Monday’s News & Ideas - 8/31/2026
- Schism continues in Dallas UMC
- March on Washington
- Parton & Southern church
- Burge on media reports
- Muslim practices seen as threats
- MAHA custody battle
The schism in the UMC ended two years ago; but not in this Dallas church
Religion News Service: Two years after a schism led 7,600 churches to leave the United Methodist fold, its reverberations are now being felt in a battle between one of its most elite churches and a Texas conference.
March on Washington renews focus on voting rights after Supreme Court gutting
Religion News Service: “The fact that we still have to fight to maintain and renew voting rights in this country is beyond abysmal and a truly national disgrace,” Martin Luther King III said Friday.
Dolly Parton and the ‘pretty darn good’ Southern church*
The New York Times: For many Americans, Parton represented an idealized style of faith: one centered in small rural congregations that prize community over ideology.
Sociologist Ryan Burge isn’t buying media reports that Christianity is flourishing
National Catholic Reporter: His number crunching disputes recent anecdotes describing the burgeoning state of American Christianity.
In Texas, ordinary Muslim religious practices are increasingly being treated as political threats
The Conversation: Elected officials across Texas are increasingly treating ordinary Muslim religious practice — prayer, dress, marriage counseling, even mosques themselves — as evidence of a political threat and saying so openly.
The Spark
The MAHA custody battle
A father wanted to vaccinate* his children. Their mother didn’t. Then the kids got sick, The New Yorker says.
*access is limited for nonsubscribers
