News & Ideas

Wednesday’s News & Ideas - 4/1/2026

  • SCOTUS allows conversion therapy
  • NY Episcopal reparations
  • Judge on Johnson Amendment
  • Exodus & Civil War
  • Religious ‘renewal’
  • Wong Kim Ark case

Supreme Court opens door to controversial conversion therapy
NPR: Siding with a Christian counselor in Colorado, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday tossed out the state’s law banning conversion therapy.
Baptist News Global: 3 ways churches may respond to the violence of conversion therapy

NY Episcopal Diocese outlines plan for $1.2M racial reparations fund
Religion News Service: New York Episcopalians profited from the transatlantic slave trade and were “uniquely implicated in the odious institution and in anti-Black policies and practices that extend through generations,” according to a new report.

Judge rejects Johnson Amendment settlement, keeping ban on pastors endorsing candidates
Religion News Service: The ruling caps a decades-long battle to overturn a ban on houses of worship endorsing candidates.

A plague on both your houses
ARC: The punishments of the Pharaoh and his country served as an inescapable refrain for the abolitionist movement.

The real religious ‘renewal’ happening in Gen Z*
The Atlantic: Some pastors and politicians claim that a Christian revival is afoot among young Americans. Nationwide data tell a different story.

The Spark

He won birthright citizenship for all. His own family never knew.
Wong Kim Ark brought his case* to the Supreme Court in 1898. But some of his descendants didn’t even know his name until about 15 years ago, The New York Times says.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers



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Friday’s News & Ideas - 4/17/2026

  • US bishops support pope
  • The Book of Tarantino?
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  • Vibe-coding success
  • Telling the tale of ‘Wishbone’ 

Thursday’s News & Ideas - 4/16/2025

  • Chicago seminary stops enrollment
  • Men finding religion
  • Forest synagogue
  • More religion in Trump government
  • Writing to the modern church
  • Interpretation in hospitals

Wednesday’s News & Ideas - 4/15/2026

  • Last of an order of nuns
  • Study on antisemitic attacks
  • Micro-colleges
  • Far-right targets church funds
  • Church-state separation a ‘lie’
  • Car-crash conspiracy
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