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A young woman protests the Muslim travel ban at Los Angeles International Airport on Jan. 29, 2017. Photo courtesy of Dustin Pearlman
Need to know: Friday, June 30, 2017
Half sib? Welcome. Fiance? Not so fast. New travel ban rules decried as illogical
Muslim and other civil rights groups charge the administration’s interpretation of “bona fide relationship,” affecting the entry into the U.S. of family members from six Muslim-majority countries, is unreasonably narrow.
Germany approves same-sex marriage
Church attendance has waned, and polling suggested a comfortable majority of the public supports same-sex marriage, leading the way for the German Parliament to vote 393-226 to modify the law.
Iraq declares end of caliphate after capture of Mosul mosque
The Iraqi troops’ seizure of the nearly 850-year-old Grand al-Nuri Mosque — from where the Islamic State proclaimed the caliphate nearly three years ago to the day — is a huge symbolic victory.
When it’s sexuality versus religion, Americans stand divided
In a LifeWay Research survey, respondents showed distinct differences on religious and sexual freedom depending on their gender, region and religious affiliation.
A progressive German mosque draws condemnation at home and abroad
Open only two weeks ago, it has drawn international headlines for permitting men and women to worship together in the same space instead of segregating them in line with Islamic tradition.
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Latest news from RNS
Car-care ministries a growing niche in midsize cities
(RNS) In places where public transportation is lacking, the need for cheap, or free, car care is soaring.
How Facebook is like church, according to founder Mark Zuckerberg
The founder and CEO said the two are similar in the way they create community and bring people together.
The ’Splainer: What is the Blaine Amendment and did SCOTUS kill it?
This week’s Supreme Court decision on state funds for a religious school’s playground may undermine more than a century of church-state separation legislation in 37 states, experts suggest.
More views from RNS
Why they should change the names of Hollywood streets
What do we do about places named for Confederate generals? Change the names.
Six issues to watch in the Supreme Court’s Trinity Lutheran case
Melissa Rogers summarizes the issues that will undoubtedly resurface following the Supreme Court’s decision in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer.
Pastors and political choice
Readers who paint with broad brushes, skipping the subtleties, may come away from reading the survey tempted to paraphrase Emmett Grogan’s dictum that “anything anybody can say about America[n religion] is true.” But, if they look closer up, they will find what astute politicians and marketers know: one cannot treat religion as a whole, but only in parts, as the Supreme Court regularly does.
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Bonus tracks
- I get why Michael Tate Reed destroyed the Ten Commandments
- Outpouring raises $300K in 24 hours for Christian music dad who lost wife after childbirth
- Why more than a million Russians have lined up to see a piece of the rib of St. Nicholas
- UK government to pay for the abortions of Northern Irish women
- Peter Berger, theologian who fought ‘God Is dead’ movement, dies at 88
