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) Is online church good for your soul?

Can real fellowship be attained through virtual reality?

Amid a global pandemic, why has Wordle — yes, the online game — become a ritual for so many?

Compelling questions tied to faith and technology top this week’s religion headlines.

Check out these high-tech must-reads:

1. Streaming online has been a boon for churches, a godsend for isolated: “There’s been a lot of bad news about churches in recent years,” Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana reports. “Online church has been one bright spot.”

Smietana’s piece follows Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren making the case in a viral New York Times column that churches should drop their online services.

“Online church, while it was necessary for a season, diminishes worship and us as people,” Warren argued, igniting debate on social media and drawing rebuttals from writers such as Religion Dispatches’ Daniel Schultz.

For more insight, see the Wall Street Journal column that Paul Glader and John Semakula wrote last October, asking, “Are internet services as good as church?” Read a more in-depth version of that analysis here at ReligionUnplugged.com.

2. Faith in the metaverse: A VR quest for community, fellowship: The Associated Press’ Luis Andres Henao writes about “many Americans — some traditionally religious, some religiously unaffiliated — who are increasingly communing spiritually through virtual reality, one of the many evolving spaces in the metaverse that have grown in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Ranging from spiritual meditations in fantasy worlds to traditional Christian worship services with virtual sacraments in hyperrealistic, churchlike environments,” Henao reports, “their devotees say the experience offers a version of fellowship that’s just as genuine as what can be found at a brick-and-mortar temple.”

For more coverage, see Carla Hinton’s recent piece for The Oklahoman on an Oklahoma worship service that “wasn't confined to the four walls of a Life.Church … building” but also wasn’t “an online gathering in the traditional sense.”

3. Why our brain craves pattern-seeking rituals like Wordle: And now for something a little bit different …

The Washington Post’s Sarah Pullliam Bailey turns a seemingly mundane question about Wordle into a thought-provoking religion story.

“In recent weeks, the online game has become a kind of ritual for its players, who pilgrimage daily to a website to solve a five-letter puzzle,” Bailey explains. “After completing the game, many share their score with their friends, along with the grid of yellow and green squares that show how many tries it took them to solve the puzzle. The game, which was purchased by the New York Times, was created in late 2021 by Josh Wardle for his partner as a way to kill time during the pandemic.

“While rituals are often thought of in religious contexts such as prayer, a pilgrimage to Mecca, a Jewish Seder, baptism and communion, several scholars said there is no agreed-upon definition for a ritual. But many say ancient and modern rituals in both religious and secular contexts serve a powerful role in people’s lives, especially during uncertain times.”

Full disclosure: I’m not a Wordle person. I even muted the term on my Twitter feed. But after writing this, I’ll probably need to unmute it.

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. Why Southern Baptists see a review of nondisclosure agreements as step toward boosting transparency: Still just a few months into his new role as The Tennessean’s religion writer, Liam Adams is already breaking important news on a regular basis.

This story is just the latest example (and it comes on the heels of another excellent piece two weeks ago).

Concerning nondisclosure agreements and people of faith, Daniel Silliman’s Christianity Today story on that subject from last summer remains timely and insightful.

2. In Congo, floating pastors follow mobile flocks along busy river: “To find the faithful, preachers in some areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo hold church where the crowds are, on boats traveling the country’s water highway,” the New York Times’ Ruth Maclean and Caleb Kabanda report.

Both the story and the photographs by Nanna Heitmann are exceptional.

3. Conversations with God: Afghan evacuees in Philly say faith sustains them amid upheaval: “Many Afghans who made it to America endured harrowing escapes in which they could have been injured or killed,” the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff Gammage reports.

They “say their faith is of central importance, perhaps even more so now,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist adds.

More Top Reads

• In the war over faith-based foster care agencies, is an end finally in sight? (by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News)

• Firebrand Texas bishop tests limits of conservative Catholic dissent (by Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service)

• Bipartisan support grows for nonprofit security grant funding hike after Texas synagogue siege (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)

• St. Louis Roman Catholics react to call for ‘most sweeping’ change in archdiocese’s history (by Jesse Bogan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

• How White nationalists are hijacking the anti-abortion movement (by Tess Owen and Carter Sherman, Vice)

• Ordinance limiting Oregon church meal services violates religious freedom, lawsuit says (by Alejandra Molina, RNS)

• God behind prison walls: Oklahoma Baptist University program aims to mold inmates into ministry teams (By Carla Hinton, The Oklahoman)

• ‘A cloud never dies:’ A California monastery mourns mindfulness advocate Thich Nhat Hanh (by Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times)

• If Roe v. Wade is overturned, will the anti-abortion movement split? (by Mya Jaradat, Deseret News)

• Anti-trafficking ministries now fight QAnon conspiracies too (by Megan Fowler, Christianity Today)

• Historic city churches find new life as neighborhood centers (by Giovanna Dell’orto, Associated Press)

• Think piece: The witness of the Black church rings through NBA history (by Paul Putz, Christianity Today)

• Think piece: What Whoopi Goldberg got wrong about the Holocaust (by Jeffrey Salkin, RNS)

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

Did you know that Carl Bernstein, the famous Washington Post investigative reporter, honed his journalistic skills covering religion?

Neither did I.

Hat tip to Christianity Today’s Daniel Silliman for sharing that tidbit from “Chasing History,” Bernstein’s new memoir about his early career.

Charging Station: In Case You Missed It

Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from ReligionUnplugged.com.

• Descendants of self-freed slave still live and worship on his Nashville land (by Erik Tryggestad)

• Solving the opioid crisis, ethically: Is the answer less supply, or more? (by Travis N. Rieder)

• How Orthodox Jewish law is adapting to in vitro fertilization (by Nomi Kaltmann)

• For top athletes, is standing up for human rights — in Beijing, Saudi Arabia, Qatar — worth the risk? (by Ira Rifkin)

• Pew survey on blasphemy laws must be supplemented with grounded realities (by Paul Marshall)

• Report: Pope Benedict XVI allowed priests' sexual abuse as German archbishop (by David Gibson)

• Nashville's Rabbit Room offers community for Christian artists, writers and musicians (by Kim Roberts)

• We must respond to the worsening global refugee crisis (by Ewelina U. Ochab)

• These Ugandan clergy are marrying multiple women (by John Semakula)

• In Mitch Albom’s new novel ‘The Stranger In The Lifeboat,’ faith saves lives (by Jillian Cheney)

• NFL standout wide receiver Cooper Kupp furthers faith and football family legacy (by Luke Kerley)

• Led by Afghanistan, global Christian persecution reaches highest level in 30 Years (by Ewelina U. Ochab)

The Final Plug

While reporting on the aftermath of the Mayfield, Kentucky, tornado, photojournalist Audrey Jackson and I couldn’t help but notice all the destroyed and heavily damaged churches.

I appreciate The Associated Press’ global religion team publishing my story (and Jackson’s pictures) on six historic churches using the rebuilding process as an opportunity to rethink their 21st century needs and possibilities.

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for ReligionUnplugged.com 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.