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Pope opens Holy Week condemning war waged in Jesus’s name

Pope opens Holy Week condemning war waged in Jesus’s name

Crux reports: Pope Leo XIV opened his first Holy Week as pontiff with a rebuke of those who pray for war, offering his condemnation mere days after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth prayed for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.” Hegseth – who prefers to be called the “Secretary of War” – made his prayer during a recent Christian worship service at the Pentagon, attended by military and civilian workers. Speaking during his March 29 Mass…

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How the rapture explains the rupture over Israel on the American right

How the rapture explains the rupture over Israel on the American right

Joshua Zeitz writes: It’s no secret that Israel is losing ground in American public opinion on both the left and the right, even as many American Jews feel newly besieged by rising antisemitism. On much of the left, activists and intellectuals increasingly interpret Israel and Zionism through anti-colonial and anti-racist frameworks, casting the conflict in the moral language of oppressor and oppressed. On the right, a different but equally consequential shift is underway. Influential conservatives like Tucker Carlson have come…

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A third of Americans now identify or sympathize with Christian nationalism, survey finds

A third of Americans now identify or sympathize with Christian nationalism, survey finds

Axios reports: Christian nationalism is now deeply entrenched inside today’s Republican Party, according to a sweeping 50-state survey. Why it matters: The once-fringe ideology holds that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and should be governed according to strict Christian values, even as the country becomes less religious and more racially diverse. The divide reflects a broader clash over whether America’s future is pluralistic or rooted in a singular religious-national identity. By the numbers: About one-third of Americans qualify as Christian nationalism “adherents” or…

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Jesse Jackson: ‘My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised’

Jesse Jackson: ‘My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised’

Bishop William Barber II is the co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and was a friend and mentee of Jesse Jackson:   Peter Applebome writes: The Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose impassioned oratory and populist vision of a “rainbow coalition” of the poor and forgotten made him the nation’s most influential Black figure in the years between the civil rights crusades of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the election of Barack Obama, died on Tuesday at his home…

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Steve Bannon encouraged Epstein to join his effort to ‘take down’ Pope Francis

Steve Bannon encouraged Epstein to join his effort to ‘take down’ Pope Francis

CNN reports: Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser to US President Donald Trump, discussed opposition strategies with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein against Pope Francis, with Bannon saying he hoped to “take down” the pontiff, according to newly released files from the US Department of Justice. Messages sent between the pair in 2019, released in the massive document dump last month, reveal Bannon courted the late financier in his attempts to undermine the former pontiff after leaving the first…

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MAGA is prying Christianity further and further away from the ethic and teachings of Jesus

MAGA is prying Christianity further and further away from the ethic and teachings of Jesus

Peter Wehner writes: Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, has become an evangelist of a certain sort. During her tenure, her department has on multiple occasions released slick social-media recruitment videos in which scripture verses feature prominently. One video quotes from Isaiah 6:8 (“Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’ I said, ‘Here I am. Send me.’”); another quotes from Proverbs 28:1 (“The wicked flee when no…

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Hundreds of clergy descend on Minneapolis to join the resistance against ICE

Hundreds of clergy descend on Minneapolis to join the resistance against ICE

Religion News Service reports: Around 200 faith leaders fanned out across the city on Thursday (Jan. 22) to observe and document the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with some clergy confronting Department of Homeland Security agents, adding a visible religious presence to widespread efforts to counter the president’s mass deportation campaign in the region. The faith leaders, who are in Minneapolis as part of a larger convening focused on religious pushback to ICE, deployed to neighborhoods with significant immigrant…

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100 clergy arrested protesting against ICE at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport

100 clergy arrested protesting against ICE at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport

The Wall Street Journal reports: During demonstrations in Minneapolis on Friday, roughly 100 clergy members were arrested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Mostly Christian clergy and faith leaders rallied at the airport, where they claimed planes were flying detained migrants out of the state as part of ICE’s “Operation Metro Surge,” according to Justin Lind-Ayres, a Lutheran pastor in Minneapolis. The MSP Airport Police Department confirmed officers made arrests, but didn’t immediately confirm how many. Protesters at the airport, some…

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‘Morally acceptable’ for U.S. troops to disobey orders, Catholic archbishop says

‘Morally acceptable’ for U.S. troops to disobey orders, Catholic archbishop says

The Washington Post reports: As the Trump administration intervenes in Venezuela, readies troops for a possible deployment to Minnesota and threatens to seize Greenland, the Catholic archbishop for the U.S. armed forces said it “would be morally acceptable” for troops to disobey what violated their conscience. Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio is one of a chorus of Catholic leaders questioning the administration’s use of force. His comments also underscored the mounting concern being voiced by the first American pontiff, Pope Leo…

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New Hampshire bishop warns clergy to prepare for ‘new era of martyrdom’

New Hampshire bishop warns clergy to prepare for ‘new era of martyrdom’

The Associated Press reports: A New Hampshire Episcopal bishop is attracting national attention after warning his clergy to finalize their wills and get their affairs in order to prepare for a “new era of martyrdom.” Bishop Rob Hirschfeld of the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire made his comments earlier this month at a vigil honoring Renee Good, who was fatally shot on Jan. 7 behind the wheel of her vehicle by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. The Trump…

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J.D. Vance’s Catholicism seems to be little more than a political prop

J.D. Vance’s Catholicism seems to be little more than a political prop

At National Catholic Reporter, John Grosso writes: As a Catholic, Vance knows better than to peddle this brand of gaslighting and agitation [following the murder of Renee Good]. Vance knows that, by virtue of her humanity, Good was endowed with inherent dignity, made in the image and likeness of God. Vance knows that only God can take life. Vance knows that protesting, fleeing or even interfering in an ICE investigation (which there is no evidence that Good did) does not…

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Flat Earth, spirits and conspiracy theories – experience can shape even extraordinary beliefs

Flat Earth, spirits and conspiracy theories – experience can shape even extraordinary beliefs

A belief in ghosts could be a way to explain a strange experience while asleep. ‘The Nightmare’ by Johann Heinrich Füssli/Wikimedia Commons By Eli Elster, University of California, Davis On Feb. 22, 2020, “Mad” Mike Hughes towed a homemade rocket to the Mojave Desert and launched himself into the sky. His goal? To view the flatness of the Earth from space. This was his third attempt, and tragically it was fatal. Hughes crashed shortly after takeoff and died. Hughes’ nickname…

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After Bondi Beach shooting, Republicans are calling for a purge of Muslim immigrants

After Bondi Beach shooting, Republicans are calling for a purge of Muslim immigrants

The New Republic reports: MAGA world is calling for a mass deportation of Muslims, following a mass shooting in Australia—ignoring the reality that it was a member of the local Muslim community who intervened and stopped the violence. At least 15 people were killed Sunday in a horrific attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Two men—a father-son duo—allegedly opened fire on a crowd of Jewish Australians on the first night of Hanukkah. The country’s leadership has declared the incident a terrorist…

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Charlotte faith leaders view Trump’s immigration agenda as ‘antithetical to the Bible’

Charlotte faith leaders view Trump’s immigration agenda as ‘antithetical to the Bible’

Axios reports: When asked about President Donald Trump’s domestic policies, Charlotte-area pastors often cite Matthew 25:35-40, a Biblical parable that calls for Christians to care for the less fortunate. Why it matters: Christians, particularly conservative evangelicals, have supported Trump in the past. Now, many moderate and progressive Christians across the U.S., including in Charlotte, are challenging the president’s administration around immigration, civil rights and poverty. What they’re saying: The Trump administration’s policies are “antithetical to the Bible,” which calls for people to treat immigrants as neighbors and to…

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Faith leaders violently arrested at Broadview ICE facility protest

Faith leaders violently arrested at Broadview ICE facility protest

Religion News Service reports: In video recorded on Friday (Nov. 14) outside the embattled U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, the Rev. Michael Woolf stands alongside fellow protesters, fiddling awkwardly with his backpack as faith leaders and other protesters chant slogans at a line of police officers. A moment later, one officer can be seen walking forward, grabbing Woolf by the wrist and yanking. Demonstrators attempted to hold on to Woolf, who was wearing a clerical collar,…

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U.S. Catholic bishops take stand against Trump immigration policy, winning praise at churches

U.S. Catholic bishops take stand against Trump immigration policy, winning praise at churches

The Los Angeles Times reports: For the first time in 12 years, U.S. Catholic bishops have issued a unified statement to support the country’s immigrants and oppose the Trump administration’s “indiscriminate mass deportations of people.” The move solidified their support for immigrants — long a vital part of the U.S. Catholic Church — amid a year of unprecedented upheaval. It also continues a long tradition of the church as an institution of support for those in the country illegally that…

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