Wednesday's News & Ideas - 11/10/2021

High court skeptical of Texas death row inmate prayer demand
Associated Press: Conservative Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism Tuesday about a Texas death row inmate’s demand that his pastor be allowed to pray out loud and touch him during his execution.
Vox: The Supreme Court finally figures out that religious liberty cases are hard
The New York Times: Supreme Court weighs condemned man’s wish for pastor’s touch*

Southern Seminary and Asbury Seminary work with noted anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ legal group to claim federal vaccine mandate intrudes on ‘personal health decisions’
Baptist News Global: A Southern Baptist Convention seminary and a Wesleyan seminary in Kentucky are jointly challenging the Biden administration’s federal mandate on COVID-19 vaccination by claiming a religious liberty violation.

How COVID raised the stakes of the war between faith and science*
The New York Times: These past two years have exposed how the science vs. faith discourse isn’t an abstract ideological debate but a false dichotomy that has disastrous real-world consequences.

‘It’s being abused by an entire belief system’: a haunting film on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy
The Guardian: In Netflix documentary Procession, six men who survived sexual abuse as children make short films to try and process their trauma.

Are people lying more since the rise of social media and smartphones?
The Conversation: Communication scholars have long wondered not just who lies the most, but also whether people tend to lie more online, in person or over the phone.

The Spark

Netflix’s biggest new hits have audiences bingeing economic uncertainty
From dystopia to domestic work, viewers seem drawn to shows about the dark side of capitalism,* writes Camille Sojit Pejcha at Slate.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers