News & Ideas

Wednesday's News & Ideas - 8/17/2021

  • WCA wants churches to withhold UMC dues
  • Extremist gun culture & rosary
  • Religion knows value of breaks
  • Deadly Coptic church fire
  • Brazilian election campaign
  • America’s ‘smartest’ people

WCA calls on conservative churches to withhold dues from United Methodist Church
Religion News Service: Those apportionments, determined by each annual conference, fund bishops’ salaries and support the work of the mainline Protestant denomination around the world.

Religions have long known that getting away from it all is good for the mind, body and spirit
The Conversation: This no-break culture has real consequences for physical, mental and spiritual health.

How extremist gun culture is trying to co-opt the rosary*
The Atlantic: Why are sacramental beads suddenly showing up next to AR-15s online?

After deadly church fire, Egyptian neighborhood searches for answers*
The Washington Post: The back roads of a working-class neighborhood in greater Cairo transformed into makeshift funeral parlors on Monday, as a community confronted the devastating aftermath of a church fire that killed 41 people, including many children.

Lula says Bolsonaro ‘possessed by devil’ as he launches Brazil election campaign
The Guardian: The leftwing frontrunner counters far-right president’s efforts to demonize him with evangelical voters in bitterly divided country.

The Spark

My week with America’s ‘smartest’ people
Mensa’s Annual Gathering* is a strange but affirming experience, New York Magazine says.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers



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