News

the Web Editors 8-18-2017

1. What Trump Gets Wrong About Confederate Statues in One Chart

There are two peaks in the timelines of Confederate statue installations across the country. Guess what the two time periods have in common.

2. Young Immigrants at Risk as Sept. 5 Deadline Looms

An Obama-era executive action allowed 800,000 young undocumented immigrants to register with the government, get work permits, and avoid deportation. Now 10 state attorneys general are threatening to sue the Trump administration if he doesn’t cancel the program by Sept. 5.

President Donald Trump speaks about the violence, injuries, and deaths at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York,  Aug. 15, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
 

President Donald Trump dug in defiantly on Thursday in his response to racial violence in Virginia, echoing the position of white nationalists by intensifying his opposition to the removal of monuments to the pro-slavery Civil War Confederacy.

the Web Editors 8-17-2017

A Charlottesville vigil reading of "Still I Rise," by Maya Angelou. Image via Rick Stillings/Flickr.

 Chanting "love wins" and singing hymns and songs, the vigil attendees in Charlottesville held small candles in a striking visual rebuke to the torches that swept through just days earlier.

Image via Religion News Service/ Americans United

“As a leader in my religious community, I am strongly opposed to any effort to repeal or weaken current law that protects houses of worship from becoming centers of partisan politics,” reads the letter faith leaders who support church-state separation delivered to Congress on Wednesday.

Zach Hoag 8-16-2017

The Rev. Bill Shillady and Hillary Clinton. Photo courtesy of Abingdon Press/RNS

How would you describe Clinton’s faith? What are your impressions of her religious and spiritual life?

She’s a very deeply committed Christian. I know many people are critical of that and don’t believe it, but in my heart of hearts, from the conversations that we have had and from the good that she does, she’s a deeply committed disciple of Christ. And she’s a good Methodist. Methodists don’t talk about their faith very much. She doesn’t wear her religion on her sleeve, but I know that she practices it and she has spiritual disciplines, including reading the Scriptures every day and praying every day. People aren’t going to want to believe that, but it is true.

Heather Heyer's mother Susan Bro speaks at her memorial service inside the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 16. 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
 

With tears and defiant tributes, hundreds of purple-clad people packed an historic Charlottesville theater to remember the 32-year-old woman killed when a suspected white nationalist crashed his car into anti-racist demonstrators.

"They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well guess what? You just magnified her," Heyer's mother Susan Bro said to long and loud applause from those gathered at the city's 1930s-era Paramount Theater.

the Web Editors 8-16-2017

Photo by Heather Wilson (@aNomadPhotog) / Dust & Light Photo 

"White supremacy and racism deny the dignity of each human being revealed through the Incarnation. The evil of white supremacy and racism must be brought face-to-face before the figure of Jesus Christ, who cannot be confined to any one culture or nationality. Through faith we proclaim that God the Creator is the origin of all human persons. In the words of Frederick Douglass, “Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference." 

 

the Web Editors 8-16-2017

Image via Baltimore Heritage/Flickr

This morning's statue removals follow a weekend of violence in Charlottesville, Va., centered on the planned removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. On Monday, the Baltimore city council voted to remove and destroy the statues. That process took nearly immediate effect, in the middle of the night Tuesday and early Wednesday. 

A Sheriff's deputy stands near the toppled statue of a Confederate soldier in front of the old Durham County Courthouse in Durham, N.C. Aug. 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kate Medley
 

Undeterred by violence over the planned removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Va., municipal leaders in cities across the United States said this week they would step up efforts to pull such monuments from public spaces.

Rescue workers assist people who were injured when a car drove through a group of counter-protestors in Charlottesville, Va. Aug. 12, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
 

At least one vehicle hit a crowd of people gathered in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, hours after police broke up a clash between white nationalists and counter-protesters, according to witnesses.

the Web Editors 8-12-2017

White nationalists carry torches on the grounds of the University of Virginia, on the eve of a planned Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.August 11, 2017. Alejandro Alvarez/News2Share via REUTERS
 

The evening before a scheduled rally of thousands of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va., marchers carrying torches clashed with counter-protesters on the University of Virginia campus.

the Web Editors 8-11-2017

1. Inside the Faith-Led Counter-Protest to Charlottesville’s White Supremacist Rally
Starting this evening, clergy are gathering in Charlottesville, Va., to pray and protest the “Unite the Right” rally scheduled for this weekend.

2. How Fossil Fuel Money Made Climate Change Denial the Word of God
The story behind evangelicals’ resistance to climate science.

FILE PHOTO: A protester against the Texas state law to punish "sanctuary cities" stands outside the U.S. Federal court in San Antonio, June 26, 2017. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz/File Photo
 

A U.S. district judge in Austin has rejected an effort by Texas to have a law that would punish so-called sanctuary cities be declared constitutional ahead of the measure taking effect next month. The Republican-backed law is the first of its kind since Donald Trump became president in January, promising to crack down on illegal immigration. Texas is the U.S. state with the longest border with Mexico.

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, is greeted by Pastor Robert Jeffress at the Celebrate Freedom Rally July 1, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Yuri Gripas/REUTERS

Jeffress was a member of Trump’s evangelical advisory committee during the 2016 presidential election and since has attended several meetings of prominent evangelicals at the White House. That includes a dinner ahead of the National Day of Prayer, at which he assured, “Mr. President, we’re going to be your most loyal friends.”

David F. Potter 8-08-2017

Lukas Maverick Greyson / Shutterstock.com

“It is our duty as white folks to dismantle white supremacy,” Caine-Conley said. “… People of color, both black and brown bodies, have been absorbing violence since our country was created as our country. Showing up in body to absorb some of that violence and tension ourselves, to put our bodies in places that black and brown people have been for centuries, is really important as we begin to dismantle white supremacy.”

Menachem Wecker 8-08-2017

Madrid Museo Nacional del Prado's Goya galleries, including "The Second of May" and "The Third of May." Courtesy of the Prado.

More than 50 years later, California still lists lethal gas as a legal execution means. So do five other states: Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wyoming, although Mississippi and Oklahoma, which use nitrogen hypoxia, don’t use that term. (More on that below). I learned this as I searched on my phone standing in front of John Singer Sargent’s monumental 1919 painting “Gassed,” which is on display in the New-York Historical Society’s exhibition “W​orld War I Beyond the Trenches” (through Sept. 3).

Author Jen Hatmaker. Photo by Amy Melsa Photography

 

Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life will be released on Aug. 8. Hatmaker spoke with RNS about both mess and moxie, banned books and maintaining a healthy outlook on life. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Pope Francis meets President Trump during a private audience at the Vatican on May 24, 2017. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Evan Vucci/Pool

President Trump’s evangelical Christian advisers are requesting a meeting with Pope Francis after a Vatican-approved magazine published a piece condemning the way some American evangelicals and Roman Catholics mix religion and politics.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton speaks to media in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S. on July 20, 2011. REUTERS/Eric Miller/File Photo

Mohamed Omar, the mosque's executive director, previously said a member of the congregation saw a pickup truck speeding away from the building's parking lot just after the blast.

Image via Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

The Republican senators also called for an end to “catch and release” practices by law enforcement, which allow illegal immigrants to be released while waiting for a hearing. The legislation would focus on criminals and “repeat immigration violators.”

“Today we’re sending the message that we will defend our borders and we will deter illegal immigration,” said Barrasso.