the Web Editors 7-26-2019

Liberty University’s culture of fear, protests in Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, and D.C., Molly of Denali, and more

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday reinstated a two-decades long dormant policy allowing the federal government's use of capital punishment and immediately scheduled the executions for five death row federal inmates.

Rose Marie Berger 7-25-2019

When the U.S. Capitol Police issued three warnings for us to disperse, most of those gathered stepped back behind the police line, but five stepped forward and laid down in the shape of a cross in the center of the rotunda. A cross of human bodies. Dozens more formed a eucharistic circle around this cross.

Juliet Vedral 7-25-2019

This film tells the story of Bryon Widner's exit from white supremacy and how love redeemed his life.

Amy Fallas 7-24-2019

From July 16-18, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hosted the second annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, which is touted as the “the largest religious freedom event of its kind in the world.” More than a thousand attendees representing delegations from 106 countries arrived in Washington D.C. to discuss challenges to religious liberty and how to collectively address the threats facing people of faith worldwide.

Kendra Weddle 7-24-2019

Numerous reports, including Dana Milbank’s “President Trump actually is making us crazy,” have pointed out that since the 2016 election there has been an increase in mental health challenges including depression, stress, grief, anxiety, and sadness.

Ryan Kuja 7-24-2019

Though I was never a missionary in the standard sense of the word, never proselytized or attempted to save souls, the engine driving me was the white savior complex. I thought the dark bodies living in the developing world needed us white, Western, Christians. The other Westerners I worked with believed we had it all pretty much figured out. We had the right theology. We had the right answers. We had the expertise. We were the so called “whole” condescending to help the “broken.”

Kaitlin Curtice 7-23-2019

A few days ago, I gathered with my two Potawatomi sons on our couch to watch Molly of Denali, a cartoon that recently premiered on PBS starring a young girl named Molly who is an Alaska Native (specifically, Gwich’in/Koyukon/Dena’ina Athabascan). This show is the first of its kind in the history of the United States.

Tian An Wong 7-22-2019

The water that gives life mixes
With the blood and the tears
From the gas, the bullets

Donald Trump’s tweeted and spoken racial assaults on the four members of Congress — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib — are a public sin that must be called out.