News & Ideas

Thursday's News & Ideas - 8/11/2022

  • Church reproduced ‘Hamilton’
  • Suspect in NM shootings detained
  • Churches forgiving medical debt
  • Interreligious friendships in Partition
  • The mother of Israel
  • Secret agent Josephine Baker

‘Hamilton’ team protests after church production adds Christian themes*
The New York Times: A church in Texas changed several lyrics in its unauthorized staging of the megahit musical, softening language and inserting religious messages.
Religion Dispatches: Despite vastly different values, evangelical ‘Hamilton’ connects secular left and Christian right

Fear turns to shock among Albuquerque Muslims as police say the shooter is a Muslim
NPR: The suspect is well-known to the Muslim community in Albuquerque, multiple people told NPR. He regularly came to the same mosque that the victims had attended.

Churches are forgiving medical debt for pennies. Yours can too.
Sojourners: At First Presbyterian Church, in Durham, NC, forgiving medical debt is about more than helping those in need. It’s about paying back a different kind of debt — one deeply rooted in the history of their region, and the nation.

Preserving stories of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh friendships through India’s Partition
Religion News Service: Descendants of those who experienced the Partition of Punjab in 1947 come together to share stories of interfaith collaboration after 75 years of religious animosity in India and Pakistan.

Who is the mother of Israel?*
Christian Century: In the Hebrew Bible, God’s love is maternal.

The Spark

Josephine Baker was the star France wanted — and the spy it needed
When the night-club sensation became a Resistance agent,* the Nazis never realized what she was hiding in the spotlight, The New Yorker says.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers



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