NEWS BRIEF
RNS-ISISK-Explainer: Who is ISIS-K, the group officials blame for the Kabul airport bombings?
(RNS) — A horrific terrorist attack at a Kabul airport on Thursday (Aug. 26) has killed at least 12 U.S. service members as well as more than 60 Afghans attempting to flee the country, a death toll U.S. officials are attributing to an ISIS affiliate. 450 words. By Jack Jenkins. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Pet-Pastor: National Dog Day 2021: Meet Petey the Beagle, associate pastor and greeter
GREEN TREE, Pa. (RNS) — Today, Aug. 26, is National Dog Day, a holiday that has special meaning for Associate Pastor Petey of Unity Presbyterian Church. He’s a beagle-mix whose journey to church started in a pet rescue. By Kathryn Post. 1050 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Uncommon-Ministries: ‘I kept putting God in too small of a box’: five clergy on their unexpected callings
(RNS) — From hospice rooms to rural churches, these five clergy persons found their call to serve God and minister to others’ spiritual lives take them to unexpected congregations. By Renée Roden. 2,000 words. (category: a)
NEWS BRIEF
RNS-Rabbinate-Francis: Israel’s rabbinate asks Pope Francis to explain comments disparaging of Judaism
(RNS) — Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has written a letter to Pope Francis conveying its “distress” at comments made by Pope Francis that suggest Jewish law, as written in the Torah, is obsolete. By Yonat Shimron. 400 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Methodists-Scouts: Methodists urge ending Boy Scout charters amid abuse-related bankruptcy negotiations
(RNS) — In light of a recent bankruptcy court ruling about the Boy Scouts of America and sex abuse claimants, United Methodist leaders are urging their churches to conclude charters with local Boy Scout troops by the end of the year. By Adelle M. Banks. 675 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Catholic-Raleigh: Amid a boom of plus-sized churches, one Catholic church wants to keep it small
CARY, N.C. (RNS) — North Carolina’s Catholic population, while still small in comparison to many northern and midwestern states, has ballooned over the past 50 years, especially in the state’s urban areas. It has accommodated the influx by building plus-sized churches. One church in a booming Raleigh suburb has resisted the trend. By Yonat Shimron. 900 words. (category: a)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Henry-Oped: In the beginning, there was reggae
(RNS) — Reggae music takes seriously the notion that God is real and will come to the aid of the oppressed against systemic injustice. It encapsulates the prophetic spirituality I looked to embody when I was an evangelical Christian but could never find. This is why it has become the soundtrack of my own decolonizing journey and spiritual practice, as well as the vehicle for my activism. By Andre Henry. 1,035 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Riess-Oped: Elder Holland’s BYU speech is for a university of yesteryear
(RNS) — The overt, spoken message of the meeting was that inclusion is important; the unfortunate and unspoken subtext of Holland’s talk was that the voices of nonwhite, nonheterosexual, nonmale members of the church are unimportant. As BYU looks forward to the second half of its second century, erasing difference and implicitly upholding one particular social location as normative for everyone won’t equip students to succeed in a diverse world. By Jana Riess. 1,290 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Florer-Bixler-Oped: They refused the vaccine but still want our empathy. Can we deny them?
(RNS) — As the country tips into another trough of high transmission, full ICUs and hybrid classes, It’s difficult to muster up sorrow for people who sneeringly call masks “muzzles” only to infect and sometimes kill loved ones and strangers. Those who took the pandemic seriously, and made life-altering decisions all along to protect others, are being asked to dig deeper into the well of compassion to ladle out another cup or two of sympathy. But for many that well is dry. By Melissa Florer-Bixler. 812 words. (category: k)
