RNS Updated Budget — Monday, February 10, 2020

A handful of recent initiatives are challenging taboos around death and organ donation among Sikh and other South Asian communities in the U.K. By Aysha Khan. 1,300 words. (category: i) NEWS STORY RNS-Impeachment-Roundup: Impeachment leads to […]

NEWS STORY
RNS-Sikh-Organ: Eyeing shortage of minority organ donors, British Sikhs take charge on demystifying donation
LONDON (RNS) — A handful of recent initiatives are challenging taboos around death and organ donation among Sikh and other South Asian communities in the U.K. By Aysha Khan. 1,300 words. (category: i)

NEWS STORY
RNS-Impeachment-Roundup: Impeachment leads to theological war of words among Trump critics and backers
(RNS) — Religious rhetoric is not uncommon on Capitol Hill, where politicians often thread references to the Almighty into speeches while participating in political theater. But in the drama-filled final week of President Trump’s impeachment trial, God was essentially a supporting character. It was all part of a theological war of that has been going on for months, with the commander-in-chief and his opponents invoking the divine and questioning each other’s faith. By Jack Jenkins. 1,108 words. (category: a)

NEWS STORY
RNS-Barna-Pastors: What’s on pastors’ minds? It’s not religious liberty: new study
(RNS) — What’s on pastors’ minds? It may not be what you think, according to a report released last week by Barna Group. A new survey by the California-based Christian research firm found that Protestant pastors are worried less about hot topics like religious liberty than they are about the decline of religion in America. By Emily McFarlan Miller. 549 words. (category: a)


COMMENTARY
RNS-Silk-Oped: A day for environmentalist Judaism
(RNS) — Monday is Tu B’Shvat, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat and a minor Jewish holiday. The Mishnah (the original portion of the Talmud) calls Tu B’Shvat the New Year of the Trees, and because of that, the holiday in modern times morphed into a Jewish Arbor Day dedicated especially to planting trees in Israel. Over the past few decades, Jewish environmentalists have combined the mystics’ meal with the arborist concept to create ecological seders. And the more we learn about the importance of forests for carbon sequestration and biodiversity, the more Tu B’Shvat has become a touchstone for Jews concerned about climate change. By Mark Silk. 652 words. (category: k)

COMMENTARY
RNS-Paris-Oped: Making an idol of brain-injured patients
(RNS) — In a recent RNS column, Charles C. Camosy, writing on new research about people who are in a “persistent vegetative state,” called a new civil rights push for those with brain injuries. But by invoking the case of Terri Schiavo, Camosy risks overreaching what the new science can do, and what Catholic end-of-life teaching holds. By John J. Paris and Kevin Wildes. 1,250 words. (category: k)