Friday's News & Ideas - 5/13/2022

Women settle suit alleging Liberty mishandled assault cases
Associated Press: A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit twelve women brought last summer against Liberty University, accusing the Christian institution of fostering an unsafe environment on its Virginia campus and mishandling cases of sexual assault and harassment.

Measuring COVID-19’s effect: Southern Baptists report 19% attendance drop
Religion News Service: Beyond a rise in baptisms, the only other growth Southern Baptists saw in 2021 was in financial giving.

Catholic News Service closure opens the door to partisan and ideological church coverage, Catholic journalists warn*
America: With the decision by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to close the U.S. bureaus of Catholic News Service later this year, editors and other journalists at Catholic newspapers throughout the United States worry that coverage of the church will suffer.

Why is China afraid of a 90-year-old Catholic bishop?*
The Washington Post: On Wednesday, Beijing directed Hong Kong’s National Security Department to arrest Cardinal Joseph Zen, the city’s Catholic bishop emeritus.

A rabbi’s contentious quest for religious pluralism in Israel*
The New York Times: There is more than one way to be Jewish, says Gilad Kariv, the first Reform rabbi in Israel’s Parliament. The idea poses a challenge to the country’s Orthodox establishment.

The Spark

What’s killing the world’s biggest fish?
Cargo ships are likely a leading cause of whale shark deaths, Vox says.

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