Rep. Rashida Tlaib claps in celebration on Wed. July 22, 2020 after the House of Representatives successfully voted 233-183 to repeal several travel bans against several African and Muslim-majority nations put in place by the Trump administration. Screengrab from a tweet shared by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
Need to know: Thursday, July 23, 2020
Separated Muslim families, civil rights groups welcome House passage of No Ban Act
The bill would repeal Trump’s travel bans against several African and Muslim-majority countries and restrict the president’s authority to enact such blanket immigration restrictions.
A Christian writer joined the Wall of Moms to protest in Portland. Then they were tear-gassed.
'Within seconds, there’s flash-bangs at my feet, and we’re surrounded by tear gas. It was really disconcerting to realize how fast it happened, with no warning and no real reason.'
Teachers at religious schools fear Supreme Court took away their civil rights
This month’s Supreme Court ruling established that any religious school teacher who performs a religious function is beyond the reach of civil rights protections accorded to other workers.
Hate crime charge added for Colorado man accused of running over Sikh store owner
Prosecutors have added a hate crime charge against a man accused of striking a 61-year-old Sikh man with his car and leaving him for dead almost three months ago.
State of the Bible: Left unread during the coronavirus pandemic
‘What we saw between January and June was that 13 million people in America, who were previously really engaging meaningfully with Scripture, no longer were, and that was a serious drop-off,’ said John Plake of the American Bible Society.
White evangelicals courted Trump’s toxic masculinity for decades
Historian Kristin Du Mez says white evangelicals see in Trump the authoritarian leader who can conquer the threats to their dominance, writes Jana Riess.
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Catholic sculptor re-creating Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ aims to shift the emphasis off hell
According to the sculptor, limiting the poem’s scope to the Inferno has led to a secularization of Dante’s work. Schmalz’s sculpture will be the first to represent all 100 cantos of the famous poem.
As pandemic wears on, faith leaders dig in on life or death decisions
Pastors, imams and rabbis are balancing their faiths’ core values with their communities’ sometimes fractious feelings about reopening.
Can kindness heal a world divided by pandemic, protests and politics? Pastor Ashlee Eiland thinks so
‘I think sometimes what kindness means, if we’re doing it well, is that we are righteously angry,’ said Ashlee Eiland, formation and preaching pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church near Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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COVID-19 crisis provides opportunities and grace
(RNS) — The coronavirus is wreaking havoc, but it’s also creating opportunities we shouldn’t miss to deepen family bonds and refocusing on the parts of faith that happen away from church on Sunday.
Don’t be fooled by QAnon’s post-apocalyptic fury. It’s really spiritual hunger.
Followers of the online Q and white supremacism yearn for a world in which everything makes sense and where they at last have a role to play, writes Tara Isabella Burton.
My spiritual path through the COVID-19 darkness
(RNS) — The medical system had done all that it could for me. Now I had to listen to my body and have faith in its wisdom.
