Friday's News & Ideas - 1/31/2025
- Future of religion in America
- Hegseth & American Jews
- Is empathy Christian?
- MI priest defrocked over salute
- Catholic Jubilee year
- Big tech broke our politics
ICE agents in churches ‘does not bode well for the future of religion’ in America*
The Texas Observer: “They’re de facto endorsing government interference with the church—the very government interference with the church that they've complained about in the past,” David Brockman said.
Pete Hegseth’s belief in Christian dominion should deeply trouble American Jews*
Forward: The new secretary of defense’s approach to Zionism has Christian supremacist roots.
Empathy for immigrants sounds like Christianity 101. Here's why some say it's a sin.
Religion News Service: A small but influential group of evangelicals argues that enforcing the law is as important as mercy, and has come to see Christian charities as the enemy.
Michigan priest defrocked after making apparent Nazi salute at anti-abortion summit
The Guardian: Calvin Robinson said he made gesture as “a joke” to mock those who denounced Elon Musk’s similar salute.
Rest, reorientation and hope — the pillars of 2025’s Catholic Jubilee year
The Conversation: Pope Francis has proclaimed a Jubilee year in the Catholic Church, which began on Dec. 24, 2024, and will continue through Jan. 6, 2026. But what is a Jubilee, and what is this year’s about?
The Spark
How big tech mined our attention and broke our politics
“Superbloom,” by Nicholas Carr, and “The Sirens’ Call,” by the MSNBC host Chris Hayes, argue that we are ill equipped to handle the infinite scroll* of the information age, The New York Times says.
*access is limited for nonsubscribers
