Maybe religion, for all of its faults, works a bit like a retaining wall to hold back the destabilizing pressure of American hyper-individualism, which threatens to swell and spill over in its absence. (Thompson, The Atlantic)
Read MoreThere are hard-liners and extreme voices who self-identify as Christian nationalists — Nick Fuentes and his America First group, for example. There are the extra-ecclesial groups, like Eternal Word Television Network or the now-defunct Church Militant. And then there are Catholic integralists, who often insist they aren’t nationalists at all. (Jenkins, Religion News Service)
Read MoreCiting a “profound crisis of violence and social disintegration,” Mexico’s Catholic bishops are staking out an aggressive new role in national security, going so far as to sit down with feuding drug traffickers in one blood-soaked state to hammer out a truce. (Sheridan & Rios, The Washington Post)
Read MoreAttorney General Gentner Drummond argued the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board violated both the law and the state and federal constitutions when it voted 3-2 in June to approve the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City’s application to establish the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School. (Murphy, AP News)
Read MoreAmericans almost unanimously reject criminalizing abortion and are strongly opposed to political violence but most also believe the country is too politically correct and are split on whether to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds. (Montanaro, NPR)
Read MoreThe survey of 12,693 U.S. adults conducted by the Pew Research Center finds that the number of people who say there is a lot of discrimination against Jews has doubled in the last three years, jumping from 20% in 2021 to 40% today. (Shimron, Religion News Service)
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