Monday's News & Ideas - 2/10/2025

Vatican’s Caritas outraged at ‘reckless’ USAID cuts, says millions will die, others left in poverty
The Associated Press: The Vatican’s charity voiced outrage Monday at what it called the “reckless” and “unhuman” U.S. plans to gut USAID, with Pope Francis’ point-man on development aid insisting that the Trump administration remember Christian principles about caring for others as it begins governing.

Americans will bet more than a billion on the Super Bowl. Do faith leaders care?
Religion News Service: Legal betting is bad for bettors and society alike, said gambling critic Kathleen Benfield. “It’s a house of cards,” she said. “And it’s going to fall.”

Amid sweeping immigration crackdown, Minnesota churches scrambling to respond*
The Minnesota Star Tribune: One Minneapolis church is creating a migrant support fund to “stand with immigrants.” Catholic bishops say they back Trump’s actions to deport immigrants with criminal records.

The prisoner who planted a church on death row*
Christianity Today: As Trump pushes states to resume executions, Kevin Burns in Tennessee tries to keep his congregation alive.

‘A very Christian concept’*
The Atlantic: The faith’s mandate is more arduous than J. D. Vance’s account seems to allow.

The Spark

Greenland: Polar politics
Though it may seem like a new topic of concern, the glaciated landscape of Greenland has floated in and out of American politics for decades, JSTOR says.

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