Floyd In * Cantor Out * Pope OK : Wednesday’s Roundup

The Southern Baptists vote for a new president. Eric Cantor loses his primary. And Pope Francis needs chicken soup.

Ronnie Floyd, newly elected to head the Southern Baptist Convention. Image courtesy of @RonnieFloyd
Ronnie Floyd, newly elected to head the Southern Baptist Convention. Image courtesy of @RonnieFloyd

Ronnie Floyd, newly elected to head the Southern Baptist Convention. Image courtesy of @RonnieFloyd

“Tuesday’s child is full of grace,” my colleague David Gibson wrote in this space yesterday, which was Tuesday. I remember my grandmother reciting that poem to me decades ago, but I could not remember what Wednesday’s child is full of. So I went to the Google machine. The answer is . . . “woe.” On that note:

Eric Cantor is super woeful today

The House Majority Leader, and the only Jewish Republican in Congress, lost his seat last night in a shocker of a primary. Matt Brooks, head of the Republican Jewish Coalition, responds:


Not woeful: Ronnie Floyd, elected head of the SBC

Here’s five fast facts on the man elected to head the Southern Baptist Convention at the group’s national meeting in Baltimore this week.

Not lovin’ the SBC: trangender Americans

SBC delegates Tuesday said God made two explicit genders and there can’t be nothin’ in between, or that needs to be modified. May none of them be trapped in a body that feels wrong to them.

The Southern Baptists have also countered the current cultural mood on heaven this week. Scripture is more than sufficient on the subject of the afterlife, they voted, and recent popular depictions of heaven should not be anyone’s idea of heaven.

We’ve got veteran reporter Adelle Banks covering the SBC convention this week. It’s the closest thing to being there yourself. So tune into RNS for her latest. And here’s analysis of the convention to date from Jacob Lupfer, who is neither an adoring fan nor an angry detractor of the SBC.

The pope is just tired, so don’t go crazy

Francis has a minor illness and will be back on schedule soon, said the Vatican after the pope cancelled two days worth of appointments. Our Vatican correspondent, Josephine McKenna, is keeping an eye on him. I am not going to worry until Jo says I should.

Obama says we need to do some soul-searching on guns

There was another shooting at a school yesterday. A gunman killed a high school student in Oregon. I know, it hardly even registers, right? Obama, when asked about gun violence shortly after the shooting, said the nation needs to do some “soul-searching” and should “be ashamed.”

We’re the only developed country on Earth where this happens . . . And it happens now once a week . . . And it’s a one-day story. There’s no place else like this.

Non-belief groups’ women problems

Kimberly Winston has written about women’s struggles within secular groups before. But the problem seems worse this week as the Secular Coalition for America prepares for its biggest event of the year after the sudden departure of the coalition’s highest officer, Edwina Rogers. She was let go after employees embezzled $78,000.


Polish PM on abortion and a doc’s duty

After a doctor, citing his faith, refused to perform an abortion on a woman whose fetus has severe brain and head defects, heavily Catholic Poland is debating the conflict of  conscience and law. Donald Tusk, the nation’s prime minister, says a doctor can’t put his faith above the law, which allows a woman 25-weeks-pregnant or less to get an abortion for serious birth defects or if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.

After sanctuary in a church, he won’t be deported

Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson gave santuary to Daniel Neyoy Ruiz, 36, after a traffic stop led to a deportation order for the Mexican immigrant, who is in the U.S. illegally but has a job, a family and no criminal record. Authorities stayed his deportation for a year.

Outlawing ‘gay conversion therapy’

The New York State Assembly today considers a bill to ban therapy that seeks make gay minors straight, a practice that the American Psychological Association says does nothing to change sexual orientation but everything to make a person unhappy. But some faith groups stand behind the practice. New Jersey and California already ban it for minors, and D.C. is also considering a ban.

Bonus Tracks

White evangelical Protestants lose faith in a path to citizenship for immigrants.

Mark Silk on ‘evangelical exclusion’ on campus.

Jana Riess on Mormon missionaries’ excellent language skills.

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