The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted on Friday (June 16) to amend its directives for U.S. Catholic health care organizations, setting in motion a process that could bar Catholic hospitals and other church-affiliated institutions from providing gender-affirming treatment to transgender people. (Jenkins, Religion News Service)
Read More“That Hideous Strength” feels especially realistic (as fairy tales go), postulating a truly outlandish situation, a literal pact with the devil at the highest reaches of the technocracy, but at the same time a mechanism whereby the larger system remains defiantly bland and normal-seeming, and only a crazy person would ever think there’s anything hidden at the heart. (Douthat, The New York Times)
Read MoreThe highly lethal synthetic opioid fentanyl is largely to blame for the increase in drug overdose deaths, which killed nearly 107,000 people in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fentanyl has also increasingly contaminated the illegal supply of cocaine in the United States because the drugs are made and stored together, experts say. (Thornton, USA Today)
Read MoreThe revolution in artificial intelligence has sparked an explosion of disturbingly lifelike images showing child sexual exploitation, fueling concerns among child-safety investigators that they will undermine efforts to find victims and combat real-world abuse. (Harwell, The Washington Post)
Read MoreSeeing Juneteenth in this light means that the day should be an opportunity to celebrate the freedom that is coming to all Americans, regardless of the racial and ethnic makeup of your church. Sharing Juneteenth with people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds and united by a common faith is one of the most powerful ways to celebrate.(Mingo, Religion News Service)
Read MoreThe gunman who killed 11 worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018 was found guilty on Friday of dozens of federal hate crimes and civil rights offenses, closing the first stage of a trial that may ultimately end in a death sentence. (Robertson & Moss, The New York Times)
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