Wednesday’s News & Ideas - 9/24/2025

Church discipline is still the exception* 
Christianity Today: While formal church discipline remains relatively infrequent in the US, it’s making a comeback in some circles, where pastors emphasize membership and position discipline as a form of care and restoration.  

For High Holidays, rabbis brace for complex discussions on Gaza war and US politics  
Religion News Service: High Holidays sermons, said Cleveland Rabbi Robert Nosanchuk, put Jewish teachings in perspective and show “how they might operate in a world that is trembling.” 

Rural churches navigate declining attendance and clergy shortages 
The Daily Iowan: Church is an important source of community in small towns. Pastors and priests all over the state are serving multiple churches a day to avoid closures.

Unification Church leader arrested in bribery case involving former South Korean president’s wife 
The Associated Press: Moon built the Unification Church into an international movement with millions of followers and extensive business interests. His widow, the current leader of the church, was arrested Tuesday with allegations that the church bribed the wife of jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol and a conservative lawmaker.

Pope Leo, in new biography, resists doctrinal change on hot-button topics* 
The Washington Post: In extensive interviews, Pope Leo XIV, who turned 70 on Sunday, contours the future of his papacy, potentially one of the longest in decades.

The Spark

If A.I. can diagnose patients, what are doctors for?
Large language models are transforming medicine*—but the technology comes with side effects, writes The New Yorker.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers