Thursday's News & Ideas - 3/9/2023

Why it’s so hard to leave The United Methodist Church
Baptist News Global: A March 4 special session of the North Texas Annual Conference to decide the fate of 41 local churches — among them a controversial megachurch — provided a case study in the hurdles faced by disaffiliating congregations.

Seeking evangelicals’ support again, Trump confronts a changed religious landscape*
The New York Times: Evangelicals were wooed by Donald Trump’s promise of an anti-abortion Supreme Court. Now, they’re back playing the field.

Mark Rivera, a former Anglican lay pastor, sentenced to 15 years in prison
Religion News Service: ‘She continues to be impacted every single day by this man’s abuse,’ said the mother of the child abuse survivor who first reported Rivera.

Supreme Court declines to hear Florida prayer vigil dispute
NBC News: The case could have made it harder for people to sue over the alleged government endorsement of religion in violation of the First Amendment.

On Ukraine, is Pope Francis isolated … or ahead of his time?
Crux: The pope’s positioning on Ukraine seems isolated and ineffective only if we restrict the angle of vision to Europe and the West.

The Spark

The family who tried to end racism through adoption
Bob and Sheryl Guterl saw their family as a kind of “ark for the age of the nuclear bomb” and attempted to gather “two of every race,”* writes Nicole Chung in The Atlantic.

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