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) Religion News Service national writer Bob Smietana picked up one Moore big scoop this week.

Back in March, Smietana broke the internet with news of Beth Moore no longer identifying as a Southern Baptist.

This week, Smietana — one-time “longhaired, hippy wannabe songwriter” turned highly content religion reporter — was the first to confirm the embattled Russell Moore leaving the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

The ERLC’s president since 2013 will join Christianity Today, the influential evangelical magazine founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham in 1956. He’ll “serve as a full-time public theologian for the publication and … lead a new Public Theology Project.”

At the Washington Post, religion writers Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Michelle Boorstein point out that Russell Moore “blasted former president Donald Trump and his evangelical fans.” His ERLC resignation prompts questions about the SBC’s future:

Moore’s departure from the convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) follows other high-profile exits from the denomination, including popular Bible teacher Beth Moore (no relation) and Black pastors. Some evangelicals are wondering what their departures signal about the direction of the convention, which has included louder voices on the far right in recent years.

Read additional coverage from The Tennessean’s Holly Meyer, the Wall Street Journal’s Ian Lovett and GetReligion’s Terry Mattingly.

Also, if you can’t get enough of Smietana and the Southern Baptists, check out this piece on “the grievance studies hoaxer and atheist” who is “on a crusade against what he sees as a ‘woke’ invasion of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.” 

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. How abortion views are different: In a week in which the U.S. Supreme Court agreed “to hear a potentially groundbreaking abortion case,” this analysis of polling data by New York Times newsletter writer David Leonhardt is interesting and helpful.

“Americans’ views on abortion are sufficiently complex that both sides in the debate are able to point to survey data that suggests majority opinion is on their side — and then to argue that the data friendly to their own side is the “right” data. These competing claims can be confusing,” Leonhardt writes. “But when you dig into the data, you discover there are some clear patterns and objective truths.”

Another worthwhile read: Alejandra Molina, Religion News Service’s Los Angeles-based national correspondent, asks ordinary Catholics if President Joe Biden’s support for abortion rights should make him ineligible to receive Communion.

2. Gaza conflict stokes ‘identity crisis’ for young American Jews: “A new generation is confronting the region’s longstanding conflict in a very different context, with very different pressures, from their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.”

So report Elizabeth Dias and Ruth Graham, the New York Times’ dynamic duo of national religion writers, in a story that appeared on the newspaper’s Thursday front page.

A cease-fire took effect today in the 11-day war that claimed more than 200 lives — the vast majority Palestinians, as noted by The Associated Press.

3. Is the ‘DEFCON 3 culture war’ over religious freedom bills coming to an end?: “Six years ago, Indiana lawmakers’ efforts to pass a new religious freedom law spawned protests, travel bans and boycott threats from national athletic organizations, including the NCAA, NFL and NBA,” the Deseret News’ Kelsey Dallas writes.

“This year, when Montana and South Dakota passed similar legislation, the backlash was so muted by comparison that even some religious freedom experts didn’t hear about the bills until the Deseret News sent an interview request,” Dallas notes.

She explains — in excellent fashion — what to make of that stark difference in responses.

More Top Reads

• Meet the nun who wants you to remember you will die (by Ruth Graham, New York Times)

• 100 years later, Black church leaders seek reparations for Tulsa massacre (by Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service)

• Ministry through the fence: local preacher shares faith, hope with inmates (by Carla Hinton, The Oklahoman)

• ‘It’ll get better’: chaplains play essential role for transit workers (by Diana Kruzman, New York Times)

• After Vatican warning, US bishops have limited options for planned text about Biden (by Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter)

• Meet the Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist encouraging her fellow Christians to get vaccinated (by Emily McFarlan Miller Share Tweet, Religion News Service)

• Religious leaders recast COVID-19 moment: We can’t come back the same. (by Chris Hedlin, Public Source)

• ‘Religion entered into me’: A talk with Jane Goodall, winner of the 2021 Templeton Prize (by Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service)

• What Joe Biden puts in the collection plate (by Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today)

• Lee Greenwood's hit song inspires new 'God Bless the USA Bible' including America's founding documents (by Holly Meyer, The Tennessean)

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

This week brought the return of a veteran Godbeat pro to the full-time religion beat, and my friend Mark A. Kellner — the Washington Times’ new faith and family reporter — made it an eventful one.

From an Army chaplain appealing a “career-ending” reprimand over transgender troop rules to Franklin Graham urging Americans to “prayerfully” consider getting the COVID-19 vaccine to renowned conservationist Jane Goodall winning the $1.5 million Templeton Prize, Kellner has been a busy man.

His latest: a meaty follow-up on criticism of the planned “God Bless the USA Bible,” a development first reported exclusively by ReligionUnplugged.com’s Meagan Clark last week.

Charging Station: In Case You Missed It

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

• Biden doesn’t speak at Notre Dame’s graduation: is it still a news story? (by Clemente Lisi)

• How should evangelicals respond to the Israel-Palestine conflict? (by Joash Thomas)

• Polyandry proposals infuriates religious groups in South Africa (by Cyril Zenda)

• In Europe’s ‘secular capital,’ some Berliners are finding solace in religion (by Giulia Brabetz and Ken Chitwood)

• U.S. bishops wrestle with ‘eucharistic coherence,’ a topic that mixes politics and doctrine (by Terry Mattingly)

• The ministry equipping social media evangelists to reach the next generation (by Princess Jones)

• Churches, Christian universities hosting COVID-19 vaccine clinics (by Chellie Ison)

• As the Palestinian minority takes to the streets, Israel is having its own Black Lives Matter moment (by James L. Gelvin)

• Jewish community in Portugal inagurates Holocaust museum to remember country’s role in aiding refugees (by Gil Zohar)

• ‘The Sons of Sam’ elevates an unnecessary hero and skips on killer’s Christian conversion (by Jillian Cheney)

• Muslims work to improve understanding of their religion in Zimbabwe (by Cyril Zenda)

The Final Plug

I’ve written about the faith of two Detroit Tigers pitchers: Michael Fulmer (a high school friend of my son Brady) and Daniel Norris.

This week, a different Tigers hurler — Spencer Turnbull — pitched the eighth no-hitter in Detroit history.

In the Detroit News, Chris McCoskey recounts Turnbull’s colorful journey to Tuesday night’s remarkable performance, including “making a series of lifestyle alterations — physically and spiritually.”

Turnbull’s “Christian faith on a deeper level” also figures in The Athletic writer Cody Stavenhagen’s story of a father-son bond behind Turnbull’s no-hitter.

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.