Monday Mix

, , , , ,

Plug-In: 90-plus finalists were named for 2020 religion news awards. Why one stands out

, , , , ,

The Religion News Association named nearly 100 finalists in 22 categories last week for its 2020 Awards for Religion Reporting Excellence.

Among the familiar names on the list: Religion Unplugged’s own Meagan Clark, Paul Glader and Elizabeth Vandenboom. And yes, I was honored to be included for my work with The Christian Chronicle.

But one finalist’s name stood out: Heidi Hall.

Hall, a former religion and education editor for The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, was nominated posthumously. She died Sept. 25 last year from metastatic colorectal cancer. She was 49.

Her deeply personal final story was published the day after her passing.

“It's the story of her life — of losing everything when she left the (Jehovah’s) Witnesses — and finding a new family of her own,” RNS editor-in-chief Bob Smietana noted at the time.

“Final edits were done by her hospice bed,” Smietana said after the RNA finalists were named. “I hope she is smiling somewhere.”

The winners will be announced this fall.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , , ,

Churches are 'superspreaders'? Worship connection to COVID-19 surge raises questions

, , , , , , , , ,

Superspreader.

That’s a new word we’ve learned in 2020, thanks to the global pandemic.

Speaking of which, much attention has focused on in-person worship assemblies as potential superspreader events for COVID-19 — and understandably so.

This week, an in-depth New York Times article drew a bunch of attention with this provocative headline: “Churches were eager to reopen. Now they are a major source of coronavirus cases.”

It’s a fascinating, must-read piece. But also, I appreciated the important questions that Ed Stetzer’s blog at Christianity Today raised about the context — or lack thereof — on the numbers that the Times highlighted. GetReligion’s Terry Mattingly also voiced concerns.

Meanwhile, the Deseret News’ Herb Scribner reported on movie theaters suing New Jersey, arguing that if churches can open, then cinemas can, too. Personal confession: I won’t be eating popcorn anywhere except for my couch for a while.

One more pandemic-related note: I missed this interview when it was first published last week, but it’s an amazing (and encouraging) read: Enjoy New York magazine writer Jebediah Reed’s “long talk with Anthony Fauci’s boss about the pandemic, vaccines, and faith.”

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. Megachurch pastor John Ortberg kept a family member’s attraction to children secret. Then his son blew the whistle. Whether delving into an end-times cat cult or how a beloved worship song helped fuel spiritual abuse, Bob Smietana is a master at long-form investigative journalism on the religion beat.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , ,

As many Americans celebrate 4th of July, there are fireworks in world of religion news

, , , , , , , ,

Who’s ready for fireworks?

Or maybe not — as the coronavirus pandemic has sparked the cancellation of many holiday celebrations.

In any case: Happy Fourth of July!

As America marks 244 years of independence, “Weekend Plug-in” has reached a milestone of its own: the six-month anniversary of this column.

Although I’m still experimenting to see what works best, I’m loving the opportunity to collaborate with Religion Unplugged’s ambitious team of journalists — a talented mix of youth and experience. And I’m excited by the various media partners that have signed on to republish “Plug-in” some or all of the time, including The Christian Chronicle, Religion News Service, GetReligion and MinistryWatch.com.

Please keep the ideas and feedback coming, and let me know what you like and what you don’t: Email me or tweet me.

Now, for the real fireworks: our weekly analysis, insight and top headlines from the world of faith.

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. Street corner where George Floyd was killed becomes a revivalist site: “Slate’s Ruth Graham sure knows how to tell a story,” I said back in February.

Forgive me for repeating myself, but Graham’s latest piece — on the scene of Floyd’s Minneapolis death “becoming literal sacred ground” — is another fine example. It’s both interesting and thoroughly reported.

2. Myrlie Evers weeps as Confederate battle flag comes down in Mississippi: The new state flag in Mississippi must include the phrase “In God We Trust,” but it can’t include the Confederate battle flag, noted Jerry Mitchell of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting.

As Religion Unplugged highlighted earlier this year, Mitchell’s 2020 memoir “Race Against Time” details how the veteran journalist helped win justice in a series of civil rights era murder cases. Myrlie Evers, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, plays a prominent role in Mitchell’s book. And his reporting on her emotional reaction to the Confederate emblem’s removal from the state flag is a must read.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , ,

Plug-in: Trump vs. Biden -- four months before Election Day and religion angles abound

, , , , ,

President Donald Trump came to my home state of Oklahoma last weekend, and I kept my social distance (read: stayed in my living room).

I followed developments via social media, including tweets by my son Keaton Ross, a reporter for Oklahoma Watch. The president even gave Keaton — and all of the news media — a shoutout.

As you may have heard, the symbolic relaunch of Trump’s re-election campaign drew an underwhelming crowd of about 6,200 to a Tulsa arena.

Already, some are pointing to polls that show Trump trailing former Vice President Joe Biden by a wide margin. Honk if that sounds familiar. With Election Day four-plus months away, religion angles — no surprise! — abound.

Among the most interesting pieces of the last week:

• Gabby Orr, White House reporter for Politico, writes that Trump allies “see a mounting threat: Biden’s rising evangelical support.”

• Isaac Chotiner, staff writer for The New Yorker, interviews Albert Mohler about “How the head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary came around to Trump.”

• Jeff Sharlet, in a piece for Vanity Fair, goes inside what the magazine characterizes as “the cult of Trump,” where “his rallies are church and he is the Gospel.”

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writers Bill Glauber, Molly Beck and Annysa Johnson report on Vice President Mike Pence’s focus on religious faith in a campaign stop in battleground Wisconsin.

• Nicholas Casey, a national politics reporter for the New York Times, travels to Alabama to highlight a Baptist church touched by differing opinions over the Trump era. (Be sure to read, too, Terry Mattingly’s GetReligion analysis of this story, making the case that the Times ignores doctrine to focus on politics.)


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , , , , ,

Plug-In: What does this landmark LGBTQ ruling mean for traditional religious institutions?

, , , , , , , , , , ,

The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling Monday barring workplace discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender workers certainly seemed to catch some by surprise.

Take USA Today, for example.

The URL on the national newspaper’s story indicates that the court denied protection to LGBT workers. Oops!

Kelsey Dallas, national religion reporter for the Salt Lake City-based Deseret News, closely follows high court cases with faith-based ramifications.

“Genuinely shocked,” she tweeted concerning the 6-3 decision. “I had prewritten only one version of this story and predicted a ruling against gay and transgender workers based on debate during oral arguments.”

Why was Dallas so surprised?

I asked her that in a Zoom discussion that also included Elana Schor, national religion and politics reporter for The Associated Press; Daniel Silliman, news editor for Christianity Today; and Bob Smietana, editor-in-chief of Religion News Service.

Watch the video to hear Dallas’ reasoning. (Hint: It’s not just that Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion.)

Learn, too, what all the panelists think the decision means for religious hiring practices, the court’s 5-4 conservative split and the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Among related must-read coverage: Schor’s AP story on why the religious right laments the ruling but sees opportunities, Yonat Shimron’s RNS story on conservatives looking to the next cases on religious liberty and Elizabeth Dias’ New York Times story on the “seismic implications.”

Why did the decision rattle Christian conservatives? The Washington Post’s Sarah Pulliam Bailey explains.

At the Deseret News, Dallas asks, “Are we headed toward a federal version of the Utah Compromise on LGBTQ rights?”


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , ,

Plug-in: History Repeats itself as Little Rock Central hero's great-grandson shows courage

, , , , , , , ,

In 1957, the white mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas, showed courage by standing up for nine black students trying to integrate Central High School.

Defying segregationist Gov. Orval Faubus and an angry white mob, Mayor Woodrow Wilson Mann urged President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send U.S. soldiers to quell the violence.

“Situation is out of control and police cannot disperse the mob,” Mann said in a telegram to Eisenhower. “I am pleading to you as president of the United States in the interest of humanity, law and order and because of democracy worldwide to provide the necessary federal troops within several hours.”

To enforce the school’s desegregation, Eisenhower sent 1,200 members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division and federalized the Arkansas National Guard.

But Mann paid a steep price.

He endured hate mail and death threats. White supremacists burned crosses on his family’s lawn. He lost his insurance business and any hope of a political future in Arkansas.

Sean Richardson, youth minister for the Bammel Church of Christ in Houston, recalled Mann’s experience as he preached on the Sunday after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.

“See, typically in history when people have chosen to side with those who are oppressed, they themselves get treated as those who have been oppressed,” Richardson said in the video sermon, which came amid national outrage over Floyd’s death and coast-to-coast protests against racial injustice.

The black youth minister’s mention of Mann, who moved to Houston in 1961 and lived there until his death in 2002 at age 85, was no mere historical footnote.

Richardson traced the late mayor’s lineage to the present day — to an 18-year-old Bammel youth group member named Trevor Mann.

No doubt, Trevor’s place in American history — at least at this point in his life — pales in comparison to that of his great-grandfather, whom he met as a baby.

But Trevor, too, showed courage in the face of racial prejudice.

Read the rest of the story.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Plug-in: Seven pop-quiz questions about Donald Trump's photo op with a Bible

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

What’s left to say about the week’s biggest religion story?

President Donald Trump’s now-famous walk from the White House to the nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church literally broke the internet. Or at least it overloaded the Religion News Service servers. Credit an explosive report by national correspondent Jack Jenkins for that.

Rather than rehash the details from all the stories about Trump’s photo op, let’s see who was paying close attention.

That’s right — it’s time for a pop quiz. I’ll share the answers at the bottom of this column:

1. Did police really use tear gas to break up a peaceful protest so Trump could cross the street and pose with a Bible?

2. Who did authorities expel from the church’s patio before the president’s arrival?

3. What version of the Bible did Trump hold up?

4. Did the Bible belong to Trump?

5. When did the tradition of St. John’s Episcopal Church as the “church of the presidents” begin?

6. What well-known religion writer, in analyzing the president’s visit, wrote that Trump brandished “a Bible like a salesman in a bad infomercial?”

7. Did Trump emerge from the photo op looking like a thug or a hero?

Bonus question: What religious site did Trump visit the day after the church photo op?

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. Trump pushes churches to reopen, but black pastors in hard-hit St. Louis preach caution: Hey, remember when the coronavirus pandemic was all we were talking about?


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , , ,

Plug-in: As flames and fury rock America, George Floyd recalled as man of faith and peace

, , , , , , , , ,

George Floyd has become the latest symbol of injustice in America.

Since video footage captured the black man’s death in police custody, violent protests have erupted in Minneapolis and the governor has called on the National Guard to help maintain order.

But loved ones stress that Floyd — who complained that he couldn’t breathe as a white police officer pressed his knee against the suspect’s neck — should be remembered as more than a symbol. He was a man of peace — a man of faith — those who knew him told both Religion Unplugged’s Liza Vandenboom and Christianity Today’s Kate Shellnutt.

I interviewed a group of black ministers about Floyd’s death Thursday for The Christian Chronicle.

“As a person, I’m outraged,” Russell Pointer Sr., who preaches for the Minneapolis Central Church of Christ, told me. “As a city, we’re trying to grieve.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson arranged to meet with elected officials and faith leaders at the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis “to stand in solidarity and demand justice in the death of George Floyd,” the Star-Tribune reported.

Floyd’s killing exposes a blind spot on racism, Catholic advocates told Crux.

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. America’s churches weigh coronavirus danger against need to worship: “State rules and personal feelings among the faithful vary widely, while experts say houses of worship are prime spots for the spread of the virus,” according to this informative report by Ian Lovett, the Wall Street Journal’s national religion writer, and his colleague Rebecca Elliott.

While reporting the piece, Lovett visited a nondenominational church southeast of Los Angeles that met Sunday when “churches weren’t legally allowed to be open in California.”

“I was the only person in a mask,” Lovett said on Twitter.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , ,

Plug-In: Faith vs. COVID-19 -- Restrictions prompt clashes over churches reopening

, , , , , , , ,

Culture wars, meet the coronavirus.

In the nation’s latest religious freedom battle, church leaders in numerous states — from New York to Oregon — are clashing with governors over how and when to resume in-person gatherings.

President Donald Trump entered the fray today, saying he has deemed houses of worship “essential.” He called on states to allow the reopening of churches, synagogues and mosques despite lingering concerns over the spread of COVID-19, according to The Associated Press.

Just one example of the debates happening nationally: The Boston Globe reported on Thursday’s front page that Gov. Charlie Baker allowed Massachusetts worship gatherings to resume because he knew courts might force his hand.

In California, more than 1,200 pastors have vowed to hold in-person services May 31, defying Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to the Los Angeles Times. The U.S. Justice Department has warned the state that its coronavirus rules might violate religious freedoms.

In Minnesota, Catholic and Lutheran churches have informed Gov. Tim Walz of their plans to begin meeting again despite his executive order limiting religious services to 10 people, the Star-Tribune reported. Church groups are divided on the governor’s order, according to the newspaper’s religion writer, Jean Hopfensperger.

“It’s hard to see how under any reading of the First Amendment the Mall of America can be allowed to reopen while churches must keep their doors closed to all but a handful,” the Wall Street Journal said in an editorial.

In related news:

* Federal guidance for reopening houses of worship was put on hold after a battle between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House, the Washington Post reported. (Update: President Donald Trump said Thursday that his administration would release guidelines for reopening places of worship by today, according to NBC News.)


Please respect our Commenting Policy