NEWS STORY
NBCUSA-President: National Baptist Convention USA president questions ‘hypocritical’ mandate views
(RNS) — The president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, closed the annual session of his historically Black denomination this week with critiques of cultural conflicts and Christian nationalism. The Rev. Jerry Young’s address pointed to recent political turmoil in America, including a controversial Texas abortion ban. By Adelle M. Banks. 800 words. (category: a)
NEWS BRIEF
RNS-ADL-LOreal: ADL partners with L’Oréal USA to promote Holocaust education in the US
(RNS) — In response to the steady increase of antisemitic incidents in the U.S., Anti-Defamation League has joined hands with L’Oréal USA to create a digital curriculum, through non-profit Echoes & Reflections, that will reach about 1,750 schools in the country by 2024. By Nidhi Upadhyaya. 423 words. (category: a)
NEWS BRIEF
RNS-Pope-Youth4Action: Pope Francis encourages young climate activists to build dialogue
(RNS) – In a message to young people attending an event on the environmental crisis in Italy, Pope Francis encouraged activist to promote human relations and the protection of the environment by overcoming divisions. By Claire Giangravè. 480 words. (category i)
NEWS BRIEF
RNS-Dilawar-Syed: Vote Over Muslim Nominated By Biden Stalls in Congress
(RNS) — The confirmation of the man who is the highest-ranking Muslim bureaucrat in the Biden administration continues to stall due to partisan politics. Dilawar Syed, is the Biden administration’s pick to be the deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA). Syed’s confirmation hearing was supposed to take place on April 12th. Yet, on that day and three subsequent meetings, the Republican members of the Senate Small Business Committee have failed to attend. In essence boycotting the confirmation of Syed. By Joseph Hammond. 450 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Report-Muslims: Muslim women more likely than men to experience Islamophobia, survey finds
(RNS) — A survey exploring the lives of U.S. Muslims after the Sept. 11 attacks found that Muslim women were more likely then men to experience Islamophobia, that younger Muslims born in the U.S. were more likely to try to conceal their religious identities, and that many Muslims self-censor themselves out of fear of how others may react to them. The report, “Islamophobia through the Eyes of Muslims,” was released Wednesday (Sept. 29) by the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. By Alejandra Molina. 800 words. (category: a)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Rodgers-Oped: Conversion therapy bans are too easy for religious groups to sidestep
(RNS) — As important as conversion therapy bans for minors are, those laws don’t protect youth who are taken to religious programs. The Williams Institute of UCLA School of Law estimates that while 16,000 LGBT youth who are currently between the ages of 13-17 will receive conversion therapy from a licensed therapist before they turn 18, three times as many (57,000) will be subjected to it by religious or spiritual advisers. Conversion therapy bans don’t apply to those organizations because they’re protected by religious freedom laws. By Julie Rodgers. 1,091 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Silk-Oped: Why our preferred pronoun for God should be ‘they’
(RNS) — In contrast to human beings, it has long been accepted that God is not gendered, at least within the main Abrahamic theological tradition. A phrase such as “God the Father” should be treated as a metaphor — and for those concerned about the embedded misogyny of the tradition, to say nothing of post-binary folks — a deeply problematic one. “They,” “theirs,” “them,” and “themself” (or maybe “themselves”) solves the problem. By Mark Silk. 646 words. (category: k)
