The online editorial staff comprises Sandi Villarreal, Betsy Shirley, Jenna Barnett, Heather Brady, Christian Smutherman, and Jayne Marie Smith.
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Voices of Evangelicals Calling for a More Moderate SCOTUS Pick
The women leaders are also calling evangelical women to contact their senators and encourage them to appoint a more moderate Supreme Court justice, fast for 35 days, listen to stories and testimonies of people of color, and act based on discernment
Weekly Wrap 7.20.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week
1. When a DNA Test Shatters Your Identity
The generation whose 50-year-old secrets are now being unearthed could not have imagined a world of $99 mail-in DNA kits. But times are changing, and the culture with it.
2. Shadow Politics: Meet the Digital Sleuth Exposing Fake News
Buried in media scholar Jonathan Albright's research was proof of a massive political misinformation campaign. Now he's taking on the the world's biggest platforms before it's too late.
Weekly Wrap 7.13.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week
6. Twenty-foot-tall rice could feed a flooded planet
When Climate change floods regions around the world, deepwater rice could thrive while other species die.
Paula White Faces Theological Backlash After Saying Jesus Never Broke the Law
After praising a child detention center in Virginia, White responded to immigration advocates, saying, "I think so many people have taken biblical scriptures out of context on this, to say stuff like, 'Well, Jesus was a refugee.' Yes, He did live in Egypt for three-and-a-half years. But it was not illegal. If He had broken the law then He would have been sinful and He would not have been our Messiah."
Weekly Wrap 7.6.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week
1. Women Faith Leaders Bear Witness at the U.S.-Mexico Border
“Gloria Anzaldúa famously referred to the U.S.-Mexico border as una herida abierta — an open wound. … But if the border is a wound, then perhaps we can best describe our nation as doubting Thomas before his encounter with Christ.”
2. Americans Are Having Fewer Babies. They Told Us Why.
From The New York Times. Spoiler alert: Babies are expensive.
Scott Pruitt Resigns as EPA Chief
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has resigned, Trump said on Thursday.
2017 Marked Massive Drop in U.S. Resettlement of Refugees
But in 2017, only 33,000 refugees resettled in the U.S., the country’s lowest total since the years following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a sharp decline from 2016, when it resettled about 97,000.
Photos from Families Belong Together Rallies Across the Nation
Tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities across the United States on Saturday to demand the Trump administration reverse an immigration crackdown that has separated children from parents at the U.S-Mexico border and led to plans for military-run detention camps.
Weekly Wrap 6.29.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week
1. How We Treat Immigrants Is How We Treat God
“There may be political, economic, and personal reasons for an unwillingness to love immigrants, but according to Jesus, there are no spiritual ones."
2. Hey, White People: Pixar’s Dumpling Short ‘Bao’ Isn’t About You
A uniquely Chinese immigrant story has left white, Western moviegoers baffled.
Brain imaging is illuminating the neural patterns behind pain’s infinite variety
Funeral Held for Antwon Rose, Unarmed Teen Shot by Police, Amid Protests
Protestors have marched the streets of downtown Pittsburgh since Rose, 17, was fatally shot three times by an East Pittsburgh police officer as he ran from a vehicle, after it was stopped by police who were investigating a nearby shooting.
Weekly Wrap 6.22.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week
1. AUDIO: Good News or Bad News? The Meaning of ‘Evangelical’ in Today’s America
Jim Wallis recorded this episode of his podcast Soul of the Nation live from The Summit, Sojourners’ annual gathering of leaders and change makers. Here, he talks with some of those leaders to discuss what the word “evangelical” means in our present context.
It takes physically showing up.
From Franklin Graham and Ralph Reed to the AME and Friends: Religious Leaders Say No to Family Separation
A breathtaking number of faith groups across denominations and traditions have condemned the Trump administration’s new decision to separate families at the border, along with Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ remarks about why this practice is biblical. From leaders like Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention and Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, even Franklin Graham, a longtime and vocal Trump supporter, to groups like the Sikh Coalition, the Jewish Orthodox Union, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Friends Committee have all made statements condemning the approach. Here are a few statements from some of the organizations that have spoken out against the separation of families, and the policies pursued by the Trump administration.
More Than 600 UMC Clergy and Laity Bring Charges Against Jeff Sessions
More than 600 United Methodist clergy and laypeople have signed on to a formal complaint against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a member of the UMC, for the charges of child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination, and dissemination of doctrines contrary to the standards of doctrine of the United Methodist Church.
Weekly Wrap 6.15.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week
1. Tell the White House to Stop Separating Families
Tearing children from their families is traumatic and harms their mental health. It’s also not biblical, Jeff Sessions.
2. Five First Responders to the Pulse Massacre. One Diagnosis: PTSD.
“My head’s still not right,” said one paramedic who responded to the Pulse nightclub shooting two years ago. He and some other responders say their departments haven’t given them the help they need.
Sessions Cites Bible in Defense of Separating Families
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday doubled down on his policy of separating parents from their children upon entering the United States illegally — by quoting Scripture.
Dorothy Cotton, Civil Rights Pioneer, Dies at 88
She was a leader in numerous institutes and organizations. She developed the Citizen Education Program where she trained marginalized people to become politically involved and organized and understand their civil. She was also a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, serving as an educational director in the 1960s.
Black Charlottesville Counterprotester Sentenced to 20 Days in Jail

Image via Shutterstock/ Kim Kelley-Wagner
According to The Root, Long says he was acting in self-defense, using spray paint and fire after a white supremacist threatened him with a gun. Long alleges that marcher Richard Preston aimed a gun at his head and fired a bullet into the ground.
Presbyterian Church in Ireland Votes to Ban Same-Sex Couples from Membership
The vote comes in the wake of the church breaking ties with the Church of Scotland due to its more liberal attitude to same-sex relationships, as it moves closer to allowing clergy to marry same-sex couples.
Weekly Wrap 6.8.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week
4. The Forgotten Psychological Wounds of the Stress of Migration
“Focus of resettlement of Syrian refugees has been on immediate minimum housing and financial and physical health care needs. Mental health, which requires greater language and cultural familiarity, has typically not been a priority before and after arrival in the U.S.”
5. My Life-Changing Switch to Only TV Shows That Feature Real Black Lives
“These women are not loudmouth, promiscuous, or asexual stereotypes. These are shows in which I am affirmed, in which Black women, Black people—Blackness—are affirmed.”
IDF to Investigate Killing of Palestinian Medic in Gaza Violence
Violence in the Gaza Strip has been raging for more than two months, with more than 115 casualties in the "Great March of Return" protests organized by Hamas, a militant group that controls Gaza. Since the end of March, Palestinians have been protesting to shed light on on the Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza, and also call for the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees displaced since the 1948 war.