Southerners tend to be more religious than other U.S. adults

Southerners tend to be more religious than other U.S. adults – but less religious than they used to be
Pew Research Center: The change is big enough that current levels of religiousness in the South resemble the 2007 levels of religiousness in the Northeast and West.
Gallup: Americans’ religious engagement holds at lower levels

 

What comes next for Iranian religious minorities?
Religion News Service: The death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, creates uncertainty for all Iranians, but especially for non-Muslim minorities.

 

How Trump officials created ‘nuclear option’ against protesters in church
The Guardian: Critics say the administration has overstepped its authority in using 1994 law to prosecute protesters and journalists.

 

Metropolitan AME pastor’s new book offers ancestral veneration as guide to civic engagement
Religion News Service: Though often linked to Black diasporas and Indigenous culture, the practice is deeply rooted in American culture, said the Rev. William Lamar IV.

 

Researchers probe unmarked graves at Virginia site where slaves once toiled*
The Washington Post: The Diocese of Arlington and Catholic University are trying to identify who is buried in the unmarked graves at a cemetery for the family of George Brent, one of Virginia’s earliest settlers.

War in Iran fails just war test
National Catholic Reporter: The Catholic Church recognizes that war can be waged lawfully if certain conditions are met. These conditions include legitimate authority, just cause, right intention, probability of success, proportionality and war as a last resort.
Religion News Service: Is Trump's fight against Iran a just war?

 

Sprawling investigation finds decades of sexual abuse among Catholic priests in Rhode Island
Associated Press: The full scope of the priest abuse problem in Rhode Island — the smallest U.S. state but the one with the highest Catholic population per capita, at nearly 40% — had long remained elusive.

 

Anti-AIPAC group loses first primary test as Rep. Valerie Foushee hangs on
Politico: The Democratic primary for the North Carolina seat at times got tense over Foushee’s former ties to AIPAC and generational divides.

 

Get the stoicism out of your Lent
Mockingbird: The shape of the cross screams out against the black smudge of our suffering and the threat of our destruction, even as it is shaped by it, writes Julia Daniel.

 

The comedown: The Psychedelic Renaissance in sober light
Baptist News Global: A minister who founded Psychedelic Theology says that although he is optimistic about psychedelics as medical treatments and tools of spiritual exploration, he acknowledges the full spectrum of risks.