Thursday's News & Ideas - 10/3/2024
- Responses to church decline
- Billionaire preachers in Texas
- Oct 7 & High Holy Days
- Vatican bank fires newlyweds
- Pastor preaching into gun violence
- Impact of art on the brain
Three responses to church decline*
The Christian Century: It’s not that religion adheres to egregious ideas so much as that the whole notion of being habituated into a committed community of ritual and tradition seems incongruous.
A pair of billionaire preachers built the most powerful political machine in Texas. That’s just the start.
ProPublica: Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks are poised to take their Christian nationalist agenda nationwide.
October 7th anniversary weighs heavy as Jews enter the High Holy Days
NPR: No matter when the one-year anniversary fell, it would have been difficult, but Rabbi Zachary Zysman said it’s particularly poignant “at a time when we’re thinking about repentance, renewal and hope.”
Vatican bank fires newlywed couple for violating a new workplace marriage ban
The Associated Press: The Institute for Religious Works said it took the “difficult decision” to fire the couple, who have three children, after neither one agreed to resign voluntarily to allow the other to continue working.
A pastor forgave the young shooter who killed his son. Now, he helps others do the same.
The Trace: The Reverend Christobal Kimmenez has joined others in calling for greater services for survivors of crime and the formerly incarcerated, including restorative justice.
The Spark
Real art in museums stimulates brain much more than reprints, study finds
Scientists in Netherlands using eye-tracking and MRI scans found an “enormous difference” between genuine works and posters, The Guardian says.
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