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Need to know: Wednesday, January 11, 2017
In farewell, Obama urges faith and political engagement
“Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it,” the president said in Chicago.
Sessions: I don’t support Muslim ban
Jeff Sessions, the president-elect’s nominee for attorney general, said he would be willing to tell Trump “no” and not be the president’s “mere rubber stamp.”
Muslim girls in Switzerland must attend swim classes with boys, court says
The girls’ parents had resisted the mandatory classes on religious grounds, taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Steven McDonald, paralyzed police officer who championed forgiveness, dies at 59
Shot by a 15-year-old in New York’s Central Park, McDonald forgave his shooter and told of his faith as a Roman Catholic. If people wanted forgiveness, he said, they had to show it to others.
San Antonio’s retired archbishop Patrick Flores, first Mexican-American bishop in the U.S., has died
Flores, who worked as a migrant farmworker as a youth, became a priest in 1956 in Galveston and served as archbishop of San Antonio until 2004. He was known widely for his defense of Mexican-American civil rights, his support for farmworkers and his love of his culture and heritage.
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Latest news from RNS
Jury condemns Dylann Roof to death
CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) He told jurors he still felt the massacre was something he had to do and did not ask that his life be spared.
Bomb threats called in to 16 Jewish community centers in one day
All the threats were false, but they rattled Jewish communities in at least nine states, including New Jersey, Florida, Maryland and South Carolina.
The Obama presidency: ‘War on religion’ or ‘Amazing Grace’?
In his eight years in the White House, Barack Obama has both inspired and angered people of faith.
More views from RNS
Jeff Sessions got it right on immigrants and the Bible
(RNS) It is ironic that the political and religious left who normally eschew treating Scripture as a source of authority when it comes to matters of public policy have suddenly dusted off their Bibles for the immigration debate.
An eerie echo in ‘Silence’
(RNS) Despite their very different attitudes toward faith, 'Silence' and 'Life of Galileo' offer striking parallels.
How I’m happy despite my brain cancer diagnosis
(RNS) For me, there’s a particularly Jewish attitude toward life and death that I think my late father helped plant in me.
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Bonus tracks
- What will mysticism in the 21st century look like?
- The favorite Bible verses of 88 nations
- The fight for female priesthood in the Mormon church
- One of the largest collection of Ethiopian religious texts is now in DC
- Against confession: On intersectional feminism, radical Catholicism, and redefining remorse