Monday's News & Ideas - 5/2/2022

ELCA Lutherans mark 35th anniversary amid calls to expand beyond European roots
Religion News Service: The denomination, born on April 30, 1987, remains one of the whitest in the country.

Black Catholic nuns: A compelling, long-overlooked history
Associated Press: After 14 years of tenacious research, Shannen Dee Williams — a history professor at the University of Dayton — arguably now knows more about America’s Black nuns than anyone in the world.

The soul truth
The Assembly: One of North Carolina’s most prominent pastors, the charismatic J.D. Greear of The Summit Church, is trying to convert people with love and a hard line: You’re damned without Jesus. Can it work?

Eid al-Fitr celebrations around the world — in pictures
The Guardian: Muslims mark the three-day festival signalling the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

How race and religion have always played a role in who gets refuge in the US
The Conversation: In the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, millions of Ukrainians have fled the country as refugees. Hundreds of those refugees have now arrived at the southern border of the United States seeking asylum, after flying to Mexico on tourist visas.

The Spark

The war in Ukraine is a colonial war
For centuries, the country has lived in the shadow of empire.* But its past also provides the key to its present, The New Yorker says.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers