NEWS STORY
RNS-LGBTQ-Colleges: Are LGBTQ students at Christian schools discriminated against? A lawsuit and scholarly studies say yes.
(RNS) — A lawsuit, filed last week by the nonprofit Religious Exemption Accountability Project, paints a grim picture of a hostile campus environment for LGBTQ students at 25 Christian colleges and universities including Protestant, Latter-day Saint and Seventh-day Adventist. Scholars who have studied LGBTQ students at Christian schools confirm widespread discrimination. By Yonat Shimron. 1,000 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Faith-Facts-NCAA: Five faith facts as Baylor and Gonzaga square off for NCAA hoops crown (RNS) – For the first time, a Protestant college faces off with a Catholic institution for the NCAA Division I men’s title. The winner will mark the third time a faith-based school has won March Madness. A look at some of the faith connections to the game of basketball – which grew out of Muscular Christianity. By Bob Smietana. 750 words. (category c)
NEWS BRIEF
RNS-Catholic-Schools: Archdiocese of Los Angeles to close six elementary schools
LOS ANGELES (RNS) — Six elementary schools within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles are closing due to financial hardships heightened in the wake of the pandemic, officials said. By Alejandra Molina. 400 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Easter-Vigil: On Easter Vigil, Pope Francis invited the Catholic Church to set out “on new paths”
(RNS) – During the Easter Vigil on Satuday, among the most visually dramatic liturgies on the Christian calendar, Pope Francis invited faithful to follow Jesus by starting anew and letting go of the nostalgia for the past, while reaching out to the existential peripheries of the poor and marginalized. By Claire Giangravè. 600 words. (category c)
NEWS STORY
RNS-UrbietOrbi-Pope: In Easter address, Pope Francis calls for peace for pandemic-tested world
(RNS) – In his traditional Easter message to the world, called Urbi et Orbi, Pope Francis asked that Christs’ Resurrection become a symbol of hope in today’s “difficult situation,” when humanity is faced with social and economic crisis, the pandemic and ongoing conflicts. By Claire Giangravè. 800 words. (category c)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Riess-Oped: Mormon leader blasts some right-wing US extremists, but will they know he’s talking to them?
(RNS) — Extreme right-wing Trump supporters got a serious dressing-down at this weekend’s General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, even if the speaker — Pres. Dallin Oaks, the next in line to be the church’s prophet — did not specifically name them or the candidate they supported. By Jana Riess. 1,212 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Prior-Oped: Beth Moore left the SBC after the SBC left women to fend for themselves
(RNS) — Moore’s decision to leave the Southern Baptist Convention and my decision to stay made me reflect on the past, present and future of women in the denomination and, more specifically, on how Beth’s and my very different experiences might be instructive in understanding how we got here — and where we might go. By Karen Swallow Prior. 1,133 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Silk-Oped: The hollowing out of American religion
(RNS) — Americans today understand religious identity more as how they are currently engaged than as something ascribed to them in childhood. So the rise of the nones has partly to do with non-religious Americans now identifying themselves as such. Meanwhile, increased social comfort with none status may have enabled greater truth-telling in matters of religious practice. By Mark Silk. 856 words. (category: k)