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) On Oct. 19, 2001, as I drove to a prayer breakfast in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, the radio crackled with news of U.S. special forces on the ground in Afghanistan.

This was not a particularly shocking development since air and missile strikes in retaliation for 9/11 had started 12 days earlier.

Then religion editor for The Oklahoman, I quoted the breakfast’s keynote speaker — Steve Largent, a Pro Football Hall of Fame member then serving in Congress — in the story I wrote.

“We have been sent a very important wake-up call," Largent said that Friday morning. "Let's not go back to sleep."

All of us — at that point — felt an urgency about the war in Afghanistan and the effort to destroy Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

Nearly 20 years later, my attention had diverted elsewhere until Afghanistan burst back into the headlines — in a major way — this past week.

It’s impossible to keep up with all the rapid-fire developments, but these stories delve into compelling religion angles:

• Young Afghans speak out about rapidly changing life under the Taliban (by Meagan Clark, ReligionUnplugged)

• Refugee aid groups criticize Biden for stumbles in evacuating ‘desperate’ Afghans (by Emily McFarlan Miller and Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service)

• Taliban begins targeting Christians while cementing control over desperate Afghans (by Mindy Belz, World)

• Afghan-American scholar agonizes over homeland, lashes out at Taliban, U.S. (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)

• Afghanistan’s Christians, small in number, have gone underground, expert says (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)

• Was Afghanistan worthwhile or wasted? Christians lament, pray and learn as Taliban retakes control (by Morgan Lee, Christianity Today)

• As Afghan government collapses, Christians work to help volunteers leave (by Cheryl Mann Bacon, Christian Chronicle)

• Afghan government collapses, Taliban seize control: 5 essential reads (by Catesby Holmes, The Conversation)

• With the Taliban takeover, world Islam – and the press – have much at stake in the future (by Richard Ostling, GetReligion)

• Trying to spot religion 'ghosts' in the dramatic fall of America's version of Afghanistan (by Terry Mattingly, GetReligion)

• What Christian aid workers want you to know about Afghanistan (by Rebecca Hopkins, Christianity Today)

Looking ahead to Monday’s ReligionUnplugged podcast: Fernando Arroyo, a minister to veterans in California, talks about his harrowing time as a paratrooper in Iraq and Afghanistan — and how his faith and counseling helped him move past the depression, loneliness and PTSD that haunted him post-deployment.

Now Arroyo helps veterans in California get out of homelessness and advance their lives. You’ll definitely want to check out his conversation with Paul Glader, ReligionUnplugged’s executive editor.

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. Many Bible Belt preachers silent on shots as COVID-19 surges: The religion-and-vaccines story — crucial background here, here, here, here and here — remains big news.

Latest case in point:

“Across the nation’s deeply religious Bible Belt, a region beset by soaring infection rates from the fast-spreading delta variant of the virus, churches and pastors are both helping and hurting in the campaign to get people vaccinated against COVID-19,” The Associated Press’ Jay Reeves reports.

2. Philly’s archdiocese advised priests not to help Catholics seeking exemptions from vaccine mandates: “As vaccine mandates have proliferated amid the latest coronavirus surge, so has a divide among the Roman Catholic Church’s U.S. hierarchy over whether their faith provides any basis for congregants to opt out,” the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeremy Roebuck notes.

Roebuck covers the Philadelphia archdiocese’s position, which puts it “at odds with Catholic leaders in other parts of the country, as well as an influential but little-known Philadelphia-based Catholic think tank whose position on the issue has stoked the latest culture-war battle in the U.S. church.”

3. The looming threat to religious colleges: “As support for gay rights grows, religious schools of all shapes and sizes face pressure to change policies on sexuality, gender and same-sex marriage,” the Deseret News’ Kelsey Dallas explains.

The Washington Times’ Mark A. Kellner has the latest development:

The Biden administration Thursday said it wants to roll back protections the Trump administration issued that allowed colleges and universities to fund campus faith-based clubs even if they required their leaders to affirm religious beliefs about marriage, abortion and other hot-button issues.

More Top Reads

• Back-to-school time influences congregations’ decisions on masking and meeting (by Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service)

• Haiti quake destroyed many churches, shredding a mainstay of support (by Maria Abi-Habib and Andre Paultre, New York Times)

• North Korean suppression of religion bad and getting worse, U.S. panel says (by Mark A.Kellner, Washington Times)

• Hannah-Kate Williams, alleging sex abuse failures, sues SBC leaders (by Megan Botel, Religion News Service)

• Colorado Springs evangelical Christian groups less political, but even more powerful economically (by Debbie Kelley, Colorado Springs Gazette)

• Some churches using enneagram personality tool to help spiritual seekers, couples (by Danae King, Columbus Dispatch)

• LDS literary community marks a sad chapter with the death of beloved bookseller Curt Bench (by Peggy Fletcher Stack, Salt Lake Tribune)

• Women church planters hope to give Christianity a fresh start (by Bob Smietana, RNS)

• Headed back to college, Evangelical students are eager to talk about race – and listen (by Liam Adams, Christianity Today)

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

Newsweek is hiring a religion and culture editor.

The position can be remote.

Estimated salary: $80,000 to $100,000 a year.

Charging Station: In Case You Missed It

Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from Religion Unplugged.

• Will we see Catacomb masses after Pope Francis crackdown on the Latin mass? (by Terry Mattingly)

• New book ‘Faith in the Time of Plague’ curates theological reflections from Europe’s worst plagues (by Gregory A. Poland)

• U.S. Catholics will look back at Cuomo’s tenure for decades to come (by Clemente Lisi)

• As American news suffers decline, Amish newspaper flourish in print (by Michael Ray Smith)

• New biopic ‘Respect’ shows how gospel saved Aretha Franklin’s career (and her life) (by Jillian Cheney)

• Simone Biles, coverage of her mental health and why no mention of rosaries (by Clemente Lisi)

The Final Plug

This edition of Plug-in comes to you from Detroit, where I’m on a reporting trip for The Christian Chronicle.

On Thursday afternoon, I enjoyed an Angels-Tigers baseball game at Comerica Park. The Tigers jumped out to a 10-2 lead, but it didn’t last.

Final score: Los Angeles 13, Detroit 10. What a crazy game.

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

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.