Friday's News & Ideas - 9/30/2022

Clergy strive to reconcile politically divided congregations
Associated Press: Though many congregations in the U.S. are relatively homogeneous, others are sharply divided. In some cases, divisions are becoming more pronounced as midterm election season heats up, leaving clergy to keep the peace while still meeting the spiritual needs of all of their members.

Is Sinéad O’Connor a secular saint?*
Christian Century: A new documentary positions the fiery iconoclast as a prophet ahead of her time.

Died: Brother Andrew, who smuggled Bibles into communist countries
Christianity Today: Founder of Open Doors said he wasn’t an “evangelical stuntman” but a faithful Christian following the leading of the Spirit.

Church says clergywoman faces trumped-up charges
United Methodist News Service: The former United Methodist district superintendent and deaconess has been charged with attempted murder, but she and her supporters say she is innocent and the charge is meant to silence her advocacy for indigenous people.

Iranians are ready for a different approach to religion and government
FiveThirtyEight: A whopping 72 percent of literate Iranians over age 19 disagreed with the government mandating that women wear the hijab in public, compared with only 15 percent who agreed with it.

The Spark

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg on making amends to someone who can’t hear your apology
We all have regrets. We rarely decide to do something about facing them, Lit Hub says.

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