News & Ideas

Friday's News & Ideas - 1/14/2022

  • Contested legacy of MLK
  • Close Guantanamo
  • Why antisemitism persists
  • Demand for religious funerals
  • Hillsong dancing draws anger
  • Turf war

The uses and abuses of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Religion Dispatches: As a society, we extol the virtues of non-violence and the collective fate of humanity, but still the King holiday seems to feel empty. In our current social and political climate that’s defined by division, where does the King holiday fit in?
Religion News Service: King’s last full year of life: Protest, praise, ire, incarceration

Church renews push to close Guantanamo as panelists cite continuing human rights ‘disaster’
Episcopal News Service: Twenty years ago this week, the first detainees arrived at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Since then, 780 people suspected of terrorist connections have been held at Guantanamo, but few were ever tried or even charged.

Why does antisemitism persist?
Deseret News: Experts say a recent offensive email is part of an antisemitic undercurrent that is deeply embedded in American culture.

As COVID-19 death tolls rise, more Americans want religious funerals
Christianity Today: The trend toward secular memorials reverses for the first time in a decade.

Hillsong Church camp ordered to stop singing and dancing by NSW Health
The Guardian: Footage of parishioners reveling at church’s annual youth camp sparks anger at religious groups’ exemption from COVID restrictions.

The Spark

3 cats have outmaneuvered their 2 humans to hold a blender hostage for weeks
The cardboard box has become the site of a weekslong turf war between the couple and their three cats, in a saga that has garnered thousands of invested followers on social media, NPR reports.

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