Thursday’s News & Ideas - 6/25/2026

Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy days after Texas flood report
USA Today: The bankruptcy filing comes days after the Texas Legislature released its investigation findings into what had happened on July 4, 2025. The report showed the camp failed to provide adequate emergency plans and preparations.

Who belongs in America? Five faith leaders on immigration, identity and America's 250th
Religion News Service: Watch the new RNS video series in which prominent faith leaders and thinkers weigh in on the questions at the heart of the American experiment.

Warnock and Talarico anchor an election-year boomlet for progressive Christianity
Semafor: Their willingness to ground progressive beliefs in faith is a mirror image of the longtime ease with which conservative Republicans have tied their Christianity to their politics.

Vatican blocks women’s homilies, testing Leo’s view of women in church
Religion News Service: A Vatican ruling that bars laypeople, including women, from preaching the homily at Mass is testing the limits of Pope Leo XIV’s early signals of openness to women’s leadership in the Catholic Church.

Gen Z Protestant churchgoers attend more but often lag in application
Religion Unplugged: Gen Z churchgoers attend church more frequently than others in the congregation. However, Gen Z significantly trails other generations in the signposts of exercising faith and living unashamed, according to a new Lifeway study.

The Spark

Telescope captures most detailed image yet of Milky Way's heart: “Cosmic magnifying glass”
The Euclid space telescope has captured the largest and most detailed photo ever taken of our galaxy's crowded heart, a dazzling image packed with 60 million stars, CBS News says.