Friday’s News & Ideas - 1/9/2026

Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian: ‘The goal is to reframe the entire culture of the US’
The Guardian: The president has vowed to kill off ‘woke’ in his second term in office, and the venerable cultural institution a few blocks from the White House is in his sights.

After Maduro, Venezuelan Christians pray for end to U.S. imperialism*
Sojourners: After the U.S. military’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, faith leaders are processing deep feelings of conflict, both with Maduro and with the U.S. intervention.

‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ defines Hollywood’s take on spirituality
Religion Unplugged: The franchise’s spirituality has been very consistent. “Avatar” and its sequels take place on the fictional alien planet of Pandora, where the inhabitants, the Na’vi, depict the worship of a goddess, Eywa, who is the globally distributed consciousness of the world.

Warnock, declaring ‘spiritual crisis,’ urges public, private sectors to help meet needs
Religion News Service: “Those of us who are people of faith need to lead the way in helping the nation to understand that meeting people’s physical needs is a spiritual project,” he said.

New pipe organ signals rebirth for Episcopal parish after fire, flood and ‘plague’
Religion News Service: The Church of the Epiphany’s new pipe organ was hand-built in Utah before being delivered by a semitrailer to the church on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The Spark

The bones of children’s mouths are being wrenched apart
A fervor for reshaping young mouths has taken hold in orthodontics,* The Atlantic says. What purpose does it really serve?

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