This week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the story behind Religion News Service’s big scoop on Beth Moore declaring she is “no longer a Southern Baptist.” Plus, find links to all the top headlines and best reads in the world of faith.
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Clubhouse, the new audio chat app from Silicon Valley, is a booming spot for faith groups hoping to supplement weekly worship and grow their communities. Here are the best ones to check out.
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(OPINION) What cause could ever possibly unite the Christian Right and the pro-choice left? Non-profit groups cannot operate or raise money in the state of California unless they give its attorney general the names and addresses of their major donors, the same list that's required as an appendix to their federal IRS returns.
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(OPINION) Are some Washington, D.C., parishes “safe” while others are risky when it comes to where President Joe Biden can attend Mass on Sundays?
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(OPINION) In Scotland, old blasphemy laws are being discarded — only to be replaced with harsher ones. The bill introduced is opposed by many faith and secular groups.
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The term “evangelical” has broken away from its roots as a sub-genre of Protestant theology and has now morphed into a social, cultural and political term that stretches far beyond the boundaries of Christianity. In fact, the term “evangelical” is now being embraced by religious groups that do not believe in any of the tenets of an orthodox evangelicalism.
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(OPINION) These days the "response rates" among those in randomly selected samples are so low it's tough to tell how representative the people are. Pew's expertise often provides all-important distinctions between white "mainline" and white "evangelical" Protestants, and between white and Hispanic Catholics. Pew is changing the way it surveys religious behavior and attitudes, so the media will want to be aware of why and how.
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Income tax authorities in India have confiscated the estate of Bishop K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia and Believer’s Eastern Church, four months after the country’s ministry of finance raided the church’s offices looking for evidence of tax fraud.
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(ANALYSIS) The proposed Equality Act explicitly bans discrimination in federally funded programs on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, which would require all adoption and child placement agencies to adopt to LGBTQ couples.
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Thousands of Rohingya refugees settled in India’s only Muslim-majority region Jammu and Kashmir are at risk of arrest and detention after the Indian government moved 175 Rohingya to a detention center March 6, saying the Myanmar government — now controlled by the military accused of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya— asked for the Rohingya to be deported back. The move follows the BJP ruling party’s promises to deport Rohingya, ahead of elections in key states this week.
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Ravi Zacharias International Ministries will change its name and remove content from late founder Ravi Zacharias from its website and social media platforms, RZIM CEO Sarah Davis said in a statement. Davis said the organization will discontinue the use of “The Zacharias Institute” brand immediately and that content to be removed includes publications and videos.
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(OPINION) What is more important, embodying the Gospel or the traditional image of a Southern Republican? As the Southern Baptist Church has experienced critiques for racial issues, their numbers for baptism have ominously declined as well.
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex caused major waves via their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey. Accusations of racism, betrayal and a lack of empathy dominated the talk, but one key detail dropped about the couple’s wedding has left the Church of England in a difficult position.
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(OPINION) The upcoming International Women’s Day should be used to rethink the impact of our everyday choices on the situation of women. This includes the way we shop. Indeed, recent research suggests that it is very likely that my power suit means enslavement, forced labor and abuse of Uyghur women.
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In Africa, there are deep-seated traditional beliefs that life-threatening illnesses originate from a generational curse, witchcraft or as a punishment from God, and that seeps into some church teachings too. Kenyans with terminal illnesses talk to Religion Unplugged about how they’ve sought solace for themselves, and pastors and a psychiatrist weigh in.
Read More(OPINION) A filmmaker writes that none of the films he made had cursing, they didn’t have sex scenes, they didn’t have endings where everything wasn’t tied up nicely with a happy ending bow— not because he didn’t want to put them in his movies, or thought he could tell a better story without them, but instead because he knew if he did include mature content or unanswered questions in his films, they wouldn’t sell.
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In this week’s Weekend Plug-in, top religion journalists analyze Catholic bishops’ conflicting and sometimes confusing statements on Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine. Plus, find links to all the week’s top religion news and best reads.
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Beyond being one of Mahatma Gandhi’s — or Ghandiji’s — granddaughters, Ela Gandhi has become a symbol of social justice in her own right, living a life of quiet — and not so quiet — resistance over the last 80 years. A new book by Easterbooks, “My Time with Ela Gandhi,” chronicles the lessons learned and stories told by Gandhi throughout their friendship.
Read More(REVIEW) Unlike any pope of the modern era, no one has been as controversial and polarizing as Francis. This new book tries to delve into what motivates this pontiff and his mission.
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(OPINION) Pope Francis’ Apostolic Visit to Iraq begins on March 5, 2021. This first-ever papal visit to Iraq aims to provide moral support to Christian minorities in Iraq and the region while facilitating the Vatican’s goal of building bridges with the Muslim world. The visit comes close to seven years after religious minorities in the region, including Christians and Yazidis, have been targeted for annihilation by Daesh.
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