Friday’s News & Ideas - 6/6/2025

Walter Brueggemann, influential biblical scholar, dies at 92
Religion News Service: His books were influential primarily with clergy, but through their sermons Brueggemann’s concepts have become familiar to many churchgoers.

Catholics now make up little more than half Brazil’s population
The Guardian: A census finds just 56.7% are Catholics in the world’s biggest Catholic country as evangelical numbers rise.

Why Black Catholics in New Orleans feel a special connection to Pope Leo XIV
NPR: Despite being born in Chicago and living most of his adult life in Peru, the first American pope has been claimed by Black Catholics in the Big Easy, who are welcoming him as family and dubbing him “Pope Leo of the 7th Ward.”

Supreme Court backs Catholic Charities’ push to object to state taxes on religious grounds
CNN: The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for a Catholic Charities chapter in Wisconsin to secure an exemption from certain state taxes in a decision that could expand the type of religious entities entitled to tax breaks under the First Amendment’s protections for religion.

A Sikh Captain America? Why religious diversity matters in the comics universe
The Associated Press: Comic book writers and academics who study the intersection of religion and comics observe a renaissance of sorts, which they say is happening because people close to non-Abrahamic faith traditions are telling these stories with a reverence and sincerity that resonate with a wider audience.

The Spark

Can public media survive Trump?
Government-backed institutions* sometimes stand up more strongly to authoritarianism than their commercial counterparts, The New Yorker says.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers