Wednesday's News & Ideas - 10/23/2019

Christian aid groups vow to stay to help after US sudden withdrawal from Syria
Religion News Service: Earlier this month, the pastor of a Kurdish Christian church in northeastern Syria gathered his congregation to decide whether to leave or stay as Turkish forces pressed into the region after U.S. troops had suddenly withdrawn.
The Conversation: Deportation to Syria could mean death for women, children and LGBTQ refugees in Turkey

Teaching Democrats to speak evangelical*
The New Yorker: Doug Pagitt founded “Vote Common Good” last year to make the religious left more visible.

Her grandfather founded the Westboro Baptist Church. Twitter helped her leave it.
GEN: To understand her own extreme beliefs, Megan Phelps-Roper began listening to people who reached out to her on social media.

Prolonged GM strike stirs faith community to help neighbors
National Catholic Reporter: The prolonged national strike has left a local footprint in northeast Indiana, touching on old structures of solidarity in the community and springing up new ones in its path.

One of the first of many sexual abuse lawsuits expected under a new California law targets Modesto megachurch
Baptist News Global: A survivor of childhood sexual abuse is suing a California church and her former youth pastor in one of the first of many lawsuits expected to be filed under a new law greatly extending the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims.

The Spark

Be humble, and proudly, psychologists say
Humility* is not the boldest of personality traits, but it’s an important one, The New York Times says. And it’s hard to fake.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers

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