This week’s Weekend Plug-in asks whether it’s accurate to say that Pope Francis is a “fan” of President Joe Biden, America’s second Catholic president. Plus, find links to all the week’s top religion reads.
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(ANALYISIS) Italian economist Mario Draghi is forming a new government at the president’s request after a collapse of the ruling coalition over its handling of the pandemic. How will Catholic Social Teaching factor in helping lockdown-weary Italians — from business owners to the unemployed — achieve economic stability? The answer can be found in a 2013 speech.
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(ANALYSIS) President Joe Biden’s remarks during his address at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 4 give insight on his view of faith and politics during his presidency.
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(OPINION) A recent study released explained the sexual atrocities against Uyghur women in China. International bodies, such as the United Nations, have been greatly silent, with a few meaningless statements that do not follow with decisive actions to change the fate of the targeted communities.
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(OPINION) The clash between Cardinal Blasé Cupich of Chicago and Archbishop Jose Gomez was a rare example – in public – of ongoing tensions among American bishops about how to handle Catholic politicians who dissent, in word and deed, from centuries of church doctrines on life-and-death issues such as abortion and euthanasia, as well as hot-button topics such as sex, gender and marriage.
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Incendiary rhetoric has made Georgia Congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a controversial figure among Jews not only in Georgia, but nationally. She vows not to back down from her anti-Semitic statements despite her many critics in and out of the Republican party.
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Myanmar’s coup could bring even more harm to religious minorities there, like Rohingya Muslims who have been the targets of ethnic cleansing by the military. In the U.S., faith leaders of the sanctuary city movement are pushing back on fines, and a new American coalition of non-religious elected officials hopes to counter White Christian nationalism.
Read MoreMichelle Amuli was a socialite, fitness trainer, online influencer and unifier in life and yet a divisive and controversial figure in her death. Popularly known as Moana in Zimbabwe, her burial rights divided her Muslim paternal and Christian maternal families. The ruling became a landmark case on how to quell the all-too-familiar battles in Zimbabwe for religious and cultural burial rites.
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(OPINION) About a year into the pandemic, when face masks are largely mandatory, coverings have come to signify a wide range of things. Some Muslim women in the West who wear niqabs have reported a more positive experience.
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(ANALYSIS) Vaccines are beginning to be rolled out across the U.S., bringing questions for employees and their businesses. Can employers require their employees to take the vaccine? Can religious exemptions apply to the vaccine?
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(ANALYSIS) In the months since the election, the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family has regularly provided election skeptics with plentiful ammunition and has embraced men and women in Congress who voted to overturn state election results. Meanwhile, Focus’s partner organization in Washington, D.C., the Family Research Council, continues to claim the election was stolen, and that Antifa—not Trump supporters—may have caused the Capitol attack on Jan. 6.
Read MoreThe Rev. James Martin, one of the most famous Catholic priests in this country, has written a new book, Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone, that focuses on helping Christians understand what it takes to have a relationship with God.
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The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. enlisted the U.S. Government to help with the return of the objects after the museum proved unable to finalize potential loan or education program agreements involving the objects or resolve shipping logistics details with the intended recipients, The Iraq Museum in Baghdad and The Coptic Museum in Cairo.
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Lt. Chaplain Autumn Wilson is only one of few female chaplains in the U.S. Armed Forces that belongs to the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)—a historically Black denomination with 2.5 to 3.5 million members. Though the church has majority female members, there are far fewer female ministers. Wilson is also the only woman working as a chaplain at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. About 5% of all military chaplains are women.
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A majority of Christians view the coronavirus shots as an answer to prayer, a survey conducted by The Christian Chronicle finds. Nationwide, roughly three-quarters of 200 members of Churches of Christ who responded to the survey said they intend to get vaccinated or already have.
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Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga. has a long history in the Black church. It was the spiritual home of the civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It is now the home of the state’s first Black senator – the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at the church.
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(OPINION) Imagine that Jack Dorsey contacts you, as a Christian on social media, and asks how he could improve his platform. His belief in self-government on the Internet is valid—but how does it differ from the Founding Father’s impression of self-government being directly tied to religion.
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Signaling his commitment to diversity, President Joe Biden has chosen record numbers of non-white and female cabinet members, including a spree of Indian Americans. Even more statement-making, he has excluded some of his former staff members linked to India’s Hindu nationalist movement, also called Hindutva.
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(OPINION) After rumors and visions of “Texit” from David French, one can’t help but wonder the potential for another conflict similar to the Civil War. There is a substantial ideological divide among Americans, and liberalist, French, is leading the mission of the rumored Texas secession.
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(OPINION) After prominent racial justice discussions in 2020, Schechter amends his first column on the subject, “Are Jews White? It’s Complicated.” He says that as a White Jewish man, he does not understand the struggles of being Black in America — and works with the Temple in understanding and standing on the side of racial justice.
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