Wednesday’s News & Ideas - 7/9/2025

IRS says churches can now endorse political candidates
NPR: In a break with decades of tradition, the Internal Revenue Service says it will allow houses of worship to endorse candidates for political office without losing their tax-exempt status.

The Big Beautiful Bill is the ‘final burial of compassionate conservatism’
Religion News Service: A lot has changed in the GOP over the last quarter century.

Anglicanism’s poisoned chalice 
UnHerd: The problem in finding a suitable person to be the Archbishop of Canterbury is this: it has become an impossible job. Not just difficult, but impossible.

How US Christian nationalists are exporting their agenda to Europe
Religion News Service: A new report follows the money as it moves from reactionary advocacy groups and think tanks to groups waging war on women’s equality and related causes.

Nashville’s Christian music stars join activists in push to save PEPFAR
Religion News Service: During a mid-June event at Otter Creek Church, musicians and activists praised PEPFAR for saving millions of lives and urged evangelicals to call their representatives in Congress and show their support for the program.

The Spark

How I solved the century-old mystery of a miraculous shipwreck survivor
In a disaster worse than the Titanic, it was believed a young man swam over six kilometres to safety. It didn’t add up, The Walrus says.

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