Wednesday's News & Ideas - 1/16/2019

Dementia and religion: 'What if I forget about God?'
Religion News Service: It's a query that reflects the struggles of people facing diseases like Alzheimer's and gives Louisville geropsychologist Benjamin Mast a chance to explain how workings of the brain can relate to functions of faith.

How religious conservatives are grappling with racism
Religion & Politics: Several voices on the religious right are urging Protestant Christians to recognize and act against race-based injustice.

The top reasons young people drop out of church
Christianity Today: Slightly fewer young adults are dropping out of church after high school, but those who do have more serious reasons for leaving than a decade ago.
Religion News Service: Are churches willing to love their young people more than their politics?

Women strive for larger roles in male-dominated religions
Associated Press: Women around the world are finding new ways to chip away at centuries of male-dominated traditions and barriers, with many of them emboldened by the surge of social media activism that's spread globally in the #MeToo era.

Move over, Vatican -- there's a new church in town!
CNN: Italy's first ever Mormon temple opened on Monday, just a few miles up the road from the Vatican, in the Eternal City of Rome.

The Spark

The empathetic humanities have much to teach our adversarial culture
As anyone on Twitter knows, public culture can be quick to attack, castigate and condemn. As Aeon reports, does the lack of charity in public discourse stem in part from what we might call the "adversarial" humanities?

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