🏛️ A Year After Roe's Overturning, Here's Where The Religious Debate On Abortion Stands 🔌
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) Good morning, Weekend Plug-in readers!
Since our last edition, the gunman in the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue massacre that killed 11 Jewish congregants was found guilty, as The Associated Press’ Peter Smith reports.
Pittsburgh’s Jewish community came together after last Friday’s conviction, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Megan Guza. Next up is the death penalty phase of Robert Bowers’ trial, which could take six weeks.
In other news, close to 1.5 million foreigners have arrived in Saudi Arabia for Islam’s annual Hajj pilgrimage, the first without the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is our weekly roundup of the top headlines and best reads in the world of faith. We start with Saturday’s one-year anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
What To Know: The Big Story
Post-Roe America: On June 24, 2022, federal protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years came to an end.
Such was the result of the high court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
A year after Roe’s fall, 25 million women live in states with abortion bans or tighter restrictions, AP’s Geoff Mulvihill, Kimberlee Kruesi and Claire Savage report.
People of faith split: At the anniversary, the nation’s religious leaders remain sharply divided over abortion, as AP’s David Crary points out:
In the year since the Supreme Court struck down the nationwide right to abortion, America’s religious leaders and denominations have responded in strikingly diverse ways — some celebrating the state-level bans that have ensued, others angered that a conservative Christian cause has changed the law of the land in ways they consider oppressive.
The divisions are epitomized in the country’s largest denomination — the Catholic Church. National polls repeatedly show that a majority of U.S. Catholics believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases, yet the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops supports sweeping bans.
Among Protestants, a solid majority of white evangelicals favor outlawing abortion. But most mainline Protestants support the right to abortion, and several of their top leaders have decried the year-old Supreme Court ruling that undermined that right by reversing the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973.
Religious liberty claims: Could a “sleeper legal strategy” — as a story by Politico’s Alice Miranda Ollstein characterizes it — topple the abortion bans?
“Jews, Episcopalians, Unitarians, Satanists and other people of faith say the laws infringe on their religious rights,” Ollstein explains.
A Missouri lawsuit, she writes, “is one of nearly a dozen challenges to abortion restrictions filed by clergy members and practitioners of everything from Judaism to Satanism that are now making their way through state and federal courts — a strategy that aims to restore access to the procedure and chip away at the assumption that all religious people oppose abortion.”
Abortion and faith: See more coverage of Saturday’s anniversary by Sojourners’ Bekah McNeel, Catholic News Agency’s Joe Bukuras and Reuters’ Julia Harte.
A final note: Certainly, religion influences abortion policy. But does it actually shape people’s abortion views? The Deseret News’ Kelsey Dallas delves into that question.
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. Refugees in The Hague: Four months after an arrest warrant was issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin, only refugees from the war in Ukraine can be found in “Den Haag,” as it’s called in Dutch.
Among them are two families living in the meeting place of a Church of Christ, The Christian Chronicle’s Erik Tryggestad reports from the Netherlands.
On a related note, Ukrainian refugees are finding a Christian welcome in an unexpected place — Russia, according to Christianity Today’s Jayson Casper.
2. Grace for musicians: “For church worship teams, Auto-Tune covers a multitude of sins. Especially online.”
As Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana writes, “The boom in livestreaming and the ubiquity of Auto-Tune and other technologies have led churches to up their game when it come to sound technology. But has it gone too far?”
3. No faith in fireworks: “Along a once-rural stretch of road, a small white sign nailed to an old tree greets churchgoers. In cursive lettering, the sign simply reads: Church of Peace and Quiet.”
As the Fourth of July holiday approaches, the Dallas Morning News’ Sarah Bahari explains the motivation behind a new house of worship in unincorporated Tarrant County.
The short version: “Texas law forbids the shooting of fireworks within 600 feet of a church.”
More Top Reads
A school massacre in majority-Christian Uganda reflects the Islamic State’s growing reach in Africa, the Wall Street Journal’s Nicholas Bariyo, Gabriele Steinhauser and Benoit Faucon report. … Pastors have found a role ministering to young men swept up in El Salvador’s crackdown on gangs, The Associated Press’ MarĂa Teresa Hernández writes. … … The controversial history of the U.S. bishops’ Catholic health care guidelines is tackled by America’s Michael J. O’Loughlin. … In Europe’s empty churches, prayer and confessions are making way for drinking and dancing, AP’s Raf Casert reports. … William Barber departed the pulpit of his North Carolina church with an ode to the power of disability, Religion News Service’s Yonat Shimron notes. … And a high-profile French nun is inspiring hope for Catholic women. But can she really bring change? AP’s Nicole Winfield and Trisha Thomas explore that question.
Inside The Godbeat
Which metro daily newspapers still have a full-time religion writer?
Some of my favorites include the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Frank Lockwood, the Oklahoman’s Carla Hinton and the Tennessean’s Liam Adams.
Who am I missing?
Charging Station: ICYMI
Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from ReligionUnplugged.com.
Forty years later, the disappearance of “Vatican Girl” remains baffling.
Clemente Lisi recounts the 1983 case of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old Italian.
The Final Plug
A programming note: I’m headed on a few weeks of vacation.
If you need me, the photo offers a clue on where to find me. As for Weekend Plug-in, I hope to see you back in this same space on July 14.
Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers. (Photo by Bobby Ross Jr.)
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for ReligionUnplugged.com and serves as 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 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.