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) As a journalist who covers religion, I’ve been blessed to report firsthand from countries such as Israel, Mexico, Nicaragua and South Africa.

As a result, when violence and war flare in those places, the news doesn’t seem a million miles away. Instead, I envision real people and places.

The same is true of Haiti, where I reported on a well-drilling ministry in 2018. We took safety precautions, but I never felt unsafe as I traveled with a U.S. mission team in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

Three years later, circumstances have changed in that impoverished Caribbean nation, rocked in recent months by a presidential assassination and natural disasters.

The latest: a gang’s kidnapping of six men, six women and five children working with Christian Aid Ministries, a global missionary organization based in Millersburg, Ohio. A gang leader has threatened to kill the hostages if a ransom of $1 million per head is not paid.

Coverage of the mission group by the New York Times’ Ruth Graham and Elizabeth Dias resonates with me.

”Christian missionary workers typically labor in obscurity, running medical clinics, building wells and delivering Bibles without fanfare — until crisis erupts,” Graham and Dias write.

Here at ReligionUnplugged.com, Michael Ray Smith talks to missions leaders about the surging number of kidnappings in Haiti, where gangs have gained control of roughly half the capital.

Other related stories that help explain what’s happening:

• As abductions in Haiti increase, churches and ministries find themselves in the crosshairs (by Jamie Dean, World)

• An around-the-clock prayer effort to save the Haiti hostages (by Elizabeth Dias and Ruth Graham, New York Times)

• As gang threatens violence, families of captured missionaries ask for continued prayers (by Carol Thompson, Detroit News)

• Gangs threaten to tip Haiti into a failed state (by Ryan Dube and José de Córdoba, Wall Street Journal)

• Kidnapped Americans part of 40-year-old, U.S.-based missionary group (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)

• Why people keep going to Haiti, despite the obvious danger (by Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press)

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. Are internet services as good as church?: That’s the question that ReligionUnplugged.com executive editor Paul Glader and Ugandan reporter John Semakula explore in the Houses of Worship column in today’s Wall Street Journal.

Such services “open the door to more congregants but provide an attenuated worship experience,” the Journal piece notes. Read an expanded version of that essay later today here at ReligionUnplugged.com.

2. Christian schools boom in a revolt against curriculum and pandemic rules: New York Times religion writer Ruth Graham, who is based in Dallas, recently spent time at fast-growing Smith Mountain Lake Christian Academy in Moneta, Va.

“I wanted to know more about what seemed to be a broader boom,” Graham said on Twitter.

Also interesting: Detroit Free Press higher education writer David Jesse’s in-depth coverage of “Why some small conservative Christian colleges see growth where other schools see declines.”

3. Small churches continue growing — but in number, not size: “The average U.S. church and the average U.S. churchgoer are headed in opposite directions,” notes Lifeway Research’s Aaron Earls. “Congregations are increasingly small, while remaining churchgoers are increasingly headed toward larger churches.”

Read more coverage of the most recent Faith Communities Today survey by Religion News Service’s Yonat Shimron.

BONUS: Washington Times religion writer Mark A. Kellner keeps churning out timely, insightful content, much of it exclusive to his own newspaper.

His trend piece on a potential high-end Bible shortage during the holiday buying season is another fine example.

More Top Reads

• Can anyone lead the Southern Baptist Convention forward? (by Bob Smietana, Religion News Service)

• Conservative Baptist leader Mike Stone sues Russell Moore (by Liam Adams, The Tennessean)

• The pastor at the top of the world (by Julia Duin, Newsweek)

• Inside the fraught effort to create a Christian nationalist internet (by Jack Jenkins, RNS)

• Ravi Zacharias’s daughter steps down to launch new ministry (by Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today)

• God and robots: will AI transform religion? (by Sofia Bettiza and Eloise Alanna, BBC News)

• Millions wanted to ‘Save Saeed.’ Few wanted to help his abused ex-wife. (by Bob Smietana, RNS)

• Do the rituals of religion make you a better person? (by Sandi Dolbee, San Diego Union-Tribune)

• Jill Biden paid a surprise visit to the woman who helped her regain faith in God (by Jada Yuan, Washington Post)

• Boiling over with zeal (by Frank E. Lockwood, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

• Texans will vote in November on whether governments can limit religious services (by Alejandra Molina, RNS)

• Empty pews are an American public health crisis (by Tyler J. Vanderweele and Brendan Case, Christianity Today)

• What COVID-19 revealed about America’s approach to religious freedom (by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News)

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

Tiffany McAllen, the Religion News Association’s COO, is embarking on a new adventure after 21 years of service.

The responses to this tweet give a pretty good idea just how much she’ll be missed.

In other Godbeat news, Salt Lake Tribune religion writer Peggy Fletcher Stack is the new interim executive director of the International Association of Religion Journalists. It’s a volunteer gig, so she’s not leaving her day job.

Congrats to her!

Charging Station: In Case You Missed It

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

• Migrant workers flee Kashmir after deadly militant attacks (by Zaffar Iqbal)

• Pelosi's papal audience: more proof of a new era of partisan press? (by Clemente Lisi)

• One year after Nigeria's protests against police brutality, churches keep praying (by Pelumi Salako)

• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says vaccinated are 'the smart ones' who listen to God (by Terry Mattingly)

• Colin L. Powell's lifetime of service informed by his Episcopal faith (by Hamil R. Harris)

• Indian Christians who survived 2008 massacre are once again fleeing (by Surinder Kaur Lal)

• After criticism, Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church repaying $4.4 million in PPP loans (by Anne Stych)

• Americans are in a mental health crisis — especially African Americans. Can churches help? (by Brad R. Fulton)

The Final Plug

Occasionally, I come across a cool story on social media that seems perfect for Plug-in, and then I realize it’s an old piece, not a new one.

Such is the case with this feature, which asks the intriguing question, “What’s the deal with Methodists and pumpkins?” The story by Mike Ellis was published in 2017, but I found it fascinating, so decided to share it anyway.

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

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.