Here's what's happening on the church and culture front today...

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Sep 20, 2019

United Methodists float plans to split denomination after LGBTQ vote

Sep 20, 2019

The United Methodist Church’s deadline for petitions for its next global meeting passed Wednesday (Sept. 18), setting the terms for a final reckoning with LGBTQ issues that have divided the denomination for more than 40 years. (Miller, Religion News Service)

Sep 20, 2019

Young people on cocaine fuelling record drug use

Sep 20, 2019

Young adults taking Class A drugs including cocaine and ecstasy have driven overall use to record levels. A rise in drug use across England and Wales among people aged between 16 and 59 led to the highest recorded total, with the sharpest increase among adults in their early twenties. (Simpson, The Times)

Sep 20, 2019

Mister Rogers gets sexy in booty shorts with Halloween costume. Consider childhood ruined

Sep 20, 2019

Have a problem with that or any other costume? Yandy takes a devil-may-care attitude. It says of the adaption on the… costume: "Oops, did we ruin your childhood again? We think you’ll be ok. And if not…you’re a sad, strange little person. And you have our pity." (Haller, USA Today)

Sep 20, 2019

There are so many AR-15s in U.S. consumer hands that it makes no sense to produce more, Colt says

Sep 20, 2019

Colt, a U.S. firearms company that traces its history to the 1830s, announced Thursday that it would suspend the production of rifles for the civilian market — including the AR-15, a weapon infamous for its popularity among the country’s mass shooters. (Thebault, The Washington Post)

Sep 20, 2019

News Archive:

Featured

United Methodists float plans to split denomination after LGBTQ vote

The New York City Council is considering a repeal of a 2017 law that banned conversion therapy, the strongly-condemned practice of attempting to change a person's sexual orientation or gender. (Hogan, NPR)

The number of coworking offices in the U.S. has grown exponentially over the past few years. According to the 2019 Colliers International flexible workspace report, there were fewer than 300 coworking spaces in the U.S. in 2010. At the end of 2017, there were more than 4,000. (Adams, Religion News Service)

Tens of thousands of high school students in cities nationwide plan to skip classes Friday to attend Global Climate Strike marches calling for immediate action to end climate change. They will be part of a global joint protest aimed directly at the adults who they say are ignoring the destruction of the planet. (Weise, USA Today)

What is cancel culture, which is simultaneously decried as everything that’s wrong with humanity (or liberals, or Generation Z) and condemned as a made-up term that helps people escape accountability for past wrongdoing? Is there anything useful we can learn from this mess about the nature of comedy and the Int ernet? (Ohlheiser & Izadi, The Washington Post)

A fire that destroyed an ancient Holy Land church near the Sea of Galilee around 700 CE appears to have preserved the church’s beautiful mosaic floor, which includes depictions of baskets, loaves and fish as well as inscriptions. The floor was protected by a layer of ash and the remains of the church’s collapsed roof. (Chabin, Religion News Service)

The U.S. abortion rate is continuing a long-term downward trend, according to new data released by the Guttmacher Institute on Wednesday. Guttmacher, which supports abortion rights, finds that the overall number of abortions dropped 7% — to 862,320 in 2017, down from 926,200 in 2014, the last time the data were updated. (McCammon, NPR)

High-profile catwalk shows are big money-spinners for fashion houses which build the reputation of designers and cement their links with wealthy and influential customers. Last night, Rev Dr Gavin Ashenden, the former chaplain to the Queen, urged the diocese “think twice” about whether its holy buildings were being used in a manner fitting for a faith that renounces materialism. (Hardy & Swerling, The Telegraph)

Merriam-Webster added a new definition of the word “they” to its dictionary, declaring the pronoun may be used to refer to a “single person whose gender identity is nonbinary.” (Schmidt, The Washington Post)

Amish are moving into homes on smaller lots because most have left farming behind for other opportunities. For some, it may be a forced choice. For young Amish, in particular, the price of farming is out of reach. (McDevitt, NPR)

In Brush & Nib v. City of Phoenix, Arizona’s highest court ruled that Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, owners of Brush & Nib Studio, cannot be compelled by a local antidiscrimination ordinance to provide their services to same-sex weddings. (Gryboski, The Christian Post)

The first experience with sexual intercourse for more than 3 million U.S. women, many in their teens, was forced or coerced, according to study published Monday. Those women faced more long-term health consequences compared to peers who had a voluntary first experience, according to the study in the JAMA Internal Medicine. (Lam, USA Today)

Atheists and agnostics would pay money to avoid having a stranger pray for them and were indifferent to a stranger’s thoughts, the researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Guarino, The Washington Post)

Duke University’s student government has denied the Christian organization Young Life official status as a student group on campus, citing its policy on sexuality. The decision by the Duke Student Government Senate… comes amid ongoing clashes nationwide between religious student groups and colleges and universities that have added more robust nondiscrimination policies. (Shimron, Religion News Service)

Thousands of British youngsters are being persuaded to broadcast sexually explicit videos from their own bedrooms as part of a worrying new trend, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal. Monitors who scour the internet to remove indecent images of children are identifying more than 100 new webcam videos a day, mostly featuring girls aged between 11 and 13. (Evans, The Telegraph)

A bill being considered by the French parliament this month… aims to open the right to such treatment to all women under the age of 43, with the healthcare system picking up the tab. (Conradi, The Times)

After the suicide Monday of Jarrid Wilson, a well-known pastor in the evangelical community, Christian leaders across the country are grappling with how to address and help believers struggling with depression and anxiety – including when those struggling are the ones leading the church. (Schnell, USA Today)