Thursday's News & Ideas - 6/8/2023

Pat Robertson, broadcaster who helped make religion central to GOP politics, dies at 93
Associated Press: Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, has died.

Bart Barber, Mike Stone — two conservative pastors — to square off for SBC president
Religion News Service: The two candidates for SBC president hold many of the same beliefs but disagree sharply over how to handle the issue of sexual abuse and over the direction of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Pastors: lead not your church into fear of AI*
Christianity Today: We can use generative apps for ministry and make our congregations aware of its dangers.

$60K on Christmas decorations: SBC seminary discloses excessive spending by ex-president*
Tennessean: The former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary excessively spent seminary funds on home renovations and violated seminary credit card policy, the prominent Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated seminary detailed in a news release Wednesday.

Behind a rare clash, a fight over faith in China*
The New York Times: China is destroying Arab-style architectural features of mosques, such as domes and minarets. The tightened control on religion has been met with rare resistance.

The Spark

Read the poem NASA will send to Jupiter’s moon Europa
NASA is sending a poem by United States Poet Laureate Ada Limón on its upcoming Europa Clipper mission, which will search for life on the icy moon of Jupiter, says Smithsonian Magazine.

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