News & Ideas

Friday's News & Ideas - 7/12/2019

  • UMC bishops propose plan
  • Vatican tomb opened, empty
  • Clergy bless abortion clinic
  • Chapel on the moon
  • Religious left on TV
  • Language & climate crisis

2 bishops offer plan for UMC’s future
United Methodist News Service: Two bishops propose turning UMC into an umbrella organization for new, self-governing church groups that would offer different approaches on ordination of gay clergy and same-sex unions.

No bones found in Vatican tombs searched for missing girl
Associated Press: Emanuela Orlandi’s disappearance is one of Italy’s most enduring mysteries, and the opening of the tombs at her family’s request was the latest search for possible leads to fail.

Clergy bless clinic reopened after Supreme Court overturns abortion regulations
Baptist News Global: A dozen interfaith clergy held a blessing ceremony at a women’s reproductive-health clinic in Texas to demonstrate there is more than one way for Christians to view the abortion debate.

What would a chapel on the moon look like? Catholics in the ’60s had some ideas.
America: When it became likely that humankind would actually succeed in landing a person on the moon, the prospect also opened up whole new worlds of possibility for theologians.

Watching the rise of the religious left on 1970s TV
Religion News Service: L. Benjamin Rolsky discusses the influence of media moguls such as Norman Lear and how their messages still echo within the modern religious left.

The Spark

How language and climate connect
While we’re losing biological diversity, we’re also losing linguistic and cultural diversity at the same time. This is no coincidence, JSTOR says.

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