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) It happened.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

The decision came this morning, as The Associated Press’ Mark Sherman reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. Friday’s outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

Read the full opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

This column has been updated with the breaking news on the abortion decision.

• • •

I haven’t always paid close attention to the Supreme Court. But lately I do.

On days the nation’s high court releases new opinions, I find myself refreshing — again and again — the justices’ home page.

The court’s five biggest religion cases of 2022 have piqued my interest. The Dobbs decision, highlighted above, was not specifically about religion. But religious voices on both sides are a major part of the debate.

Here is where the other four religion cases stand:

• Ramirez v. Collier: Justices “ruled 8-1 in favor of a death row inmate seeking to hear vocal prayers and feel his pastor’s touch as he dies. The decision makes it clear that religious freedom protections for prisoners extend to the execution chamber,” the Deseret News’ Kelsey Dallas reported in March.

In a surprise twist, a prosecutor later asked to withdraw the death warrant for John Henry Ramirez, as the New York Times’ Ruth Graham explained. But a Texas judge this week denied the request, according to The Associated Press’ Juan A. Lozano. For now, Ramirez’s execution remains set for Oct. 5.

• Shurtleff v. City of Boston: The court ruled unanimously that “the city of Boston violated the Constitution when it rejected an application to fly a Christian flag on one of the three flagpoles in front of city hall. Because the city program that allowed other private groups to raise and fly their own flags was not speech by the city, the court held, the city could not refuse permission to fly a particular flag because of the views that it expressed,” SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe reported in May.

• Carson v. Makin: Just this week, justices “ruled that Maine can’t exclude religious schools from a program that offers tuition aid for private education, a decision that could ease religious organizations’ access to taxpayer money. The 6-3 outcome could fuel a renewed push for school choice programs in some of the 18 states that have so far not directed taxpayer money to private, religious education,” The Associated Press’ Mark Sherman reported.

Read more on the ruling’s significance by the Deseret News’ Dallas, my go-to journalist on religion cases.

• Kennedy v. Bremerton: Back in April, Plug-in highlighted oral arguments in the case of Joseph Kennedy, a Bremerton, Washington, high school football coach who wants to kneel and pray at the 50-yard line. This is the last of the major religion cases still awaiting the court’s decision. Update: The court on June 27 ruled in Kennedy’s favor.

In the meantime, ReligionUnplugged.com contributor Jovan Tripkovic interviews Kennedy about the case and its impact on him, his faith and his family — and what a ruling in his favor might mean.

Another related and compelling story: Dallas — I might as well link to her again — explores “How the fight over school prayer became a battle for the soul of the nation.”

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. Westward expansion: California’s Southern Baptist churches proliferated after the Great Depression: While out West to cover the Southern Baptist Convention’s big annual meeting last week, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Frank Lockwood produced four Page 1 stories and three other articles for the Saturday religion section.

Lockwood covered the obvious news — including Baptists’ actions on sex abuse and the election of a new SBC president, an Arkansas native.

But — and this is what I like best — the Democrat-Gazette’s religion editor also stepped off the beaten path. This feature (here’s the link again) recounts how desperate Arkansans and Oklahomans flocked to California during the Dust Bowl years. Once there, they planted churches.

2. How Franklin Graham pushed a domestic abuse victim to return to her husband: The high-profile evangelical leader asked whether Naghmeh Panahi was cheating on her husband, The Washington Post’s Sarah Pulliam Bailey reports.

“It was a good question to ask,” Graham told the Post. “I would’ve asked it again.”

In a different case, a deep dive by Christianity Today’s Emily Belz contemplates, “Can the church still enact justice when a pastor sues his accusers?”

3. Car talk for Catholics: Priest podcast illuminates topics from annulment to Batman: “What does the Catholic Church teach about annulment? Should there be a theology of the internet? Is it OK to like ketchup-flavored potato chips?”

We need more fun religion stories.

The Wall Street Journal’s Clare Ansberry provides one with this front-page A-Hed feature on how clergy members “are spreading their message in audio shows like ‘Clerically Speaking,’ which delves into religious and secular questions of our day.”

BONUS: God and guns was the focus of Plug-in two weeks ago. Not exactly religion related, but Friday brought a major U.S. Supreme Court decision on gun rights and Senate approval of the first bipartisan gun control legislation in decades.

More Top Reads

• 2 priests killed in Mexico devoted decades to remote region (by María Verza, Associated Press)

• The husband-and-wife pastors trying to inspire an awakening in Uvalde (by Stephania Taladrid, New Yorker)

• As United Methodists in Tennessee navigate schism, 60 churches leave denomination (by Liam Adams, The Tennessean)

• Pope’s wariness of U.S.-dominated world shapes his Russia, China stances (by Francis X. Rocca, Wall Street Journal)

• At LA’s DisclosureFest, a milieu of New Age mysticism, capitalism and conspiracy talk (by Sam Kestenbaum, Religion News Service)

• How evangelical Christians are sizing up the 2024 GOP race for president (by Natalie Allison and Meridith McGraw, Politico)

• Gospel music legend Bill Gaither gets Christian TV retrospective Friday (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)

• Burkini swimsuits banned in pools in French city amid national debate (by Noemie Bisserbe, Wall Street Journal)

• ‘You wear out’: How chronic illness grounds and inspires William Barber’s activism (by Jack Jenkins, RNS)

• Kashmir Hindus in mourning after wave of killings (by Channi Anand, AP)

• Will La Luz Del Mundo persist with leader behind bars? (by Alejandra Molina, RNS)

• Christian massacres in Nigeria a top topic at global religious freedom summit (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)

• Alabama chapel billed as ‘smallest church on Earth’ (by Kelly Kazek, AL.com)

• Think piece: Gunman at church brought shrimp, and scotch, and enduring pain (by John Archibald, AL.com)

• Think piece: Why nonsense stories about the pope resigning keep popping up (by Thomas Reese, RNS)

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

“Six months before I flew to Poland to report on Ukrainian refugees, a truck hit my mother-in-law, killing her instantly,” Christianity Today’s Sophia Lee writes. “Six weeks before I flew to Poland, I discovered I was 23 weeks pregnant.”

Lee’s personal reflection on her reporting experience is definitely worth a read, as is her cover story on how “some exiled believers found a new sense of purpose helping refugees.”

Charging Station: In Case You Missed It

Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from ReligionUnplugged.com.

• Palestinian Arabs may face eviction from historic inns in Jerusalem’s Christian quarter (by Gil Zohar)

• Nothing was usual about that Pentecost massacre in Nigeria (by Terry Mattingly)

• Critics condemn Israel’s guilty verdict for World Vision Gaza director (by Steve Rabey)

• Celebrating freedom from slavery, ignorance and injustice this Juneteenth (by Deborah Laker)

• What responsibility do journalists have when covering incendiary wars about religion and culture? (by Ira Rifkin)

• Tribal tensions challenge Christian unity during Kenyan elections (by Dr. Robert Carle)

• The marital gospel explains how earthly generosity determines heavenly gifts (by Michael Metzger)

• A call to rethink dying houses of worship (Rick Reinhard and Chris Elisara)

The Final Plug

A programming note: I’m headed on vacation next week and a pretty intensive reporting trip the week after that.

So I won’t be writing Plug-in the next few weeks. But I look forward to seeing you back in this same space soon.

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.