Wednesday’s News & Ideas - 9/2/2026

Wendell Berry’s vision of a sacred world*
The Christian Century: Experience, reading, and the daily rounds of farm work taught Wendell that scripture is correct: Every creature and every inch of earth is made and approved by God.
Religion News Service: Wendell Berry, writer and farmer, was extolled by many as a modern-day prophet

‘Demonic oppression’ and ‘girly convos’: The podcast wooing young women to conservative Christianity
The Guardian: Since debuting in 2023, Girls Gone Bible has become a brand all its own, with more than 1 million followers on Instagram and ranking 42nd for the religion and spirituality genre on Spotify.

Canada hires 48 scholars away from top U.S. universities*
The New York Times: A crackdown on American academia by the Trump administration has handed Canadian universities a rare opportunity to lure some top researchers north.

Trump appoints pastor with no experience as CDC tobacco adviser*
The New Republic: Why is a pastor advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on tobacco health?

Churches go solar, putting creation care into action
United Methodist News Service: One of the perks Dunwoody United Methodist Church leaders get with the addition of solar power is the ability to see energy produced and carbon reduced in real time on the internet.

The Spark

The cassette tapes of the Great Migration
An archive of recorded interviews captures how ordinary people experienced one of the defining chapters of American history, JSTOR says.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers