RNS Morning Report: Women in SBC, God’s face, Muslim insomniacs

Beth Moore, author and speaker, left, Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and Matt Carter, pastor at Austin Stone Community Church, discuss preventing and dealing with sexual abuse within the church on June 11, 2018. Photo by Kathleen Murray via Baptist Press

Need to know: Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Amid a #MeToo culture, Southern Baptists mull ways to increase women’s roles

There has been recent speculation about whether someday, or sooner, a woman should be nominated for Southern Baptist Convention president.

Justices deny bid from dissident South Carolina churches to keep buildings

(RNS) — The Episcopal Church in South Carolina will reclaim control of more than two dozen properties after the U.S. Supreme Court declined an appeal brought by a breakaway group of conservative Anglicans.

Abuse of immigrant children: a state-sanctioned crime in America?

A report from the U.S border details the dangers of the Trump administration's immigration policy, writes Brian D. McLaren.

In sleep-deprived America, Ramadan offers an extra challenge for insomniacs

(RNS) For Muslims with sleeping disorders, observing the major rituals of the holy month—waking up before dawn, then staying up to pray late into the night—can take a serious toll. What's a insomniac to do?

What does God look like? Here’s what a UNC study came up with.

The end result is a mugshot that shows God is white, young and clean cut, not unlike someone from an '80s boy band.

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With killings on the rise, Sikhs in Pakistan’s Peshawar weigh exit

While violence against religious minorities has been a painfully familiar story in Pakistan, Sikhs have long been considered one of the country’s most protected minorities.

Vatican stalls German bishops’ plan to give Protestants Communion

ROME (RNS) – Disagreements between Catholic bishops in Germany about plans to give Communion to Protestants have spilled out into the wider Roman Catholic Church.

Group fights bill to declare gay conversion therapy a fraud

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — An effort to call gay conversion therapy a fraudulent business practice gained ground in the California state Senate on Tuesday, despite opposition from hundreds who rallied to fight the proposal on religious grounds.

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Forty years on, most US Mormons still believe the racist priesthood/temple ban was God’s will

New research shows that most Mormons today – even among Mormons of color – think the LDS Church's race-based ban was God's will, Jana Riess writes.

Why religions of the world condemn suicide

(The Conversation) — The ethics of self-inflicted death have historically been an important area of reflection for the world’s religions.