Tuesday’s News & Ideas - 3/31/2026

Invoking faith in wartime, Pete Hegseth breaks norms and worries critics*
The Washington Post: The defense secretary is upending decades-old norms, current and former leaders say, with some cautioning that his proselytizing violates the Constitution and undermines troop cohesion.

Home movies for Holy Week
ARC: Danny McBride, Sterlin Harjo, and Mike Judge offer clearer views of American Christianity than any pundit — because they know their own backyards

A Catholic school teacher was fired after he married a man. Now, a church debuts his film.
Religion News Service: “This piece is not about pointing fingers,” said writer, actor and former music teacher Matthew LaBanca. “It’s about sharing the emotional struggle that somebody goes through, and the freedom that I have to share it because I didn’t sign anything.”

Many Latin Americans — especially Protestants — see a role for religion in national leadership, identity and laws
Pew Research Center: Protestants — who account for a relatively small share of the population in each of the six Latin American countries we surveyed — often stand out as especially inclined to favor a strong role for Christianity in their country’s leadership

Israel apologizes after barring cardinal from Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday
Religion News Service: Israeli authorities apologized after barring Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday, an incident that drew sharp criticism from global leaders and church officials.

The Spark

The bottom of the ninth
In baseball and in life, there is a cost to our pursuit of an error-free existence, The American Scholar says.

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