Tuesday’s News & Ideas - 6/2/2026

AI stumbles on questions of faith
Axios: As churches, apps and spiritual chatbots embrace AI, new research suggests general-purpose models may be ill-equipped to handle sensitive questions of faith: grief, forgiveness, marriage, guilt and conversion.

In U.F.O. files, some Christians see vexing questions — and demons*
The New York Times: The prospect of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe raises unsettling theological implications.

Trump administration pledges $100M in aid for Cuba, but only if Catholic or other faith‑based groups distribute it
The Conversation: Neither the Cuban government nor its military would be allowed to manage its distribution.

The Vatican is tackling a big problem plaguing global healthcare
Religion News Service: More than 100 experts and advocates gathered for the largest-ever summit in Rome on the challenges to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene at hospitals and clinics around the world lacking these basic needs.

Orthodox Jewish women in Israel may now take a rabbinic exam, like men
NPR: Israel’s Orthodox religious authorities still refuse to officially ordain women as rabbis, and most Orthodox communities themselves are resistant to women carrying that formal title.

The Spark

You must remember this
My memory is legendary in the family, and though it’s wearing thin now, getting patchy in places, I still remember when the legend began, Jonathan Weiner writes for The American Scholar.

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