Watch initiative.
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A village for all ages: how one intergenerational campus is redefining aging and early learning in South Dakota
August 05, 2025
The Village of Harmony Hill now brings together a Catholic religious community, a nonprofit organization, senior living, and early childhood education—each woven into one layered, faith-rooted mission of holistic care.
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A group of Catholics revitalized a remote Arizona village before the diocese ordered them to leave
July 28, 2025
More than two dozen residents from Concho and surrounding towns spoke passionately in support of the League of the Blessed Sacrament, saying the newcomers revitalized the community and parish.
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Yellowstone has been a ‘sacred wonderland’ of spiritual power and religious activity for centuries – and for different faith groups
July 24, 2025
A landscape once sacred to Native Americans later inspired Christians and New Age communities alike.
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Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese faces 118 more clergy misconduct claims
May 12, 2025
The submissions come after 67 previous child sex abuse lawsuits prompted the state’s largest religious denomination to pay out $34.5 million in settlements and push for bankruptcy protection.
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A small town in Kansas prepares for changes as a local hero is on the verge of sainthood
April 24, 2025
Earlier this year, Pope Francis named the Rev. Emil Kapaun ‘venerable,’ bringing him one step closer to canonization. The road ahead is long, but it could bring big changes to his small hometown.
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After community pushback, rural Ohio fairgrounds cancels conversion therapy event
April 16, 2025
The Mercer County Fairgrounds will no longer rent space to a “conference” featuring an out-of-state ex-gay conversion therapy advocate.
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In Appalachia, a developer hopes to offer refuge to conservative Christians fleeing blue states
March 28, 2025
The venture, which has involved several prominent conservative voices, has drawn the concern of locals who don’t want to see Christian nationalism take over their community.
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Court Blocks Superintendent Walters’ Bible Purchase, For Now
March 11, 2025
A group of parents, students, teachers and faith leaders sued Oct. 17, challenging the Bible mandate under the state constitution, which prohibits public money from being spent for religious purposes.
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Mid-Ohio Valley group blends religion, politics to affect policy in Ohio and West Virginia
February 27, 2025
From the Tea Party to Trump, the MOVCAC mixes religion and politics to inform its members’ activism.
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North Carolina churches join lawsuit against policy allowing ICE into places of worship
February 18, 2025
Several denominations, including the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, united against the policy that allows ICE in “sensitive locations.”
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Vance, at Christian nationalist revival, says immigration stance is in keeping with faith
September 28, 2024
JD Vance’s remarks in Monroeville, PA, seemed aimed at quelling some of the controversy that sprang up after he and Donald Trump accused Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, of eating townspeople’s pets.
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‘Haitians are not eating pets’: Springfield faith leaders stand with embattled migrants
September 16, 2024
‘It was a tough week,’ said Harold Herard, a Haitian community leader in Springfield and visitor at Central Christian Church on Sunday. ‘But today, we feel free.’
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Maine law thwarts impact of school choice decision, lawsuit says
September 09, 2024
A Christian school at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that required Maine to include religious schools in a state tuition program is appealing a ruling upholding a requirement that all participating facilities abide by a state anti-discrimination law.
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