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) Guilty.

Guilty.

Guilty.

This week’s big news — former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s conviction on all counts in George Floyd’s murder — is a story about police brutality. And racial justice. And yes, the power of faith.

USA Today captures this powerful scene:

George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd was sitting with his head bowed and his hands folded in front of his face in prayer before the verdict was read. As each verdict was read, his hands increasingly shook and his head nodded up and down.

"I was just praying they would find him guilty. As an African American, we usually never get justice," Floyd said.

The exceptional coverage by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Chao Xiong and Paul Walsh contains this important highlight:

As news spread of the verdicts — guilty on all counts — social media sites reposted the Minneapolis Police Department's initial report that Floyd died of a medical event at the scene, an assertion that might never have been contradicted so forcefully were it not for a teenage girl, Darnella Frazier, walking by and recording Floyd's death last May 25 on her cellphone and posting it for the world to see.

"I just cried so hard. This last hour my heart was beating so fast, I was so anxious, anxiety [busting] through the roof," Frazier, who was 17 at the time, posted on Facebook after the verdict. "But to know GUILTY ON ALL 3 CHARGES !!! THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU … George Floyd we did it!! Justice has been served."

And the Los Angeles Times’ Kurtis Lee recounts this scene:

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who eulogized Floyd in Minneapolis, said he did not find pleasure in the moment. 

“We don’t celebrate a man going to jail,” he said. “We rather George be alive.”

“Amen! Amen!” shouted a person in the back.

ReligionUnplugged.com’s own Hamil R. Harris reports on the prayers for peace and justice in Minneapolis and across the nation this week.

“I love you and God loves you. Put them guns down,” George Floyd himself was quoted as saying in an in-depth profile by a team of writers (including religion specialist Luis Andres Henao) that The Associated Press re-upped. Also still worth a read: Liza Vandenboom’s award-winning profile of Floyd’s faith, published here at Religion Unplugged the week of his death.

AP’s David Crary and Henao write about faith leaders’ response to the verdict, as does the Religion News Service staff.

Finally, RNS’ Jack Jenkins has a really interesting piece on “Minneapolis churches caught in standoffs between protesters and police.”

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. Why defining gossip matters in the church’s response to abuse: “After reporting several stories on abuse in Christian orgs, I noticed how many victims weren't able to share their experiences or concerns with each other out of fear they'd be disciplined for ‘gossiping,” Christianity Today’s Kate Shellnutt notes on Twitter.

Her curiosity about Christians working “to recover a biblical understanding of harmful hearsay vs. healthy criticism” resulted in this must-read cover story.

2. Guarding faith: St. Louis archdiocese adds another priest’s name to its list of abusers, but won’t talk about it: St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Jesse Bogan takes a deep dive into the lack of details provided about clergy sex abuse claims against the late Rev. Vincent J. Duggan.

“They never asked me anything about what they can share,” an alleged victim tells the Post-Dispatch. “I don’t know what in the hell they are talking about. Who are the ‘faithful’? These guys are crazy. They never asked my family what they can share.”

3. U.S. Sikh community traumatized by yet another mass shooting: The mass shooting that claimed eight lives at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis occurred last Thursday night after I already had written Plug-in.

The Associated Press’ Casey Smith and Luis Andres Henao report on the trauma suffered by Indianapolis’ tightly knit Sikh community, which lost four members.

Also, don’t miss Simran Jeet Singh’s analysis piece here at ReligionUnplugged.com on “Sikhs In America: Community long misunderstood mourns deaths in Indianapolis mass shooting.”

More Top Reads

• Mormon sex therapist has been expelled from the LDS Church (by Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Washington Post)

• Conservative justices aren’t alone in supporting religion at the Supreme Court (by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News)

• Biden reverses course on refugee cap after faith groups express outrage (by Jack Jenkins and Emily McFarlan Miller, Religion News Service)

• Racial barriers broken as Christians mourn three family members killed in Alabama tornado (by Cheryl Mann Bacon, Christian Chronicle)

• Will COVID-19 finally be the end of the church collection plate? (by Bob Smietana, RNS)

• Died: Ole Anthony, terror to televangelists (by Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today)

• Liberty sues Jerry Falwell Jr., seeking millions in damages (by Sarah Rankin, Associated Press)

• Venture capitalists bet remote religion will persevere after churches reopen (by Jacqueline Davalos, Bloomberg)

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

The Religion News Association conducted a one-day virtual “mini-con” (get it — mini-conference?) Thursday.

I was busy with duties such as writing this column, so I couldn’t make it. But I enjoyed following the updates on Twitter.

The online event even produced a little news, as an Obama faith adviser accused a Trump counterpart of laying the spiritual groundwork for the Capitol insurrection. Religion News Service’s Jack Jenkins and Adelle M. Banks report the details.

Charging Station: In Case You Missed It

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

• Media startup 'The Pillar' proving to be a must-read for Catholic news (by Clemente Lisi)

• 5 churches featured in movies that you should visit this summer (by Clemente Lisi)

• The family that famously recaptured their art from Nazis is selling collection of medieval Bibles (by Gil Zohar)

• Old patterns, new questions: COVID-19 was an 'acid test' for giving in Catholic parishes (by Terry Mattingly)

• Data shows White evangelicals and Catholics more likely to get vaccine than 'nones' and general public (by Ryan Burge)

• Despite China's vast religious and political repression, 2022 Olympic boycott still unlikely (by Ira Rifkin)

• Legendary rapper DMX should be Remembered for his walk with God (by Princess Jones)

• Serbian Orthodox monastery listed as ‘Endangered’ with monks facing attacks (by Mladen Aleksic)

• Christian college files suit challenging Biden administration on gender identity (by Anne Stych)

The Final Plug

I spent a big part of high school working late nights at McDonald’s.

In that time, I prepared, oh, a few million Filet-O-Fish sandwiches. That probably helps explain why I enjoyed Jane Hu’s recent New York Times feature — “Why the Filet-O-Fish is my gold standard for fast food” — so much.

And yes, there’s a religion angle to this story. Isn’t there always?

Hu explains:

Invented by an Ohio franchise owner in 1962, the first Filet-O-Fish was the answer to the problem of McDonald’s falling sales on Fridays, when observant Catholics abstained from eating meat. Born from an attempt to market fast food to as many people as possible, the tasty little unit has since been further claimed by everyone from fish-loving Chinese-Americans to practicing Muslims to — well, anyone with taste. By 1965 the sandwich had gone national.

Happy eating, everybody!

In my case, just be sure to hold the tartar sauce. No, my faith doesn’t forbid it. I just don’t like it.

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.