As we've noted, religion is a vital part of the life story of Aretha Franklin.
Today, prayers and stars filled a Detroit church at the Queen of Soul's funeral, reports The Associated Press.
In advance of the memorial service, the Detroit Free Press published a piece pointing out that Franklin's "spiritual grounding in the black church" would be on display at the funeral. It's a good story but in places paints with broad strokes on "Baptist theology" when it seems to mean black-church theology. Baptists (like a lot of denominations) are all over the place when it comes to worship traditions.
Anyway, R-E-S-P-E-C-T for Franklin is just one of the stories making religion news this week.
For more, let's dive into the Friday Five:
1. Religion story of the week: Nearly two years after Donald Trump's election as president, hardly a day passes when a news story or column doesn't ask, "Why do evangelical Christians support Trump?"
Some of the pieces are much better than others.
One published in recent days — by longtime Birmingham News religion writer Greg Garrison — is particularly well done and full of insight (including biblical insight) from supporters and opponents of Trump.