Wednesday's News & Ideas - 6/24/2020

The coming “religion recession”
Religion & Politics: As a stir-crazy nation slowly emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, debates about what our “new normal” will be like are intensifying.

Solidarity, not charity: Why mutual aid reemerged in the pandemic, and is flourishing amid protests
Religion News Service: Many volunteers involved in the current resurgence of mutual aid projects say that they are driven both by the understanding that existing welfare systems are broken -- and that it’s their duty as believers to step in.

In Philippines, a child alleges abuse by Catholic priest -- and tests Vatican promise for global reckoning*
The Washington Post: The historical reckoning over abuse and coverups has gripped the church in the West for decades. But far fewer public cases have come from other parts of the Catholic world, including Africa, Asia and the pontiff’s homeland in Latin America.

How the head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary came around to Trump*
The New Yorker: In 2016, Albert Mohler said that the “marriage of convenience” between evangelicals and the Republican Party was over. In April, 2020, however, he announced that he planned to vote for Trump this fall.

White Evangelicals’ coronavirus concerns are fading faster
Christianity Today: But when it comes to behavior, evangelicals are as likely as the rest of the country to keep up social distancing, according to Data for Progress survey.

The Spark

‘Normal’ was actually not great for a lot of people
Alice Wong, founder of the Disability Visibility Project, writes for Esquire on why we have to emerge from COVID-19 thinking about accessibility.

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