Monday's News & Ideas - 7/13/2020

Months into COVID-19, funeral directors and clergy continue to innovate death care
Religion News Service: Nearly five months since COVID-19 spurred lockdowns and shelter-in-home policies, funeral homes, green burial conservations and houses of faith are continuing to innovate and adjust to a new normal for death care.

Church singing ban strikes sour note with California pastor
Associated Press: Crossroads Community Church Senior Pastor Jim Clark wants to keep his 1,500 parishioners safe during the coronavirus pandemic but he’s drawing the line at a new California ban on singing or chanting at religious services.

A massive fire has destroyed a 249-year-old church in California
CNN: California firefighters are investigating the origin of a fire that destroyed a historic 249-year-old Catholic church.

Persecuted Christians resettled in US drop dramatically under Trump
Christianity Today: More Christian refugees were welcomed from 50 worst persecutors in 2016 than in President Trump's first three years combined, according to Open Doors and World Relief report.

China bans Senators Cruz, Rubio and 2 other U.S. officials in dispute over religious persecution
CBS News: China on Monday said it will ban entry to U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Representative Chris Smith and Ambassador for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback over their criticism of the ruling Communist Party's policies toward minority groups and people of faith.

The Spark

Americans need to know the hard truth about Union monuments in the West
During the Civil War, Union soldiers in the West weren’t fighting* to end slavery, but to annihilate and remove Native Americans, The Atlantic 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.