Tuesday's News & Ideas - 4/29/2025

Lobbying for next pope heats up, with outcome less predictable than ever
The Guardian: Francis sought to lower the age profile and broaden the spread of the college of cardinals, and for most, it is their first conclave
Religion News Service: Disgraced Cardinal Becciu agrees to obey Francis’ wishes and leave conclave

Rev. William Barber arrested in Capitol Rotunda after praying against Republican-led budget
Religion News Service: While arrests of protesters at the Capitol is not unusual, the response to Barber’s prayer was unusually dramatic: After issuing verbal warnings, dozens of officers expelled everyone in the Rotunda — including credentialed press.

The church’s take on sex has always been complicated*
The Atlantic: A new book on the stormy relationship between God and lust has arrived from the scholar Diarmaid MacCulloch, who argues that Christian ideas about sex have been “startlingly varied” and not always so inherently punitive.

As celebrity-driven churches rise and fall, Capitol Hill Baptist endures*
Christianity Today: Over its 150-year history, the old-school DC congregation has embodied faithfulness over flashiness.

We are not living in a postcolonial world*
The Christian Century: Many church folk use the word decolonization while ignoring its only goal: returning Indigenous lands to Indigenous hands.

The Spark

The Alabama landline that keeps ringing
Auburn University’s help desk is still answering the public’s calls 70 years on, Oxford American says.

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