Friday's News & Ideas - 2/28/2025

Martin Marty, leading scholar of American religion, dies at 97
NPR: For more than half a century, Marty was the go-to interview for journalists trying to make sense of some religious moment, whether it was a presidential election or an ecumenical agreement between Catholics and Lutherans.

‘We brought him 4kg of ice-cream’: Pope Francis’s parlor shares papal favorites
The Guardian: Sebastian Padrón explains how ice-cream brought his family closer with fellow Argentinian and neighbor, Pope Francis.

How ‘muscular Christianity’ strove to bring men back to religion — and what it can teach us today
The Conversation: In the 19th century especially, Christian churches became particularly alarmed more and more men were leaving religion to women — from attendance at worship to running parish organizations or establishing charitable endeavors.

The pope’s role has changed in our time. But has the church?*
The New Yorker: A new account of the papacy’s recent history reveals the transformation of the office in the mass-media age.

Episcopal Church lays off 14 as presiding bishop marks ‘major milestone’ in churchwide realignment*
Episcopal News Service: Sean Rowe, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, announced staff cuts and the reorganization of several church departments last week as part of an anticipated structural realignment that will eventually save an estimated $2.13 million a year in personnel costs.

The Spark

Economic blackout: Will a 24-hour boycott make a difference?
A grassroots organization is encouraging U.S. residents not to spend any money Friday as an act of “economic resistance” to protest what the group’s founder sees as the malign influence of billionaires, big corporations and both major political parties on the lives of working Americans, The Associated Press says.

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