NEWS STORY
RNS-Catholic-Disobedience: Faced with opposition from the Vatican, prominent Catholics opt for disobedience
VATICAN CITY (RNS) – Over the past week, Catholic priests all over Germany have been openly defying the Vatican by blessing same-sex couples. As the Vatican struggles to answer the demands for representation and inclusivity by some factions in the church, a growing number of Catholic faithful opt for disobedience as a last resort. By Claire Giangravè. 1,200 words. (category: i)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Alaqsa-Explainer: Religion plays a role in the renewed conflict in Israel, but it may not be what you think
(RNS) — At heart, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a dispute over land. But religion is often the proxy for those disputes, pitting two different ethnicities and religions. Little wonder those tensions tend to flare around religious holidays, both Jewish and Muslim. By Yonat Shimron. 750 words. (category: a)
NEWS BRIEF
RNS-Cheney-Faith: Liz Cheney, ousted from party leadership, invokes the pope and the ‘power of faith’
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney invoked faith and the pope this week as her fellow Republicans removed her from party leadership, appealing to the power of “faith and freedom” while defending her condemnation of former President Donald Trump’s widely discredited claims the 2020 election was stolen. By Jack Jenkins. 571 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-OC-Eid: Muslims and Catholics in Orange County unite for Eid-al-Fitr prayers
(RNS) — In the spirit of interfaith solidarity, clergy at St. Philips Benizi, a Catholic church, is offering its large campus to host Eid prayers for the Islamic Center of Fullerton, a growing Vietnamese Muslim congregation in Orange County that operates out of a small office space. To local Islamic leaders, this marks a historic Eid, to be able to pray amid a pandemic “in the vicinity of our Christian brothers and sisters. By Alejandra Molina. 625 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Ramadan-Drummers: Meet Kashmir’s ‘Midnight Drummers,’ keeping alive an age-old Ramadan tradition
SRINAGAR, Kashmir (RNS) —Locally known as Sahar Khawan, the traditional Ramadan drummers like Sheikh walk miles in the pre-dawn hours of Ramadan mornings, crisscrossing the inner lanes and bylanes and going past houses while beating their drums to wake up the inhabitants. They beat their drums and announce Sehri time for observing Muslims. By Majid Maqbool. 1,363 words. (category: i)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Riess-Oped: The seeds of police brutality in the Bible
(RNS) — Monsterization is nothing new, says Esther Hamori, an associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Union Theological Seminary in New York. In fact, it’s right there in the pages of the Bible. “When people read the Bible as a monolith, as a go-and-do-likewise manual, then it’s a recipe for authoritarian violence,” said Hamori. By Jana Riess. 895 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Reese-Oped: Democrats defend a tax boon for rich homeowners
(RNS) — “Anything the Trump administration did must be wrong.” This view has become something of a guiding principle of many Democrats in Washington, as they work to repeal a wide range of Trump-era laws, regulatory relief and other decisions. The principle seems to apply even to a limit that former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax legislation put on a tax deduction for rich homeowners. By Thomas Reese. 841 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Salkin-Oped: What does Hamas really want?
(RNS) — Israel has made plenty of mistakes this week, and in its half century of existence. But the moral calculus of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs to begin with the violent aims of Hamas, the Islamist group that governs Gaza. By Jeffrey Salkin. 1,115 words. (category: k)