Weekend Plug-in 🔌

Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” features analysis, fact checking and top headlines from the world of faith. Subscribe now to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr. at therossnews@gmail.com.

(ANALYSIS) “You preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.”

That’s what Bishop Timothy Clarke, an Ohio senior pastor, said in a recent front-page feature by Danae King, the Columbus Dispatch’s religion writer.

It’s an idea that originated with the late Karl Barth, one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. Barth put it this way: “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”

Barth’s concept was a prominent theme of a Facebook Live panel discussion organized this week by the Siburt Institute for Church Ministry at Abilene Christian University in Texas.

“We used to think the hard part was interpreting the Bible, but now we've decided the hard part is interpreting the newspaper,” quipped Randy Harris, one of the co-hosts, along with Carson Reed, of the discussion on “Light, Truth and Fake News.”

The panel — on which I was honored to speak — aimed to help stressed-out ministers make sense of the news in a time of polarization and conspiracy theories.

“Read broadly. Value truth,” urged Cheryl Mann Bacon, a Christian Chronicle correspondent and retired journalism chair at Abilene Christian. “Be compassionate when you share it, but be courageous when you share it.”

Co-host Harris is a longtime preacher and spiritual director who works with the Siburt Institute.

He advised: “Pay attention to local news. We can get caught up with what's happening in Washington, but there's stuff that's happening in your town that needs a response. The second thing is, to ministers: You've made a commitment to read the news through a certain lens, and that's the lens of a crucified and risen Messiah.”

Watch the full discussion.

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. A Catholic sinner seeks Communion — and happens to be president: Emma Green, The Atlantic’s all-star religion-and-politics writer, offers a detailed, nuanced take on the “‘difficult and complex situation’ of a Catholic president (Joe Biden) who publicly supports expanding abortion rights, contrary to the faith’s teachings.”

“Sinners abound in politics,” Green writes. “The question facing the Catholic hierarchy is whether to offer the most famous Catholic sinner in America an invitation to closeness with God, or to withhold Communion until the president falls fully in line with his Church’s teachings.”

2. No pew? No problem. Online church is revitalizing congregations: I missed this Christian Science Monitor cover story when it was first published earlier this month.

But the in-depth report by veteran religion writer G. Jeffrey MacDonald remains a timely and relevant read on the “pandemic shift no one saw coming at the start of 2020.”

That shift: “Churches that had long assumed their members would live nearby are no longer resigned to geographic constraints. As congregations have gone online to maintain ministries while social distancing, new worshippers from other regions have been showing up.”

3. The House has passed the Equality Act, but religious freedom concerns remain: The Deseret News’ Kelsey Dallas owns the religious freedom beat.

Yes, I’ve said that before. But it’s true: No journalist produces more vital work on that First Amendment right than Dallas.

Besides her Equality Act story this week, she reported that more than 20 states are debating bills that would protect in-person church services.

BONUS: I can’t stop with just three top reads this week: I must call attention to The Tennessean’s religion writer, Holly Meyer, and her excellent coverage of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee meeting in Nashville.

From a critical report on Trump critic Russell Moore to details on the committee expelling four Southern Baptist congregations to denominational leaders speaking out on race and politics, Meyer delivers the crucial facts.

Read more coverage from The Associated Press’ David Crary, the New York Times’ Ruth Graham, Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana and Slate’s Molly Olmstead.

More Top Reads

• The insurrectionists’ Senate floor prayer highlights a curious Trumpian ecumenism (by Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service)

• Survivors of sex abuse by nuns suffer decades of delayed healing (by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins, Global Sisters Report)

• Iraq’s struggling Christians hope for boost from pope visit (by Mariam Fam, The Associated Press)

• 'The truth needs to be told' — Church opens Tulsa Race Massacre Prayer Room (by Carla Hinton, The Oklahoman)

• VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer calls evangelicalism a ‘hot mess.’ He hasn’t given up hope (by Bob Smietana, RNS)

• Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, newly vaccinated, return to church in Georgia (by Michael Levenson, New York Times)

• In Texas, Muslim volunteers jump in to help feed the frozen (by Zainab Iqbal, RNS)

• SNL’s Michael Che said Israel only vaccinated its ‘Jewish half.’ Critics call the joke ‘an antisemitic trope’ (by Timothy Bella, Washington Post)

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

Faced with probing questions about its operations, Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey’s for-profit company doxxed Religion News Service national writer Bob Smietana, as we highlighted last month.

Now, in a report for MinistryWatch.com, Steve Rabey notes that independent journalist Julie Roys received similar treatment from a different Christian leader.

Roys’ home address was posted online after she “documented troubling issues at the various organizations affiliated with California pastor John MacArthur, including board governance (family members serving on boards) and financial transparency.”

Charging Station: In Case You Missed It

Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from Religion Unplugged.

• There is a better way forward than the Equality Act (by Chelsea Langston Bombino)

• United Methodists on the clock: Will 2021 see America's biggest church split since Civil War? (by Richard Ostling)

• Faith in Numbers: Behind the gender difference of nonreligious Americans (by Ryan Burge)

• Coronavirus news coverage: Is there room for both science and Catholic voices? (by Clemente Lisi)

• Missing community, these college students innovated church online into pod watch parties (by David Hancock)

• Paul Rusesabagina, 'Hotel Rwanda' hero who credited Adventist upbringing, on trial in Kigali (by Mark A. Kellner)

• Religion Unplugged's full conversation with Alabama's 'fifth girl' Sarah Collins Rudolph (by Mattie Townson)

• Obtained COVID-19 vaccines meant for doctors (by Reynaldo Aragon)

• Anatomy of a scandal: What's next for the coverage of the Ravi Zacharias fallout? (by Richard Ostling)

• Serbia's new patriarch brings track record of peace-building to divided nation (by Mladen Aleksic)

• National Cathedral invites evangelical to preach, triggering storm of protest (by Terry Mattingly)

• Hindu temple's reopening in Kashmir spotlights Muslims caring for temples for decades (by Zaffar Iqbal)

• U.K. churches viewed more positively since COVID-19 pandemic, new survey shows (by Jillian Cheney)

• Fazlun Khalid shows how environmentalism is intrinsic to Islam (by Meara Sharma)

The Final Plug

The Washington Post had my favorite headline of the week:

The joy of vax: The people giving the shots are seeing hope, and it’s contagious

After rolling up my sleeve last Friday, I can attest to the joy — and the hope — that the COVID-19 vaccine brings.

I love what Liam Stack, the New York Times’ Metro religion writer, said to the nurse who stuck the needle in his arm: “Thank you! You just changed my life.”

Amen.

Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for Religion Unplugged and editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 15 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.