Monday's News & Ideas - 7/6/2020

On July 5, Uighurs remember 2009 violence that set Chinese crackdown in motion
Religion News Service: Experts say that the unrest in July 2009 and the state’s aggressive response marked a major turning point in China’s brutal crackdown against the Uighur minority.

Wheaton College fires chaplain for ‘inappropriate comments and actions of a racial and sexual nature'
Chicago Tribune: Wheaton College announced Friday it has dismissed the school’s chaplain for “inappropriate comments and actions of a racial and sexual nature” toward staff members. The school’s president said the action was taken against Tim Blackmon after an outside review of his conduct.

The speck and the log: Liberating the AME Church
Christian Recorder: The Church of Allen was birthed to protest the sin of racism but that act does not absolve us from the need to reckon with our internal faults. For our prophetic voice to cry out clearly, we must address our issues with LGBTQ acceptance and patriarchy, writes John Thomas, editor of the AME newspaper. 

A Supreme Court win for gay rights, but not in my church*
New York Times: It still refuses to ordain me because of my sexuality. Over and over, I’ve been asked: So why do you stay? I stay because of love, writes Jeff Chu.

Keeping the faith: religion in the UK amid coronavirus
The Guardian: As places of worship prepare to reopen after more than three months of lockdown, a photo essay shows the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on faith communities in the UK.

The Spark

Different strokes
Three new books about swimming offer up obscure facts (the first-known depictions of swimming are pictographs made 8,000 years ago on the walls of the Cave of the Swimmers in the middle of the Sahara). They also raise a question: Why do we swim?

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