Monday's News & Ideas - 3/27/2023

ALA reports shocking increase in attempted book bans in 2022
Publishers Weekly: The American Library Association reported the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago, and nearly double the record-shattering 729 challenges recorded in 2021.

COVID-19 sent houses of worship online. Will congregations come back in person?
Religion News Service: Religious leaders can find concern and comfort in a survey about attendance at worship early in the pandemic.

How Christian is Christian Nationalism?*
The New Yorker: Many Americans who advocate it have little interest in religion and an aversion to American culture as it currently exists. What really defines the movement?

NY’s power to regulate religious schools trimmed by judge
Associated Press: Parents cannot be required to pull their children from private schools in New York that fail to meet state-designated standards, a judge decided, striking down a key provision of rules recently passed to strengthen oversight of such schools, including those specializing in religious education.

Last orders? Belgium’s Trappist beers under threat as vocations run dry
The Guardian: The country’s oldest Trappist brewery faces an uncertain future after a decline in people entering monastic life.

The Spark

I am haunted by what I have seen at Great Salt Lake
The Latter-day Saints church has the moral authority and political sway to save Great Salt Lake,* The New York Times says.

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