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By Holly Meyer and David Crary |
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By Holly Meyer and David Crary |
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Greetings, World of Faith readers.
This week, we explain why it's such a big deal for women to be riding motorbikes in Iran’s capital. We also look at who U.S. Catholic bishops picked as their new national leader, and why Nicolas Cage was drawn to a supernatural thriller about Jesus. |
Merat Behnam parks her motorbike outside the coffee shop she runs in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) |
Women riding the streets of Tehran on motorbikes is the latest sign of Iran’s societal change |
Women are increasingly seen riding motorbikes in Iran's capital, Tehran, where laws and religious mores once barred women from that activity. It is part of a wider reconsideration by women about societal expectations. Read more. |
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Progress for women is not all encompassing, particularly as hardline politicians call for laws on wearing the hijab to be enforced — but it does represent a change.
In the past, one barrier to women driving motorbikes was a police regulation in Iran's Farsi language specifically referring only to men being able to obtain licenses for them.
Then there’s the cultural aspect. In the beliefs of some conservative clerics and hard-liners, a woman riding a scooter or a motorbike is an excessive flaunting of her beauty that is prohibited by Islam.
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US Catholic bishops select conservative archbishop to lead |
U.S. Catholic bishops have elected Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley to lead them during President Donald Trump’s second term. In choosing Coakley, the bishops are doubling down on their conservative bent, even as they push for more humane immigration policies from the Trump administration. Read more.
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Coakley was seen as a strong contender for the top post, having already been elected in 2022 to serve as secretary, the No. 3 official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He beat out centrist candidate Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, who was subsequently elected vice president.
Coakley serves as adviser to the Napa Institute, an association for conservative Catholic powerbrokers. In 2018, he publicly supported an ardent critic of Pope Francis, Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who was later excommunicated for stances that were deemed divisive.
The bishops' conference has often been at odds with the Vatican and the inclusive, modernizing approach of Francis. His U.S.-born successor, Pope Leo XIV is continuing a similar pastoral emphasis on marginalized people, poverty and the environment.
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Nicolas Cage's 'The Carpenter's Son' turns an apocryphal text about Jesus' youth into a horror film |
Filmmaker Lotfy Nathan has turned the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas into a supernatural thriller called "The Carpenter’s Son," starring Nicolas Cage. The film, now reaching theaters, explores stories about Jesus' childhood that didn't make it into the New Testament. These tales, popular among early Christians, depict a young Jesus with supernatural powers but lacking a moral compass. Read more.
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The film, which also stars FKA twigs and Noah Jupe, follows Jesus as a boy being tempted by Satan to rebel against his father, played by Cage.
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas might seem obscure for some contemporary audiences, yet stories within it permeated ancient Christian lore and art. One account from the text about Jesus giving life to clay birds even made its way into the Quran.
The film’s ancient source material is established with an opening title card. But Nathan concedes he couldn’t rely solely on the apocryphal text and had to fill in narrative gaps, like the storyline involving Satan.
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