News & Ideas

Monday's News & Ideas - 11/30/2020

  • Churches on Indigenous land
  • Advent, season of sighs
  • Biden’s Catholic critics
  • Pope Francis op-ed
  • SCOTUS on COVID restrictions
  • What is dark matter?

Churches return land to Indigenous groups as part of #LandBack movement
Religion News Service: The returns come as some mainline Protestant Christian denominations have learned about and repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, the justification for European Christians to seize lands already inhabited by Indigenous peoples.

Advent is a season of sighs, especially this year*
Christian Century: We don’t pine for a second coming that will bring the world to an end. We pray for the indwelling of Christ that will enable the world to continue.

Joe Biden’s harshest critics are likely to be some of his fellow Catholics*
The Washington Post: To conservative Catholics, it is not just Biden’s stance on abortion that angers them, it is the kind of Catholicism he represents.

Pope Francis: A crisis reveals what is in our hearts*
The New York Times: To come out of this pandemic better than we went in, we must let ourselves be touched by others’ pain.

In a 5-4 ruling, Supreme Court sides with religious groups in a dispute over Covid-19 restrictions in New York
CNN: The case is the latest pitting religious groups against city and state officials seeking to stop the spread of Covid-19, and it highlights the impact of Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the court.

The Spark

Dark matter, unexplained
Dark matter holds our universe together. No one knows what it is, Vox says.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers

Want to get News & Ideas in your inbox every weekday?
Subscribe to our
News & Ideas newsletter or receive our RSS feed in your RSS reader.



Sign up to receive religion news every weekday in the free News & Ideas newsletter

Signup options

Most recent News & Ideas

Friday’s News & Ideas - 5/1/2026

  • ‘Black voters will persist‘
  • Camp Mystic's leadership
  • Adam Hamilton runs for office
  • Penalizing disabled adults
  • Mother mourns slain son
  • 10 lessons on ending the fossil fuel era

Thursday’s News & Ideas - 4/30/2026

  • Newsboys co-founder sues Julie Roys
  • ‘Speedrunning’ Scientology
  • Chatbots talk to theologians
  • UK antisemitism emergency
  • American religious history
  • Injecting Ozempic

Wednesday’s News & Ideas - 4/29/2026

  • Opposition to death penalty
  • ‘Wife schools’
  • Can Trump push away evangelicals?
  • Revival that wasn’t
  • Wexner Foundation & Epstein
  • Message in a bottle
data

Generate a religion demographics report for your ZIP code

This tool from the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) assists church and community leaders in accessing free online information about their communities. The initial map shows the location of other churches in your area and the Community Profile Builder provides you with social, economic and religious information on the community or neighborhoods you select.

Learn More