Mourning two amazing people and journalists: Rachel Zoll and Amy Raymond
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” features analysis, fact checking and top headlines from the world of faith. Subscribe now to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr. at therossnews@gmail.com.
(ANALYSIS) In 31 years of full-time journalism, I’ve been blessed to work with some incredible people.
The world lost two of the best this past week.
Rachel Zoll was one of The Associated Press’ two New York-based national religion writers — along with Richard Ostling — when I joined AP’s Nashville, Tennessee, bureau in 2002.
She was always so kind and supportive of me and my work, as she was with countless others.
I last saw her at the 2017 Religion News Association annual meeting in Nashville. I had left AP more than a decade earlier, so I was surprised when she asked how my wife, Tamie, was doing. I had no idea she knew Tamie was battling autoimmune disease. But she did.
Early in 2018, Zoll was diagnosed with brain cancer. She died Friday in Amherst, Mass., at 55.
Her AP colleague David Crary, who called Zoll his “best friend at work,” wrote a truly touching obituary.
Zoll and Ostling were AP’s national religion dream team for five years until his retirement in 2006.
Ostling enjoyed a legendary career with Time magazine before going to work at AP. But he told Zoll during her illness that “on a day-to-day basis our work together was the highlight” of his time in journalism.
Amy Raymond and I both got our start working on The Talon campus newspaper at Oklahoma Christian University. I was excited when she joined The Oklahoman staff in 1997, a few years after me.
Although Raymond and I hadn’t worked together in nearly two decades, we stayed in touch via Facebook. We occasionally chatted about religious and political issues.
On a Zoom discussion Monday night, current and former colleagues kept saying — through tears — how smart and kind she was. That is the absolute truth.
“Amy started as a staff writer but her true passion became apparent as she made her way up the ladder as a copy editor, page designer, and then as night news editor,” my longtime friend and former Oklahoma Christian classmate Steve Lackmeyer wrote in The Oklahoman this week.
She died “very suddenly after a medical emergency” Sunday. She was 45.
Lackmeyer’s tribute to his friend and colleague of 25 years is exceptional.
My thoughts and prayers are with everyone mourning these two amazing women, especially Rachel’s sister Cheryl Zoll and Amy’s husband, Ken Raymond.
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. Tennessee health czar: I can combat vaccine hesitancy because I'm a fully-vaxxed evangelical: ”We need to convince them that you getting the vaccine is helping other people," Dr. Lisa Piercey tells The Tennessean’s Keith Sharon. "Being the hands and feet of Jesus is the way to go. They might not do it for themselves, but they should do it to help other people."
On a related note: First Baptist Dallas, where Robert Jeffress serves as senior pastor, is hosting a COVID-19 vaccine clinic this weekend, The Dallas Morning News’ Charles Scudder reports.
For anyone who needs a reminder, Jeffress was a prominent evangelical adviser to former President Donald Trump.
2. As COVID-19 infections and deaths surge in India, faith groups try to help: With moving anecdotes featuring real people, the Deseret News’ Mya Jaradat reports on how faith-based organizations in the U.S. are helping India deal with “a crisis of monumental proportions.”
For additional insight, see these stories by Manmeet Sahni here at ReligionUnplugged.com, Erik Tryggestad at The Christian Chronicle and Luis Andres Henao and Jessie Wardarski at The Associated Press.
3. Is politics the new religion?: Yes. It absolutely is.
Oh, wait. I’m supposed to click the link and read the story. If somebody would please inform the social media world of that fact, I’d appreciate it.
But seriously, this is a timely, fascinating piece by the Christian Science Monitor’s Linda Feldmann. As she explains, more Americans on the left and right are approaching politics “with a kind of religious fervor — while at the same time, participation in actual, organized religion has plummeted.”
BONUS: Two years ago, I was in Israel with a group of U.S. religion journalists when rockets fired from the Gaza Strip caused us to cancel a visit to that Palestinian territory.
Now, after an intense several days of fighting there, Israel and Hamas have “plunged closer to all-out war despite international efforts at a cease-fire,” The Associated Press reports.
“At heart, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a dispute over land,” notes Religion News Service’s Yonat Shimron. “But religion is often the proxy for those disputes, pitting two different ethnicities and religions.”
In a related piece, Ken Chitwood writes at The Conversation about “Why the Al-Aqsa Mosque has often been a site of conflict” — including in the latest clash making headlines.
More Top Reads
• For some pastors, the past year was a sign from God it was time to quit (by Bob Smietana, Religion News Service)
• ‘I don’t think you’re going to be eating tonight.' Muslims describe Ramadan in U.S. prisons (by Sanya Mansoor, Time)
• Saddleback Church ordains 3 women pastors, defying Southern Baptist position (by Julie Roys, Roys Report)
• Vatican sends letter to U.S. bishops: Don’t rush the debate on Communion, politicians and abortion (by Gerard O’Connell, American Magazine)
• Southern Baptists to hold first big gathering in Nashville after pandemic 'killed' city's meeting industry (by Holly Meyer, The Tennessean)
• Catholic schools are losing students at record rates, and hundreds are closing (by Ian Lovett, Wall Street Journal)
• A Pennsylvania lawmaker and the resurgence of Christian nationalism (by Eliza Griswold, New Yorker)
• Rare gathering of world’s vast schools of Buddhism offers healing against racial hate (by Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times)
• 2 Catholic bishops at odds over Biden receiving Communion (by David Crary, Associated Press)
• Liz Cheney, ousted from party leadership, invokes pope and the ‘power of faith’ (by Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service)
• New poll: young U.S. Jews becoming more Orthodox as American Judaism splits between devout and secular (by Michelle Boorstein, Washington Post)
• German priests defy Pope Francis with blessings of same-sex unions (by Luisa Beck and Chico Harlan, Washington Post)
Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines
Christopher White, one of the U.S. religion journalists on that Israel tip I mentioned earlier, will soon have a new gig.
White, who has served as National Catholic Reporter’s national correspondent for the last year, will begin work as the publication’s Vatican correspondent in August.
The previous Vatican correspondent, Joshua McElwee, was recently promoted to national news editor.
Charging Station: In Case You Missed It
Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from Religion Unplugged.
• Catholic contributions to U.S. independence not a revolutionary notion (by Clemente Lisi)
• Did mainstream media distort America's religion-and-politics divide? Is this still happening? (by Richard Ostling) Fourteen years at Liberty University: watching my alma mater spawn evangelical Trumpism
• Fourteen years at Liberty University: Watching my alma mater spawn evangelical Trumpism (by Rebekah Ricksecker)
• What is the progress with bringing Daesh to justice? (by Ewelina U. Ochab)
• Exclusive: Zondervan, HarperCollins license ‘God Bless The USA’ Bible that includes Constitution (by Meagan Clark)
• A civilian clings to hope in Jerusalem (by Gil Zohar)
• Are Christians in China next in line for ‘re-education’? (by Ewelina U. Ochab)
• How India’s Covid-19 surge has left Dalits even more vulnerable (by Manmeet Sahni)
• Pressures on clergy have zoomed to a whole new level (by Terry Mattingly)
• Ethiopia’s twin challenges: misinformation and water politics (by Girma Bekele)
• Mister Rogers would be pleased that star architect will rebuild tree of life temple (by Gil Zohar)
The Final Plug
I’ll make a shameless plug for two of my own stories.
After a recent reporting trip to Minneapolis, I profile a Black minister who has emerged as an influential champion for justice in the city where George Floyd died.
In a related Christian Chronicle feature, I highlight a suburban Twin Cities church’s difficult conversations about race and justice in the year since Floyd was killed.
Thank you for reading Weekend Plug-in!
Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for Religion Unplugged and editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 15 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.