Tuesday's News & Ideas - 7/11/2023

Many African American SBC churches have women pastors on staff. Will they be expelled next?
Religion News Service: A letter from the president of the SBC’s National African American Fellowship expressed concerns over recent SBC decisions to bar churches with women pastors.

American confidence in higher ed hits historic low*
Inside Higher Ed: A Gallup poll shows only 36 percent of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, which is down by about 20 percentage points from eight years ago.

Church of England votes to bring back ‘defrocking’ as punishment for clergy
The Guardian: Priests or deacons guilty of serious misconduct may be stripped of holy orders, a measure which was abolished 20 years ago.

Jews and Muslims come together at Srebrenica anniversary of Europe’s only post-World War II genocide
The Associated Press: Jews and Muslims came together on Monday in Bosnia on the eve of the 28th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since the Holocaust, to talk about ways of using their shared pain to help rid the world of hate and bigotry.

Vivek Ramaswamy leans into his Hindu faith to court Christian voters*
The New York Times: The Republican candidate for president makes a pitch that the faiths have much in common, but for many religious conservatives, the difference is a hurdle.

The Spark

Can cognitive behavioral therapy change our minds?
The theory behind C.B.T.* rests on an unlikely idea — that we can be rational after all, The New Yorker says.

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