Thursday's News & Ideas - 9/19/2019

The Christian Right is helping drive liberals away from religion
FiveThirtyEight: Researchers haven’t found a comprehensive explanation for why the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans has increased over the past few years, but a recent swell of social science research suggests that even if politics wasn’t the sole culprit, it was an important contributor.

Biden’s abortion shift tests the politics of his faith
Associated Press: So far, Biden has faced little criticism over his shift on abortion funding relative to other aspects of his record, and polls show that he remains Catholic Democrats’ overwhelming favorite in the presidential field.

For Uighurs in China, technology opened new opportunities -- then became a trap
The Conversation: Uighur IDs are checked by thousands of newly built digital media and face surveillance checkpoints located at jurisdictional boundaries, entrances to religious spaces and transportation hubs.

Wheaton College students sue city, say rights to free speech, religious liberty were violated by guards booting them from Millennium Park, restricting access*
Chicago Tribune: The students pushed back when Millennium Park instituted rules they believe undercut the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and free exercise of religion.

Sixty years later, only Frank Lloyd Wright synagogue continues as ‘work of art’
Religion News Service: The only synagogue designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Beth Sholom Synagogue still stands in this suburb north of Philadelphia as both a house of prayer and an unusual, functioning piece of art.

The Spark

How ancient DNA can help recast colonial history
The people of pre-colonial Puerto Rico did not disappear entirely -- a new study* shows that the island’s residents still carry bits of their DNA, says Ed Yong at The Atlantic.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers

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