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Sen. Warnock: ‘Who are we? Not, who do we tell ourselves we are, but who are we really?’

Sen. Warnock: ‘Who are we? Not, who do we tell ourselves we are, but who are we really?’

  In a speech delivered in the U.S. Senate yesterday, Sen. Reverend Raphael Warnock said: Maybe because I’m a preacher, and it’s Sunday, and I’ve been here instead of church, I have especially been thinking about those of us who are people of faith. People whose lives are informed by scripture, people of the book. And maybe those of us who have different politics but read from the same book ought to spend some time together reading the book, because…

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The Heritage Foundation’s Christian nationalist effort that claims to combat antisemitism

The Heritage Foundation’s Christian nationalist effort that claims to combat antisemitism

The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, created by the Heritage Foundation and spearheading Project Esther, is a group dominated by right-wing Christians. The ongoing assault by the Trump regime targeting Harvard University, along with other colleges and universities across America is at the core of NTFCA’s mission. Shortly before the November presidential election, Religion Dispatches reported: Following a time-honored Israel advocacy tradition, Project Esther frames its McCarthyist crusade as an effort to ensure the safety of Jews. But as Jewish Insider reported,…

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Pope Leo calls on journalists to use communication as a tool for peace

Pope Leo calls on journalists to use communication as a tool for peace

  NPR reports: “The way we communicate is of fundamental importance: We must say ‘no’ to the war of words and images; we must reject the paradigm of war,” Pope Leo XIV said in an address to journalists Monday morning. He implored them to use communication as a tool for peace. Referencing Pope Francis’ message from the World Day of Social Communications in January, Leo said, “Let us disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred; let…

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Pope Leo calls for peace and aid in Gaza as Trump heads to Middle East to strike business deals

Pope Leo calls for peace and aid in Gaza as Trump heads to Middle East to strike business deals

Vanity Fair reports: “Never again war,” Pope Leo XIV exclaimed during his first Sunday address to an estimated 100,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square. The new pontiff called for an “authentic, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Leo, continuing in the advocacy of his predecessor, Pope Francis, advocated for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Palestine and delivered “to the exhausted civilian population,” adding that “all hostages” held by Hamas in Gaza must…

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Through an American pope, the Catholic church appears to be taking a stand against authoritarianism

Through an American pope, the Catholic church appears to be taking a stand against authoritarianism

Religion News Service reports: As Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost walked out on the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday (May 8) and took the name Pope Leo XIV, Steven P. Millies’ initial reaction was a mixture of elation and disbelief. A professor at Catholic Theological Union — a seminary Prevost, a Chicago native, attended — Millies was overjoyed at the idea of a pontiff from so close to home. “It’s incredible to me that we have a Southsider…

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Pope Leo XIV signals his commitment to social justice

Pope Leo XIV signals his commitment to social justice

John Nichols writes: Pope Leo XIII, the leader of the Catholic Church from 1878 to 1903, came to be known as ”The Pope of the Workers” because of his groundbreaking 1891 encyclical on the Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor, which provided the outline for modern Catholic social justice teaching. Taking its name, Rerum Novarum, from the Latin phrase for “of revolutionary change,” the encyclical recognized that a “remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing…

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Jewish feud over Trump escalates

Jewish feud over Trump escalates

The Forward reports: More than three dozen former leaders of major Jewish organizations published an open letter in The New York Times rebuking current leadership for being “far too silent about the stunning assault on democratic norms.” Although they did not name President Donald Trump in the letter published Thursday, the signatories — which included directors and former chairs of the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Hillel International, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and major federations — decried his…

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Conservative critics of Francis will be disappointed with the first American pope

Conservative critics of Francis will be disappointed with the first American pope

Michael Sean Winters writes: As the cardinals discussed the future of the church last week, the happy shadow of Francis loomed large. They wanted someone who shared his commitment to synodality and focus on the world’s poor. With Prevost, a mild-mannered man, they also voted for fewer surprises and a steadier hand at the wheel of governance, someone with experience of the Vatican Curia but not a creature of that Curia. The wealthy and well-organized conservative critics of Francis will…

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New pope criticized J.D. Vance and Trump on X just weeks ago

New pope criticized J.D. Vance and Trump on X just weeks ago

The Daily Beast reports: Pope Leo XIV called out Vice President J.D. Vance in a social media post just weeks ago bluntly calling him “wrong”—and bashed Donald Trump in a retweet less than a month ago. Posting on his X profile as Cardinal Robert Prevost, he criticized Vance for an interview he gave about Christianity on Fox News. “JD Vance is wrong,” he said. “Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.” The new pope, 69, posted the…

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Naomi Klein on Trump, Musk, the far right and ‘End Times fascism’

Naomi Klein on Trump, Musk, the far right and ‘End Times fascism’

  ‘The rise of end times fascism‘ by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor was published in The Guardian on April 13. The movement for corporate city states cannot believe its good luck. For years, it has been pushing the extreme notion that wealthy, tax-averse people should up and start their own high-tech fiefdoms, whether new countries on artificial islands in international waters (“seasteading”) or pro-business “freedom cities” such as Próspera, a glorified gated community combined with a wild west med…

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‘Build bridges, not walls’: Pope Francis held a moral mirror to modern politics

‘Build bridges, not walls’: Pope Francis held a moral mirror to modern politics

NBC News reports: Even in death, Pope Francis’ moral voice rang out across the world. With 40,000 packed into Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square, another 250,000 in the surrounding streets and millions more watching on TV and online, world leaders, including President Donald Trump, were reminded of Francis’ central messages during his funeral Saturday. “‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times,” Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said during the homily for the late pope. “His gestures and…

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Francis − a pope who cared deeply for the poor and opened up the Catholic Church

Francis − a pope who cared deeply for the poor and opened up the Catholic Church

Pope Francis during the Palm Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Square on April 2, 2023, in Vatican City. Antonio Masiello/Getty Images By Mathew Schmalz, College of the Holy Cross Pope Francis, the Catholic Church’s first Latin American pontiff, has died, the Vatican announced on April 21, 2025. He was 88. Francis had served as pope for 12 eventful years, after being elected on March 13, 2013 after the surprise resignation of Benedict XVI. Prior to becoming pope, he was Jorge…

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Members of leading British Jewish body condemn Israel’s latest actions in Gaza

Members of leading British Jewish body condemn Israel’s latest actions in Gaza

The Guardian reports: Members of the Board of Deputies, the largest body representing British Jews, have said they can no longer “turn a blind eye or remain silent” over the war in Gaza. In a significant break with the board’s customary support for the Israeli government, the 36 signatories to an open letter published in the FT say “Israel’s soul is being ripped out”. Since the war began after the terrorist atrocities committed by Hamas against Israelis on 7 October…

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Trump, Musk, and the Christian right are waging war on empathy

Trump, Musk, and the Christian right are waging war on empathy

Julia Carrie Wong writes: Just over an hour into Elon Musk’s last appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, the billionaire brought up the latest existential threat to trouble him. “We’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on,” Musk said. “And it’s like, I believe in empathy. Like, I think you should care about other people, but you need to have empathy for civilization as a whole and not commit to a civilizational suicide.” The idea that caring about others could end civilization…

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JD Vance is merely the latest Christian nationalist to use Nazi camps to cover up his antisemitism

JD Vance is merely the latest Christian nationalist to use Nazi camps to cover up his antisemitism

Joel Swanson writes: On Thursday of this past week, Vice President JD Vance visited the site of the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, making him the latest in a string of American public officials to visit a former Nazi camp. The visit, timed to coincide with Vance’s trip to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, comes a year after Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person and newly-installed most powerful person in the United States, visited Auschwitz last January. It’s worth recalling the circumstances that…

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Trump enrages Christian MAGA by hiring ‘prosperity’ pastor for White House

Trump enrages Christian MAGA by hiring ‘prosperity’ pastor for White House

The Daily Beast reports: President Donald Trump angered some of his Christian supporters on Friday when he named a televangelist who even some conservative evangelicals have labeled a “heretic” as part of his White House administration. The president signed an executive order establishing a White House Faith Office and chose Pastor Paula White-Cain, his ally and spiritual advisor, to lead it. White-Cain, 58, is a megachurch preacher from Florida who has endorsed biblical interpretations that some evangelical Christians believe go…

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