Wednesday's News & Ideas - 2/9/2022

What to do with our pandemic anger*
The New York Times: America has done a very poor job of dealing with COVID. We’ve had more deaths, as a percentage of the population, than any other large, wealthy nation. Why? Because so many Americans haven’t behaved responsibly.

Texas rabbi taken hostage tells U.S. House panel: I’m haunted by my decision to open the door to the terrorist*
The Washington Post: A Texas rabbi taken hostage last month in his synagogue told U.S. House members Tuesday that he is haunted by his decision that Sabbath morning to open the door and let in the man who later proved to be a terrorist.

Why church conflict in Ukraine reflects historic Russian-Ukrainian tensions
The Conversation: Two different Orthodox churches claim to be the one true Ukrainian Orthodox Church for the Ukrainian people. The two churches offer strikingly different visions of the relationship between the Ukrainian and the Russian peoples.

How Buddhism has changed the west for the better
The Guardian: We are not who we were very long ago. A lot of new ideas have emerged from Buddhism and other traditions emphasizing compassion, equality, nonviolence and critical perspectives on materialism and capitalism

Jonathan Franzen’s literary liberal Protestantism pushes limits on where God is found
Religion News Service: With ‘Crossroads,’ Franzen has elevated a rarely explored form: the Protestant Christian novel.

The Spark

My mother told stories through Hmong embroidery, I use the pen
The legend goes that the Hmong once had a precious scroll containing their entire history, Lisa Lee Herrick writes at Catapult.

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