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) I don’t typically devote this space to touting the work of my ReligionUnplugged.com colleagues.

I’m going to make an exception this week.

As the Russia-Ukraine war rages, I feel compelled to call attention to the outstanding journalism produced by ReligionUnplugged.com staff members and contributors around the world.

Don’t miss these stories:

• Russian invasion reveals fissures among Orthodox Christians: Meagan Clark, ReligionUnplugged.com’s managing editor, reports from Boston on how “the Orthodox schism between Moscow and Constantinople that broke open in 2019 is cracking further.” As Clark’s in-depth report points out, “What is good and what is evil in the war in Ukraine is far from agreed upon.”

• Support for Ukraine rises worldwide as a shadow of war falls over Eastern Europe: “From Oklahoma to New Jersey to Nairobi, faith communities are taking up collections, helping refugees and voicing opposition to the military invasion of Ukraine,” notes this global overview by Paul Glader, ReligionUnplugged.com’s executive editor, and a team of writers including Michael Ray Smith, Tom Osanjo, Michael Finch and Meagan Clark.

• Q&A with Serbian Ambassador Darko Tanaskovic on Catholic-Orthodox relations: ReligionUnplugged.com contributor Jovan Tripkovic interviews Darko Tanaskovic “to understand the role of diplomacy at the Vatican and the potential for further Catholic-Orthodox cooperation.”

• Prominent Christian leaders and groups face reckoning over praise for Putin: “For most of the past century, America’s conservative Christians and conservative politicians were united in the firm belief that the communist USSR — and later, Russia — was anti-American, anti-God and a threat to the world,” veteran author and journalist Steve Rabey writes. “But that script has been flipped during the last decade as traditional family values have brought together supporters of “Christian America” and “Holy Russia.”

• As Russia invades Ukraine, students abroad fear for their families: In a dispatch from Lithuania, professor and journalist Michael Ray Smith “shares how his students are coping with what many consider to be the biggest attack on Europe since WWII.”

• In rural Oklahoma, Ukrainian priest prays for his mother — and his homeland: Please forgive this shameless plug for my own story from Jones, Oklahoma, featuring the Rev. Stepan Bilogan, who preaches in his native language as a choir member translates his Ukrainian words into English. Bilogan came to the U.S. a year ago to serve spiritual needs in a rural community, but his mother, brother and countless other relatives remain in Ukraine.

• Russia attacks Ukraine: Why some experts insist Putin is motivated by religion: “What’s religion got to do with Russia’s attack on Ukraine? A whole lot, according to some experts.” If you missed it, last week’s Plug-in delves into more of the religion-related issues.

More ReligionUnplugged.com news and opinions on Ukraine:

• Ukrainian Christians ‘stay, pray and try to bring hope’ (by Erik Tryggestad)

• Pope Francis asks world Christians to set aside a day of prayer for peace in Ukraine (by Clemente Lisi)

• Putin’s claim to rid Ukraine of Nazis is especially absurd given its history (by Jeffrey Veidlinger)

• Putin's war on Ukraine is a war on us all (by Ewelina U. Ochab)

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. How is Russia-Ukraine war linked to religion?: “Ukraine’s tangled political history with Russia has its counterpart in the religious landscape, with Ukraine’s majority Orthodox Christian population divided between an independent-minded group based in Kyiv and another loyal to its patriarch in Moscow,” The Associated Press’ Peter Smith explains.

“But while there have been appeals to religious nationalism in both Russia and Ukraine, religious loyalty doesn’t mirror political fealty amid Ukraine’s fight for survival,” the AP story adds.

For more insight from Smith, see his report on how “Kyiv shrines (and) memorials with powerful symbolic value (are) at risk.”

2. Across U.S., worshippers seek solidarity at Ukrainian churches, pray for peace: “In cities with some of the largest Ukrainian populations in the United States, worshippers prayed for peace and an end to war Sunday.”

This Religion News Service story features coverage by Emily McFarlan Miller in Chicago, Kathryn Post in New York City and Renée Roden in the Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie, Pennsylvania.

For more on Ukrainian people of faith in the U.S., see excellent coverage by The Associated Press’ Deepa Bharath, Christianity Today’s Emily Belz, the Los Angeles Times’ Sarah Parvini and RNS’ Alejandra Molina.

3. Christians take up fasting for Ukraine on Ash Wednesday: “The last two years have (left) clergy scrambling to find ways to distribute ashes safely during the pandemic,” the Washington Post’s Sarah Pulliam Bailey writes. “This year, Christian leaders’ attention has turned to the recent attacks from Russia on Ukraine with calls for prayers for peace.”

Other interesting stories tied to Ukraine and faith:

• Polish Baptists, Southern Baptist mission board rally to aid Ukraine (by Bob Smietana, Religion News Service)

• Divided they stand: Evangelicals split up in politics to keep Ukraine conservative (by Jayson Casper, Christianity Today)

• Amid attacks, Ukrainians seek shelter in a subterranean church (by Liz Cookman, Al Jazeera)

• War in Ukraine forces Israel into a delicate balancing act (by Patrick Kingsley, Isabel Kershner and Ronen Bergman, New York Times)

• A tale of two rabbis: Meet the men with dueling claims to be the leader of Ukraine’s Jews (by Jacob Kornbluh, Forward)

BONUS: Southern Baptist Convention news stops for no one and no war.

Amid all the Ukraine headlines, the convention’s president, Ed Litton, announced — in a surprise decision — that he won’t seek a customary second term in office.

Why?

See coverage from The Associated Press’ Deepa Bharath, The Tennessean’s Liam Adams and Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana.

More Top Reads

• Mosque dispute: How ‘multiculturalism’ became a bad word in South Korea (by Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times)

• Despite censorship, Chinese Christians speak out for Xuzhou chained woman (by Sean Cheng, Christianity Today)

• Pipe organ made famous on ‘Hour of Power’ program returns (by Deepa Bharath, Associated Press)

• Washington National Cathedral embraces global reach via web streaming, pastoral care (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Post)

• Amid Brazil mudslides, grief and faith among the ruins (by David Biller, Associated Press)

• How a coming-of-age ritual for Jewish girls aided the rise of women’s rights (by Menachem Wecker, Washington Post Magazine)

• Health workers’ vaccine mandate undone by religious exemptions (by Rachael Levy and Megan Messerly, Politico)

• The Big Quit hits homeless ministries (by Emily Belz, Christianity Today)

• After #MeToo, hostile workplace complaints prompt synagogues to investigate rabbis (by Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service)

• Methodists, Mormons back latest Scouting bankruptcy plan to fund survivor claims (by Adelle M. Banks, RNS)

• Louisiana city apologizes 60 years after church beating (by Chevel Johnson, AP)

• How monks and an Oklahoma restaurant became a match made in hamburger heaven (by Carla Hinton, The Oklahoman)

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

“Covering religion: Field insurgency in United States religion reporting” is the title of a recently published study in Journalism, a top academic journal.

I was one of the 20 U.S.-based religion journalists interviewed for the article, which “analyzes the role of religion reporting with the journalistic field.”

Like some of my colleagues, I don’t recall exactly what I said in the Zoom interview more than a year ago.

The Final Plug

My wife has autoimmune diseases that have made the COVID-19 era a real challenge. (We thank God for the vaccines.)

Given Tamie’s health challenges, I was pleased to see Washington Post religion writer Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s recent story on how “churches stopped being a safe place” for those with weakened immune systems.

Tamie gave the Post story a positive review.

“I think it’s excellent,” she said. “Some of the people quoted are saying what I’ve said and been thinking for the last two years.”

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for ReligionUnplugged.com 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.