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Brian Scroggins, second from left, and volunteers at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the city has set up a crisis center for victims of the shooting and their families. RNS photo by Kimberly Winstonon
Need to know: Monday, October 16, 2017
‘Still, small voice’: Ministering to the families of the Las Vegas shooting
For almost two weeks now, Brian Scroggins has spent upward of 12 hours a day walking the Las Vegas Convention Center — hugging the anxious, praying with the distressed and crying with those in mourning.
Willow Creek chooses co-ed pastors to succeed Bill Hybels
The historic transition makes Willow Creek, one of the largest churches in America, with a woman, Heather Larson, in the lead pastor position, as well as the only major evangelical megachurch with male-female lead pastors who aren’t married. (She’ll be joined by teaching pastor Steve Carter.)
Pope adds 35 saints to church, nearly all martyrs
Thirty martyrs suffered anti-Catholic persecution in 1645 at the hands of Dutch Calvinists in Brazil, while three indigenous Mexican children were martyred in the 1520s for refusing to renounce their Catholic faith.
Unrelenting killing of Coptic Christians intensifies debate over martyrdom
The Islamic State group has launched waves of attacks on the Coptic community in recent years — claiming at least 70 lives and wounding scores of others — the latest, a Coptic priest stabbed to death in a poor Cairo neighborhood.
Inside the sprawling, controversial $500m Museum of the Bible
While it is not the monument to creationism that some liberals feared, the museum has attracted skepticism over both its ideological mission and the provenance of its collection.
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Latest news from RNS
Pope lays down challenge to US Catholics on the death penalty
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In calling capital punishment 'inadmissible,' Pope Francis is reshaping what it means for Catholics to be 'pro-life,' stressing that it means protecting life from womb to natural death.
Balinese Hindus await the eruption of Mount Agung, home of a god
BALI, Indonesia (RNS) — A volcano that Balinese Hindus consider sacred is about to erupt. In the days before the lava flows, photographer Alexandra Radu captures Mount Agung and those who revere it.
Supreme Court asked to review North Carolina county prayer ruling
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lower court ruled that county commissioners' practice of leading the prayers themselves and inviting the audience to join, always in the Christian faith, violated the First Amendment by establishing Christianity as a preferred religion.
More views from RNS
‘Mormon Families Are Forever’ shouldn’t be a threat
Guest blogger Mette Harrison offers 4 ways the idea of eternal families may not be good news for everyone -- especially when it's used as a tool to bludgeon the non-believing.
People of faith aren’t exempt from loving their neighbor
(RNS) — 'We can navigate our differences and protect others while respecting religious freedom,' writes Jennifer Butler.
Alan Jacobs’ antidote to Christian anti-intellectualism
"if you don't care what anyone else thinks about you, you can easily find yourself locked in an echo-chamber," Jacobs says.
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