Monday, June 19, 2023

This Week in Religion - DeSantis woos GOP Christian vote but quiet on own faith

Lead story

Ron DeSantis and his wife, Casey, pray with their heads bowed at a campaign event.

Editor's note:

When the AP Religion Team’s Tiffany Stanley started reporting a feature on Ron DeSantis’ faith in April, little had been reported about the Florida governor’s Catholicism. There is no religious test for U.S. public office, but for many candidates, their religious background is part of their public profile well before they run for president. Not so with DeSantis. When Stanley interviewed faith leaders who knew him, they didn't know if he went to Mass. His autobiography had scant personal details. His campaign operation was known to be combative with the press; they grant few interviews. Eventually enough telling details emerged, including his disputes with Catholic bishops and an interview with a woman who went to church with him in Northeast Florida. What emerged was a portrait of a politician who deftly uses religious language, and whose policies appeal to religious conservatives, but who is surprisingly guarded about his own faith. 

A portrait of David Crary, Religion Team Leader at The Associated Press.
 

Religion News

Southern Baptists start constitutional step naming only men as pastors

The new language would add that a church ‘affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.’ By Adelle M. Banks/Religion News Service

Can a chatbot preach a good sermon? Hundreds attend church service generated by ChatGPT to find out 

Hundreds of German Protestants attended a church service in Bavaria that was generated almost entirely by artificial intelligence.  It was one of hundreds of events at a convention of Protestants, drawing such interest that people formed a long queue outside the building an hour before it began. By Kirsten Grieshaber/The Associated Press 

Three years after George Floyd’s death, faith groups quietly advance racial healing

A range of Christian groups are working separately to continue to address the often-fraught divisions along racial lines among their members and in the wider society. By Adelle M. Banks/Religion News Service

A man examines a silver heirloom that was stolen from a Jewish family by the Nazis.

A German museum curator has made it his mission to return silver objects stolen by the Nazis to Jewish families around the globe nearly. The Nazis took thousands of silver pieces from German Jews in 1939. Most were melted to help the country's war effort. But hundreds were left untouched at museums across the former Third Reich. By Kirsten Grieshaber/The Associated Press 

Meet the LGBTQ activist who challenged his Caribbean country’s anti-sodomy law and won 

For years, Orden David was persecuted in his native Antigua and Barbuda — a frequent complaint by many LGBTQ people who fear for their safety across the conservative and mostly Christian Caribbean. Fed up, he challenged his country’s anti-sodomy law in court – and won. By Luis Andres Henao/The Associated Press 

 

Commentary and Analysis

A scholar of religion and politics explains how Robertson led the way in blending religion with political commentary and paved the way for a wider influence of Christian media on American culture. By Jason C. Bivins for The Conversation

Public outrage over alleged abuse has been muted in much of Latin America for years, partly because the church remains one of the region's most powerful institutions – but that may be changing. By Matthew Casey-Pariseault for The Conversation

Our children need their grownups to fight to make their homes and schools safe. By Jonathan Perlman/Religion News Service

People are congregating in Missouri after news spread that the exhumed body of a nun had not decayed four years after her death. There is a long history to these claims. By Joanne M. Pierce for The Conversation

 
People dressed in colorful clothing and masks take part in a dancing devils procession.

Penitents take part in a dancing devils procession in the annual commemoration of Corpus Christi, in Chuao, Aragua state, Venezuela, Wednesday, June 7, 2023. A Roman Catholic movable feast day celebrating the transformation of the body and blood of Christ into bread and wine, this year Corpus Christi falls on June 8.  (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

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