Big Week In Religion News: From Loretta Lynn To Aaron Judge, 9 Names To Know
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) A country music queen. A home run king.
A former White House press secretary. A current U.S. Supreme Court plaintiff.
In a busy week for religion news, they are among nine names to know (in alphabetical order):
• Bart Barber: I’m showing a little bias here because I wrote this week’s Associated Press profile of Barber, a small-town Texas pastor and rancher elected to lead the 13.7 million-member Southern Baptist Convention at a time of major crisis. Barber will be featured Sunday night in a “60 Minutes” interview with Anderson Cooper.
• Chris Jones and Sarah Huckabee Sanders: Jones is the Democrat and Sanders the Republican in Arkansas’ gubernatorial race. “With two preachers’ kids and a pastor in the race, Arkansans are poised to elect a governor who can sing hymns by heart and quote Scripture from memory,” the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Frank Lockwood writes as he delves into faith and politics. (Sanders served as former President Donald Trump’s White House press secretary from 2017 to 2019.)
• Aaron Judge: The New York Yankees star made history when he hit his 62nd home run of the season Tuesday night. Prayer and faith played a key role during Judge’s chase, reports the Deseret News’ Ryan McDonald.
• Loretta Lynn: The country music superstar and Kentucky coal miner’s daughter died Tuesday at age 90. “She really was serious about her faith and a devout member of the church,” retired minister Terry Rush, who maintained a close friendship with Lynn, told me.
• John Henry Ramirez: The Texas killer fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to have his pastor lay hands on him and pray during his execution. “Just know that I fought a good fight, and I am ready to go,” Ramirez said before his death by lethal injection Wednesday, as noted by The Associated Press’ Juan A. Lozano and Michael Graczyk.
• Lorie Smith and Jack Phillips: The two claim in an opinion piece for USA Today that Colorado is trampling on their First Amendment rights as Christian artists, and they’re fighting back. Website designer Smith’s case is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Deseret News’ Kelsey Dallas reports. Phillips, a baker who already won a partial high court victory, is challenging a new state ruling, AP’s Colleen Slevin notes.
• Herschel Walker: Despite the Georgia Republican’s denials, an allegation that the U.S. Senate candidate and former Heisman Trophy winner paid for a girlfriend’s abortion in 2009 has engulfed his campaign. Religion News Service’s Jack Jenkins and Politico’s Natalie Allison report on religious leaders’ responses.
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. These Floridians gathered for church in Fort Myers. They brought their Hurricane Ian survival stories: A journalist going to church on the Sunday after a major natural disaster inevitably generates a compelling story, as USA Today’s Chris Kenning illustrates.
Ian shook southwest Florida’s faith but couldn’t destroy it, The Associated Press’ Bobby Caina Calvan, Giovanna Dell’Orto and Robert Bumsted report. Amid Ian’s wounds, Jews saw healing and renewal in Yom Kippur, AP’s Calvan and Mike Schneider explain.
In case you missed it, last week’s Plug-in highlighted the important role of the “faith-based FEMA.”
2. On game day, some see prayer as a Hail Mary: “While appeals to the divine are not a fundamental part of most sports fans’ playbooks, (Dolores) Mejia and others like her believe prayer has the power to influence who goes home the victor,” The Associated Press’ Holly Meyer reports in this fun feature.
“About 3 in 10 U.S. adults say they believe it can play a role in determining who wins a sporting event, and a similar percentage say God plays a role, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.”
3. For believers, a day of atonement. For others, a giant playground: “Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, brings Israel to a standstill,” the New York Times’ Patrick Kingsley reports. “For the nonobservant, that briefly turns highways into bike trails.”
Kingsley and photographer Amit Elkayam offer a colorful dispatch from Highway 1, the main thoroughfare between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
More Top Reads
• After the Boomers, new leaders bring new life to the Vineyard (by Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today)
• Iranian women at home and abroad cut their hair to protest Mahsa Amini’s death (by Sarah Parvini, Los Angeles Times)
• Episcopal priest the Rev. David Sibley becomes four-time ‘Jeopardy!’ champion (by Emily McFarlan Miller, Religion News Service)
• Two prophets, century-old prayer duel inspire Zion mosque (by Deepa Bharath, Associated Press)
• 70 years later, ‘Power of Positive Thinking’ finds new generation of readers (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)
• ‘You can’t cancel me’: embattled TikTok star reinvents herself as a warrior for Jesus (by Jess McHugh, Guardian)
• French feminist rabbi captivates multifaith crowds with musings on mortality (by Julia Lieblich, New York Times)
• The Satanic Temple takes aim at Idaho, Indiana abortion bans (by Rebecca Boone, AP)
• Mormon leader, 98, acknowledges aging as he sits at podium during two-day event (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)
• Think piece: An interfaith journey to forge ties between Israel and Pakistan (by BeLynn Hollers, RNS)
• Think piece: Why growing parts of the Christian right are convinced it’s the apocalypse (by Molly Olmstead, Slate)
Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines
Cecile S. Holmes was a veteran religion reporter, editor, journalism professor and interfaith champion, as Religion News Service’s Yonat Shimron reports. After an illness, she died Sept. 29 in Columbia, South Carolina, at age 67.
The Religion News Association board of directors offered condolences to Holmes’ family, friends, colleagues and admirers.
“The RNA community grieves the loss of Cecile Holmes, who was RNA president from 1996 to 1998 and recipient of RNA's William A. Reed Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016,” the board’s statement said. “Cecile was on the religion beat for three decades, starting as the religion and food writer at the Greensboro (N.C.) News and Record and later working as a longtime correspondent for Religion News Service and as an award-winning religion editor at the Houston Chronicle. She also taught journalism at the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications.”
Charging Station: In Case You Missed It
Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from ReligionUnplugged.com.
• Faith, family and the dropping number of marriages (Part II) (by Terry Mattingly)
• Modi government’s ban of controversial Muslim organization Popular Front of India worries critics (by Shadab Farooq)
• Former WWE's million-dollar man hasn’t repaid welfare funds misused by ministry (by Steve Rabey)
• International community is failing the Uyghurs, but a change may be ahead (by Ewelina U. Ochab)
• Iranian women have been rebelling since the 1979 Islamic Revolution (by Pardis Mahdavi)
• Faith and politics: Italian election coverage loaded with Meloni media baloney (by Clemente Lisi)
• Majority of Catholics say Biden should not seek second White House bid, poll reveals (by Clemente Lisi)
• Whatever you believe about history is likely wrong (by Paul Prather)
• Pope Francis makes passionate plea for Putin to end cycle of ‘violence and death’ in Ukraine (by Clemente Lisi)
• Season 3 of Muslim comedy ‘Ramy’ gives viewers a ‘spiritual discretion’ warning — here’s why (by Jillian Cheney)
• Zimbabwean government blames religious anti-vaxxers for deadly measles outbreak (by Cyril Zenda)
The Final Plug
Forsyth County, Georgia, which remained nearly all-White into the 1990s, has an ugly racial history.
Two Atlanta-area churches say it's past time to write a better, more racially inclusive story for the future.
I made a quick trip to the Peach State this past weekend to report the news for The Christian Chronicle.
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.