Yonat Shimron
Yonat Shimron is an RNS National Reporter and Senior Editor.
All Stories by Yonat Shimron
Seattle Pacific University faculty vote no confidence in board over LGBTQ exclusion
By Yonat Shimron — April 20, 2021
(RNS) — Approved by 72% of the faculty, the April 20 vote was the latest in a series of escalating clashes between faculty, students and the school’s governing board over its refusal to hire LGBTQ people.
Last North Carolina immigrant to take sanctuary at a church goes home
By Yonat Shimron — April 19, 2021
(RNS) — Juana Luz Tobar Ortega was the first person to seek church sanctuary in North Carolina in 2017 and she is the last to leave.
Study: Multiracial Methodist churches draw and keep more people than their white counterparts
By Yonat Shimron — April 16, 2021
(RNS) — The 6.6 million-member United Methodist Church is predominantly white. But its racially diverse congregations are faring better than white churches at a time when the denomination as a whole is experiencing declining attendance.
New book explores how Desmond Tutu’s Christian mysticism helped unite a nation
By Yonat Shimron — April 14, 2021
(RNS) — In his new book, ‘Desmond Tutu: A Spiritual Biography of South Africa’s Confessor,’ Michael Battle delves into the ways Tutu’s religious formation shaped a vision that helped topple apartheid and unite a riven nation.
Seventh and final Plowshares member sentenced to prison for nuclear base break-in
By Yonat Shimron — April 9, 2021
(RNS) — Mark Colville was part of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 who broke into a naval base on April 4, 2018. DePaul University in Chicago announced last month it would recognize the group with a Christian nonviolence award.
Beth Moore apologizes for her role in elevating ‘complementarian’ theology that limits women leaders
By Yonat Shimron and Bob Smietana — April 7, 2021
(RNS) — In an email to Religion News Service, Moore didn’t go quite so far as to say she has entirely abandoned complementarianism. But she no longer sees it as essential.
Are LGBTQ students at Christian schools discriminated against? A lawsuit, scholarly studies say yes.
By Yonat Shimron — April 5, 2021
(RNS) — A new lawsuit backs up what scholars have been saying: LGBTQ students at Christian schools experience higher rates of bullying and harassment as well as clinical depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation in comparison with students at non-religious schools.
At second Easter under pandemic rules, Christians glimpse church’s future
By Adelle M. Banks, Emily McFarlan Miller, Alejandra Molina, Bob Smietana, and Yonat Shimron — April 2, 2021
(RNS) — The pandemic has 'redefined for me what church is going to be like and what the definition of membership is,' said one pastor in North Carolina.
UK judge: Council discriminated in removing bus ads promoting Franklin Graham festival
By Yonat Shimron — April 1, 2021
(RNS) — The judge said the borough council’s actions ‘discriminated on the ground of religion’ and showed ‘wholesale disregard for the right to freedom of expression.’
She swung from purity culture to hookup culture. Now she’s written a memoir on it.
By Yonat Shimron — March 31, 2021
(RNS) — Brenda Marie Davies has written a memoir she calls a cautionary tale about the damaging message of purity culture in which she takes an unflinchingly honest look at female sexuality.
Poll: American Jews report increasing incidents of anti-Semitism, mostly online
By Yonat Shimron — March 31, 2021
(RNS) — More than 60% of American Jews said they experienced or heard anti-Semitic comments, slurs or threats, up from 54% a year earlier.
Franklin Graham unfazed after evangelical base blasts him for encouraging vaccines
By Yonat Shimron — March 26, 2021
(RNS) — Graham's March 24 Facebook post uncovered a deep divide among evangelicals, many of whom are suspicious of COVID-19 vaccines. His organization, Samaritan's Purse, is managing vaccine clinics in Boone, North Carolina.
Michael Twitty’s ‘kosher soul’ cuisine offers an updated story of liberation
By Yonat Shimron — March 26, 2021
(RNS) — The Jewish culinary historian encourages people to celebrate their braided cultures. "Tradition is what you make," he says. His Passover Plate will look different from the one most Jews use.
Another NC man is free to leave church sanctuary as immigration policies ease
By Yonat Shimron — March 24, 2021
(RNS) — Eliseo Jimenez, a 42-year-old itinerant laborer who worked in the state’s tobacco fields and later in construction laying floors, has been living at Umstead Park United Church of Christ since Oct. 9, 2017.
Study: Americans overwhelmingly support LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws
By Yonat Shimron — March 23, 2021
(RNS) — The 2020 American Values Atlas study from PRRI finds that at least 60% of every U.S. religious group favors laws that would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination. But religious leaders are another matter.