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Friday, January 3, 2025
Weekly Outlook - Finding unity in a polarized church
RNS Morning Report: On US-Mexico border, Catholic leaders prepare for return of Trump anti-migrant regime
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This Week in Religion - Jimmy Carter: The world's most famous Sunday school teacher
Lead story
Editor's note:
On the website for a rural Baptist church in Plains, Georgia, a Sunday school teaching schedule listed a few FAQs about interacting with the class’s teacher — no autograph requests; pictures allowed, but at the end of the worship service. More Sundays than not, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter taught that Sunday school class, encouraging attendees to “do one good thing for one other person” the coming week. “Jimmy Carter’s identity is inseparable from his almost lifelong vocation — 60, 70 years — as a Sunday school teacher,” historian Bill Leonard told RNS’s Adelle M. Banks. Carter, who died this week at age 100, was outspoken about being a “born-again” Christian and spent the decades after his one term as the 39th president doing humanitarian work and advocating for peace. An evangelical Southern Democrat, Carter was committed to keeping church and state separate and advocating for a religiously pluralistic democracy, writes Paul Brandeis Raushenbush for RNS. However, his legacy remains interwoven with the beginnings of the religious right, argues RNS columnist Mark Silk, as evangelicals shifted away from the Democrats and toward Ronald Reagan, who would ultimately defeat him.
Religion News
Catholic priest in Belarus sentenced to 11 years as crackdown on dissent continues
A Catholic priest in Belarus is convicted on charges of high treason for criticizing the government and handed an 11-year sentence. It’s the first case of politically driven charges against Catholic clergy since Belarus became independent in 1991. By Yuras Karmanau/The Associated Press
RNS reporters look ahead to the big religion stories of 2025
A second Trump administration tops the list, but RNS reporters also plan to cover the Jubilee at the Vatican, ongoing hurricane recovery efforts in the U.S. and the spiritual experimentation of an increasingly unaffiliated population. By RNS Staff/Religion News Service
Syria's civil war left one of the world's oldest synagogues partially destroyed. Now Syria's handful of remaining Jews are making pilgrimages to the synagogue in a Damascus suburb where people from throughout the region once came to pray. By Bassem Mroue/The Associated Press
Peyote – sacred to Native Americans – is threatened by psychedelic renaissance and development
Peyote, a cactus that contains a hallucinogen, grows naturally in southern Texas and northern Mexico. It is sacred to many Indigenous people, playing a key role in ceremonies, spiritual practice and medicine. Peyote is being threatened by overharvesting, drug decriminalization and a resurgence in psychedelic use. By Deepa Bharath and Jessie Wardarski/The Associated Press
'A shining example': Religious leaders praise the late former President Jimmy Carter
'Well done, good and faithful servant, well done,' Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock said of the former president. By Jack Jenkins/Religion News Service
Commentary and Analysis
The fall of the Assad regime marks a turning point in Syria’s history. But it also opens a ‘chapter fraught with peril’ for the country’s minorities, an expert on religious minorities writes. By Ramazan Kılınç for The Conversation
One of the many paradoxes surrounding Carter’s presidency is that he was unable to fend off the deception of fellow evangelicals, including Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham. By Randall Balmer/Religion News Service
The custom of mailing printed Christmas cards in the 19th century was a product of the industrial revolution. It was influenced by older British holiday traditions − some entirely fictional. By Christopher Ferguson for The Conversation
Hegseth's Christian views have been shaped by a 20th-century movement, Christian Reconstruction, which seeks to make America a Christian nation built on biblical law, writes a religion scholar. By Julie Ingersoll for The Conversation
People release lanterns during the celebration of Vesak, which marks the day of Buddha's birth, death and enlightenment, at the 9th-century Borobudur Temple in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Slamet Riyadi)
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