Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, center, and others sing carols and yell holiday greetings outside Central Prison on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 2019, in Raleigh, North Carolina. RNS photo by Yonat Shimron
Need to know: Friday, January 3, 2020
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove wants white evangelicals to reckon with the Bible
He holds out hope he can show them how he believes they’ve misread the Bible and help them discover, as he has, the black Southern freedom movement's focus on justice and freedom.
Quitting job over 666 was ‘a blessing,’ says Christian worker
In 2012, Walter Slonopas quit his job as a maintenance worker after '666' showed up on his official tax forms. In the years since, things have turned out well for Slonopas — he found a new job with better pay, while his former company closed down.
Pope Francis is not the first pontiff to cause controversy with a slap
This week, Pope Francis apologized for slapping a woman who had grabbed his arm on New Year's Eve. The 83-year old pontiff said he had set a bad example. He's not the first pope to be involved with a controversial slap.
The hero of the film ‘Just Mercy’ could be you
The biopic about the work of Bryan Stevenson isn't about a man, but a social justice movement that any one of us can join, writes Shane Claiborne.
When retail and reverence collide
Yoga's ubiquity has put Hindu imagery in the mainstream, but until HIndus are seen as equals in the U.S., mocking our faith's images defines us as colonialist caricatures, write Indu Viswanathan and Parth Parihar.
Orthodox Jew allegedly beaten on New York street in anti-Semitic attack
The 22-year-old man was chased down and punched by two women who hurled hateful epithets at him on New Year’s Day, police said.
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RNS 2019 in Review: A year full of grief, scandals, fire and the perseverance of faith
2019 was a year full of losses, scandals and tragedies, from the deaths of author Rachel Held Evans and pastor Jarrid Wilson to the attacks on houses of worship from New Zealand to California and continued revelations of abuse in religious institutions. And yet faith persists in the midst of a changing religious landscape.
Pastor pledges safety for immigrants at Miami Trump event
MIAMI (AP) — The pastor of a Miami megachurch that will host President Donald Trump at a rally this week is guaranteeing that congregants who entered the U.S. illegally won't risk deportation by attending.
They made a mark on the religious scene this decade; some rose, others fell
(RNS) — This list of 12 — drawn from stories RNS has covered between 2010 and 2019 — offers a one-time retrospective of the personalities (and not a few of the issues) that dominated the religious scene this past decade.
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McCarrick gifts for bosses expose flaws of Vatican practice
(RNS) — Gifts that Theodore McCarrick made to Vatican officials raise questions about whether the donations were buying access or protection.
7 top Mormon news stories from 2019
From vaping (and green tea!) restrictions to a $100 billion nest egg, 2019 was a big year in Mormon news, writes Jana Riess.
Trump’s tweets and actions aren’t good fruit — or moral
A recent essay by theologian Wayne Grudem lists 20 achievements that he believes reflect well on the president’s character. It's also possible in a few of these achievements to see corruption, writes Matthew Arbo.
