Tuesday’s News & Ideas - 12/2/2025
- Clergy resist ICE
- Gay denomination shrinks
- Tom Stoppard’s Jewish story
- Pastor’s case and SCOTUS
- Christmas commerce
- Is your dog a wolf?
Chicago’s faith leaders on front lines of resistance against ICE crackdown
The Guardian: Amid the raids and arrests, which have created a pervasive sense of fear, faith leaders have stepped up, putting themselves on the front lines of resistance.
The largest gay denomination in the U.S. is shrinking. Why?*
Sojourners: Half a century ago, Metropolitan Community Church was the largest gay organization in the United States. Today, there are approximately 100 MCC churches, with over 40 in the South. But a generation ago, there were more than double that amount.
Near the end of his life, playwright Tom Stoppard finally told his own Jewish story
Religion News Service: He was a creator of absurdist stories, but his own was largely hidden from view.
Can a Mississippi pastor challenge the constitutionality of a law that he was previously convicted of violating?
SCOTUS blog: A pastor arrested for not staying within a designated protest area while evangelizing outside a concert filed a claim contending that a city ordinance violates his First Amendment rights.
Giving echoes Bethlehem: How commerce kept Christmas alive
Religion Unplugged: Gift-giving isn’t a betrayal of Christmas. In truth, it’s a reenactment of it.
Kansas City Star: I’m a Christian pastor, and I know who’s waging the war on Christmas
The Spark
Most dogs have a little wolf in them
The two subspecies split about 20,000 years ago. But since then, they may have interbred more often than scientists thought, Smithsonian magazine says.
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