Friday’s News & Ideas - 9/12/2025
- Austin church caring for homeless
- Gen Z women less religious
- Spiritual care in ICE detention
- Church stealing money
- HBCUs experience bomb threats
- Gaza City satellite images
The Austin church targeted by Ken Paxton for helping the homeless*
Texas Monthly: Pastor Mark Hilbelink saw a dire need in his community and felt called to action. His efforts have been wildly successful — and drawn the ire of everyone from schoolkids to the attorney general.
Social scientists have long found women tend to be more religious than men — but Gen Z may show a shift
The Conversation: Today, there is less empirical evidence that women are more religious than men.
The ‘complicated’ path to spiritual care in ICE detention
Religion News Service: Immigrant detention centers across the country rely on a patchwork of volunteers, private contractors and rare church agreements to provide pastoral care, leaving detainees’ access to faith uneven and uncertain.
Indictment charges church leaders with swindling millions in military benefits
The Associated Press: Leaders of a Georgia-based church with congregations in five states have been charged by federal prosecutors with swindling millions of dollars in veterans benefits from parishioners serving in the military.
HBCUs lock down in response to ‘terroristic’ threats*
Inside Higher Ed: At least seven historically Black institutions in five states investigated threats of violence, evoking memories of the wave of bomb threats that shook HBCUs in 2022.
The Spark
What remains of Gaza City?
Images from Al Jazeera show how neighborhoods across Gaza’s largest city have been leveled in recent months.
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