Tuesday's News & Ideas - 4/15/2025

Harvard’s decision to resist Trump is ‘of momentous significance’*
The New York Times: Within hours of Harvard’s decision, federal officials said they would freeze $2.2 billion in multiyear grants to the university, along with a $60 million contract.

Young British flock push Catholics to outnumber Anglicans for first time since Henry VIII
The Sidney Morning Herald: Over the past six years, a shift has occurred among younger generations that could see Catholicism overtake Anglicanism as the nation’s dominant Christian denomination for the first time since the Reformation.
The Telegraph: The extraordinary resurgence of the Catholic faith in Britain*

Bless this clinic: How clergy are showing up for abortion clinics
The Nation: Clinic blessings continue a legacy of religious leaders and people of faith championing abortion access.

Jewish students at Georgetown protest detention of professor Badar Khan Suri
NPR: More than 130 Jewish students, staff and alumni from Georgetown University have signed a public letter opposing the arrest and detention of researcher Badar Khan Suri, saying that President Trump’s policies make Jews on campus less safe.

Funerals for cadavers: How one professor gets aspiring ministers comfortable with death
Religion News Service: Indiana Wesleyan professor Mike Tapper worried few of his students would be ready to officiate a funeral when they became pastors at churches, so he came up with a plan that involves mock funerals for cadavers.

The Spark

The plight of the taxman
As I.R.S. employees toil through tax season,* their agency is being dismantled by the government it powers, The New Yorker says.

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