RNS Morning Report: SBC Investigation Recommended; Vignarajah to Head LIRS; Islam in UK

Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear addressed the denomination’s executive committee in Nashville. He told the gathering that should immediately investigate 10 churches named in a report detailing sexual abuse among clergy. RNS Photo by Bob Smietana

Need to know: Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Southern Baptists should investigate churches that cover up abuse, says SBC president

While blaming the abusers, SBC president J.D. Greear called on the convention as a whole "to repent of a culture that has made abuse, cover-ups, and evading accountability far too easy."

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, former refugee and Obama White House adviser, to head LIRS

Vignarajah, who was policy director for former First Lady Michelle Obama, is the second refugee and the first non-Lutheran to lead the Baltimore-based organization in its 80-year history.

Report: One in three in UK say Islam threatens British culture

A new report finds that about 35 percent of British people think that Islam is generally "a threat to the British way of life" in the wake of 2017 terrorist attacks.

Kenyan United Methodists oppose allowing LGBT clergy, pray for church unity worldwide

United Methodist bishops in Africa want to keep the denomination's ban of LGBT clergy in place. But they also want the United Methodist Church to stay together no matter what happens at the upcoming General Conference in St. Louis. Delegates at that meeting will discuss possible changes to the denomination's rules.

A Howard Schultz platform that could energize faith voters

Any independent who wants to peel voters from the major parties in decent numbers should focus on religious voters who are economically progressive and socially conservative, writes Jacob Lupfer.

‘A free pass for mobs to kill’: India urged to stem cow vigilante violence against minorities

Complicity by local officials and police inertia mean dozens of vigilante murders of religious minorities in India have gone unpunished over the last four years, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

 


 

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Fifty years later, Catholic Church reckons again with unbelief

LONDON (RNS) — This spring, a half-century after the Vatican's first conference on unbelief, scholars will again gather in Rome to discuss research on the nature of non-religion.

LDS missionaries can now call home weekly. Some parents worry new policy is too lax.

In the past, LDS missionaries were only allowed to call home twice a year, a policy designed to let them focus on their mission, free from distractions. But a new policy will allow them to call or video chat with family once a week.

Vatican defrocks former US Cardinal McCarrick over sex abuse

Pope Francis has defrocked former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after Vatican officials found him guilty of soliciting for sex while hearing confession and sexual crimes against minors and adults, the Holy See said Saturday.

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Today’s Mormon missionaries: Clingy, soft, and immature?

Some reactions to last week's announcement about Mormon missionaries can be summed up in three words, delivered in your crankiest and most stereotyped elderly male voice: “In MY day. . . .”

Al Vorspan was a Jewish giant of justice

The story Al Vorspan told me fifty years ago, and how it taught me to hear the real music, writes Jeffrey Salkin.