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☆ 3 Officers Face Charges in Death of California Man Who Was Pinned Down
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-20 | by ( Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Three years after police officers in Northern California pinned a man face down for about five minutes as he begged for relief, prosecutors announced that the officers would face charges of involuntary manslaughter in the man’s death. The charges against Eric McKinley, James Fisher and Cameron Leahy, all with the Alameda Police Department at the time, in the death of Mario Gonzalez, 26, were announced on Thursday, after a review by the Alameda County district attorney’s Public Accountability Unit. The county’s previous district attorney closed the investigation into the officers in 2022, saying that the evidence did not justify criminal charges. But Pamela Price, who was elected district attorney later that year, reopened the case a year ago. The new charges were announced just days after the county’s Registrar of Voters announced that a recall campaign against Ms. Price had submitted enough signatures to proceed.

Persons: Eric McKinley, James Fisher, Cameron Leahy, Mario Gonzalez, Pamela Price, Price Organizations: Alameda Police Department, Unit, Voters Locations: Northern California, Alameda County

☆ Piety and Profanity: The Raunchy Christians Are Here
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The “Conservative Dad’s Real Women of America” 2024 pinup calendar features old-school images of sexiness — bikinis, a red sports car, a bubble bath. The models are influencers and aspiring politicians familiar to the very online pro-Trump right. In one image, a BlazeTV host in a short skirt lights a copy of The New York Times on fire with a cigar. Published by a “woke-free beer” company hastily launched last year as an alternative to Bud Light, the calendar was clearly meant to provoke liberals. Instead, it sparked a heated squabble on the right over whether “conservative dads” who happen to be Christians should reject the calendar on moral grounds, or embrace it as an irreverent win for the good guys.

Persons: Dana Loesch, “, Bud Light, Allie Beth Stuckey, podcaster Organizations: Conservative Dad’s Real, Trump, New York Times Locations: America

☆ This Year, Love and Death Go Hand in Hand on Valentine’s Day
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Eugene Diamond spent Tuesday morning dipping strawberries into chocolate at his family’s sweet shop in a small town outside Kansas City. It was the day before Valentine’s Day, and all things chocolate were in high demand. For Mr. Diamond, a practicing Catholic, another deadline was also looming: This year, Valentine’s Day happens to fall on Ash Wednesday, customarily devoted to penitence and fasting. Starting that day, Mr. Diamond, his wife and eight children will be giving up sweets until Easter, which falls this year on March 31. Mr. Diamond, 39, taste-tested the sweets at the shop on Tuesday to prepare.

Persons: Eugene Diamond, Diamond, Valentine’s, “ I’ve, I’m, ”, Ash Organizations: Ash Locations: Kansas City

As afternoon services were beginning at Lakewood Church in Houston on Sunday, a woman arrived in a trench coat and carrying a backpack, her 7-year-old son at her side. She brought two rifles and had a piece of yellow rope resembling a detonation cord, law enforcement officials said on Monday. The woman pointed an AR-15 at an unarmed security guard, officials said, and then made her way inside the church, which is led by the televangelist Joel Osteen. The officers — a Houston police officer and an agent from the state alcoholic beverage commission — confronted the woman, exchanged fire with her and killed her. Her son was also struck in the head by gunfire, officials said.

Persons: Joel Osteen, — Organizations: Lakewood Church Locations: Houston, United States

☆ In the American Church, the Pope Has Critics Among Leaders and Laypeople
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Ruth Graham | More About Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pope Francis’s relationship with the conservative wing of the American Catholic church was already on shaky ground when reports surfaced this week of his plan to evict one of his most prominent critics from a Vatican-subsidized apartment in Rome. Cardinal Raymond Burke, who led dioceses in St. Louis and Wisconsin before moving to Rome, is a lion of the faith among conservative Catholics who see him a defender of tradition and orthodoxy in a dangerously unmoored church. The move comes just weeks after Francis fired another outspoken critic, Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was removed from his post in Tyler, Texas, following a Vatican investigation into his leadership. Both decisions prompted a public outcry from conservative church leaders, making it clear that restoring unity in the divided American Church will take more than swatting down a few high-profile clerics. The pope’s increasingly open pushback against theological and liturgical conservatives in the church has nurtured a deep wariness of his leadership among conservatives in the church, who exist at all levels of Catholic life in America.

Persons: Pope, Cardinal Raymond Burke, Francis, Bishop Joseph Strickland Organizations: American Catholic Locations: Rome, St, Louis and Wisconsin, Tyler , Texas, America

Almost as soon as Pope Francis became the head of the Roman Catholic church in 2013, Raymond Burke, an American cardinal, emerged as his leading critic from within the church, becoming a de facto antipope for frustrated traditionalists who believed Francis was diluting doctrine. Francis frequently demoted and stripped the American cleric of influence, but this month, the pope apparently finally had enough, according to one high-ranking Vatican official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Francis told a meeting of high-ranking Vatican officials that he intended to throw the cardinal out of his Vatican-subsidized apartment and deprive him of his salary as a retired cardinal. The newspaper’s report comes only weeks after Francis removed another vocal conservative critic, Joseph Strickland, the bishop of Tyler, Texas, after a Vatican investigation into the governance of his diocese. “If this is accurate, it is an atrocity that must be opposed,” Bishop Strickland said in a post on the social media platform X on Monday.

Persons: Pope Francis, Raymond Burke, Francis, Cardinal Burke, Francis ., Joseph Strickland, ” Bishop Strickland, ” Organizations: Roman Catholic, Vatican Locations: Italian, Tyler , Texas, “

☆ As Catholic Leaders Met, Fired Bishop Took His Message to the Street
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Inside a windowless hotel ballroom on the Baltimore waterfront on Wednesday, more than 250 American bishops were trying to pilot through the choppy waters of the increasingly contentious relationship between Pope Francis and conservative American Catholics, many of them in their own ranks. But the most visible sign of that struggle was outside on the street, as a small crowd gathered to show support for Bishop Joseph Strickland, the bellicose Texas bishop fired by Francis over the weekend. Bishop Strickland has accused the pope of undermining the Catholic faith and represents an outspoken cohort in the church who view Francis as dangerously liberal. Just steps from the hotel, Bishop Strickland’s supporters sang and knelt to pray with the deposed cleric. Most held rosaries, and some hoisted signs reading, “We stand with Bishop Strickland.”

Persons: Pope Francis, Bishop Joseph Strickland, Francis, Bishop Strickland, Bishop Strickland’s, ” Organizations: Bishop Locations: Baltimore, Texas

Pope Francis, who has made reaching out to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics a hallmark of his papacy, has made clear that transgender people can be baptized, serve as godparents and be witnesses at church weddings, furthering his vision of a more inclusive church. The pope’s embrace of transgender people’s participation in the church was revealed in a Vatican document that he approved on Oct. 31 and that was posted online Wednesday. The decision “signals Pope Francis’ desire for a pastorally focused approach to L.G.B.T.Q.+ issues is taking hold,” he added. The immediate public response from American bishops, who have taken more restrictive stances on transgender issues, was generally muted.

Persons: Pope Francis, ” Francis DeBernardo, Pope Francis ’, ” Organizations: Roman Catholic Church, New Ways Ministry, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Locations: Maryland

☆ Southern Baptist Leaders Quietly Seek Shield From Abuse Suits
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Ruth Graham | More About Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For six months, almost no one took notice of the brief filed quietly by Southern Baptists in a case winding its way to the Kentucky Supreme Court. The woman later sued several parties, including the Louisville Police Department, saying they knew about the abuse and had a duty to report it. None of it appeared to have anything to do with the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The brief, reported by The Louisville Courier-Journal in October, landed like a bombshell in Southern Baptist circles. The brief, abuse survivors and those critical of the church say, offers the first clear look at the church’s true position on whether its leaders can be held accountable for abuse.

Persons: “, ” Organizations: Southern Baptists, Kentucky Supreme, Louisville Police Department, Southern Baptist Convention, The Louisville Courier, Southern Baptist Locations: Kentucky, Southern

☆ ‘Like Winning the Lottery’: Mike Johnson’s Ascent Excites Conservative Christians
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-05 | by ( Ruth Graham | More About Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, a little-known congressman named Mike Johnson took the stage at Christian Center Shreveport to celebrate. “This is a day we’ve been waiting on for a half-century,” he told the ebullient congregation, adding that there was no place he would rather be than with them. He beamed as he read portions of Louisiana’s new law punishing abortion providers with a minimum of one year in prison and a fine of at least $10,000. He closed with a prayer that cited scripture and Ronald Reagan. Mr. Johnson’s sudden ascent last month to speaker of the House, second in line to the presidency, was a surprising turn in a career built quietly in courtrooms, as a lawyer representing socially conservative causes, and through the Louisiana Statehouse and the House of Representatives, to which he was elected in 2017.

Persons: Roe, Wade, Mike Johnson, ”, “, Ronald Reagan Organizations: Christian Center, Louisiana Statehouse, Representatives Locations: Christian Center Shreveport

In the moments before he was to face a vote on becoming speaker of the House this week, Representative Mike Johnson posted a photograph on social media of the inscription carved into marble atop the chamber’s rostrum: “In God We Trust.”His colleagues celebrated his candidacy by circulating an image of him on bended knee praying for divine guidance with other lawmakers on the House floor. And in his first speech from the chamber as speaker, Mr. Johnson cast his ascendance to the position second in line to the presidency in religious terms, saying, “I believe God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment.”Mr. Johnson, a mild-mannered conservative Republican from Louisiana whose elevation to the speakership on Wednesday followed weeks of chaos, is known for placing his evangelical Christianity at the center of his political life and policy positions. Now, as the most powerful Republican in Washington, he is in a position to inject it squarely into the national political discourse, where he has argued for years that it belongs.

Persons: Mike Johnson, ”, Johnson, “, Mr Organizations: Republican Locations: Louisiana, Washington

☆ Five Years After Pittsburgh Synagogue Attack, Recovery Mixes With Fresh Grief
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Ruth Graham | More About Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

It has been five years since a gunman stormed into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 worshipers and wounding six others in the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. One of the three congregations that met at Tree of Life hired its first rabbi. Weeks after more than 1,400 people were killed in a Hamas terror attack in southern Israel, many American Jews have felt their sense of safety shattered. Muslim organizations raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for victims in the weeks after the attack; Catholic parishes organized special collections. “There was this true sense, especially as American Jews, that we belong.”The last few weeks have been profoundly disorienting, Mr. Bernstein said.

Persons: Weeks, ”, Michael Bernstein, Bernstein, Bernstein’s, Jeffrey Myers, “, I’ve Organizations: Fox News Locations: Pittsburgh, Israel, Gaza, United States

The Synod on Synodality, the sprawling meeting in Rome, has become a flashpoint among different factions of the church’s leadership. Attendees have a broad mandate to discuss the future of the church, including ordaining women as deacons and outreach to L.G.B.T.Q. Relatively progressive leaders, including those appointed by Pope Francis, see the synod as a hopeful moment that could lead to much-needed changes. Cardinal Blaise J. Cupich of Chicago, a close ally of Pope Francis, is among the 14 American bishops attending the meeting. But in a moment when the American church is especially polarized at the top, the synod is also laying bare the divide in the pews, and the scale of the challenge facing the pope.

Persons: Buś, Stan’s, Pope Francis, Cardinal Blaise J, Cupich Locations: St, Synodality, Rome, Chicago

In the hills north of Kansas City, Mo., a small abbey has become a destination for Catholics hoping to see a miracle. Sept. 9, 2023In life, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster was known to her fellow nuns for her devotional poetry, her sense of humor and her fierce piety. “I’m Sister Wil-hel-mina,” she was known to say. When they opened the coffin, expecting to find bones that could be easily cleaned and placed in a new box, they instead found what looked and even felt remarkably like Sister Wilhelmina herself. Her face was recognizable, even after years in a damp coffin, and the sisters said that her beloved habit was “immaculate.”

Persons: Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, “, Wil, ”, Sister Wilhelmina, Ephesus, Mary , Queen, Wilhelmina Organizations: Benedictines, Kansas City . Locations: Kansas City, Mo, hel, mina, Kansas

☆ Pope’s Remarks on ‘Reactionary’ U.S. Catholics Rankle, and Resonate
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Ruth Graham | More About Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Pope Francis spoke of “a very strong, organized, reactionary attitude” that opposes him within the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and, in comments that became public this week, warned against letting “ideologies replace faith,” some American Catholics recognized their church immediately. “He is 100 percent right,” said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and commentator who is considered an ally of Francis. The opposition to Francis within the American church now, he said, “far outstrips the fierceness of the opposition to Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict,” the two previous popes. When Father Martin visits Rome these days, he said, the first question many people there ask him is, “What is going on in the U.S.?”It’s essentially the same question that prompted the pope’s sharply critical remarks, which were made impromptu last month and published this week by the Vatican-approved Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica.

Persons: Pope Francis, ”, James Martin, Francis, Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict, Father Martin, It’s Organizations: Roman Catholic Church, Jesuit, Vatican Locations: United States, Rome, U.S, Cattolica

ROME — Pope Francis has expressed in unusually sharp terms his dismay at “a very strong, organized, reactionary attitude” opposing him within the U.S. Roman Catholic Church, one that fixates on social issues like abortion and sexuality to the exclusion of caring for the poor and the environment. The pope lamented the “backwardness” of some American conservatives who he said insist on a narrow, outdated and unchanging vision. They refuse, he said, to accept the full breadth of the Church’s mission and the need for changes in doctrine over time. “I would like to remind these people that backwardness is useless,” Francis, 86, told a group of fellow Jesuits early this month in a meeting at World Youth Day celebrations in Lisbon. In other words, ideologies replace faith.”His words became public this week, when a transcript of the conversation was published by the Vatican-vetted Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica.

Persons: ROME — Pope Francis, “, ” Francis, ” Organizations: . Roman Catholic Church, Vatican Locations: Lisbon, “, Cattolica

The week after devastating wildfires swept across Maui, Hōkūlani Holt walked to the center of a grassy courtyard about 12 miles from Lahaina, just over the island’s steep mountains. A kumu hula, or hula teacher, Ms. Holt gathered about 50 listeners into a half-circle, and exhorted them to “lift your voice.” They each held a cup of water, a connection between the body, soul and ʻāina, Hawaiians’ expansive idea of the land. Several men and women blew hollowed-out bamboo pipes called pū ʻohe, producing a deep, trumpetlike sound. Then, led by Ms. Holt’s voice, the group began to chant. After the country’s deadliest fire in more than a century — at least 115 people have been confirmed dead, with hundreds still missing — practical recovery responses were clicking into place: food distribution, debris cleanup, a visit from the president.

Persons: Hōkūlani Holt, Holt, ”, Holt’s Locations: Maui, Lahaina

☆ Southern Baptist Convention Leader Resigns Over False Résumé
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Ruth Graham | More About Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and serves as a bellwether for priorities among American evangelicals. The executive committee, which has more than 80 members, conducts business for the denomination between its annual meetings. His ascension even as an interim leader was touted as a historic milestone for the 178-year-old denomination, which was founded as a defender of slavery. Mr. McLaurin is the committee’s third leader in a row to step down in tumultuous circumstances. At a meeting in Dallas this spring, the executive committee rejected its own search committee’s recommendation for the next leader, assembling a new search committee whose work is ongoing.

Persons: McLaurin, Ronnie Floyd, Frank Page, ”, “ It’s, Lord Jesus Christ, McLaurin’s, Robertson, committee’s Organizations: Southern Locations: Dallas, Nashville

PinnedThe massacre of 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 is considered the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. “Finally, justice has been served,” said Leigh Stein, whose father, Dan Stein, was killed in the attack. Image Relatives of the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting spoke on Wednesday after jurors recommended that the gunman be sentenced to death. The defense called no witnesses in that part of the trial, as there was never any dispute that Mr. Bowers had carried out the attack. The police rushed to the synagogue and, after exchanging gunfire with Mr. Bowers, eventually cornered him in a classroom.

Persons: Robert Bowers, “, ”, Leigh Stein, Dan Stein, Biden, ” Merrick, Garland, Robert Colville, Justin Merriman, Howard Fienberg, Joyce Fienberg, we’ve, ” Weeks, Bowers, Dor Hadash —, Cecil, David Rosenthal, Fienberg, Irving Younger, Sylvan Simon, Simon’s, Bernice, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Dor Hadash, Richard Gottfried, Stein, Melvin Wax, Judy Clarke, Satan, Ms, Clarke, ” Eric Olshan, “ It’s, that’s, Doris Dyen, Jon Moss Organizations: “, Justice Department, The New York Times, Jewish Community Center of Greater, ., New, Prosecutors, Western, Western District of Locations: Pittsburgh, U.S, Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Western District, Western District of Pennsylvania

☆ Vivek Ramaswamy Leans Into His Hindu Faith to Court Christian Voters
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Ruth Graham | More About Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Smith was intrigued. He liked the way Mr. Ramaswamy “stands up against the wokeness” and his plan to send the military to the southern border to combat drug cartels. He respected Mr. Ramaswamy’s acumen as a businessman worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Then Mr. Smith, 25, searched for Mr. Ramaswamy’s faith. Mr. Smith is an evangelical Christian who recently started a small church that meets at his parents’ house.

Persons: Bristol Smith, Vivek Ramaswamy’s, Ramaswamy, Smith, Ramaswamy “, Christian, ’, “, ”, Trump’s, Mr Organizations: Christian, Republican Locations: Maryville, Tenn

The case, though framed as clash between free speech and gay rights, was the latest in a series of decisions in favor of religious people and groups, notably conservative Christians. A Colorado law forbids discrimination against gay people by businesses open to the public as well as statements announcing such discrimination. But when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, 303 Creative L.L.C. He was the author of every major Supreme Court decision protecting gay rights under the Constitution. But he was also the court’s most ardent defender of free speech.

Persons: Neil M, Gorsuch, Lorie Smith, Smith, Smith’s, Mary Beck Briscoe, Judge Briscoe, “, ” Judge Briscoe, Timothy M, Tymkovich, George Orwell, ’ ”, ”, Anthony M, Kennedy, Justice Kennedy, Jack Phillips, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Brett M, Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett Organizations: Supreme, U.S ., Appeals, Circuit, Colorado Civil Rights Commission Locations: Colorado, Denver, “ Colorado

☆ The ground has shifted on gay marriage for conservative Christians.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For decades, opposition to same-sex marriage was a marquee issue for the religious right in the United States. Activists like Anita Bryant, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson characterized homosexuality as a threat to traditional family life. Public opinion on same-sex marriage has turned rapidly toward acceptance this century. In the early 2000s, about 60 percent of Americans opposed it, according to the Pew Research Center. Another poll by Pew found that almost half of white evangelicals born after 1964 favored same-sex marriage in 2017, compared to about a quarter of older white evangelicals.

Persons: Anita Bryant, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Hodges, Tony Perkins, ”, Franklin Graham, Pew Organizations: Family Research, Christianity Today, Pew Research Center Locations: United States, Obergefell

☆ ‘The Impossible Became Possible’: The Women Celebrating a Year Without Roe
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Who’s here with me to let loose?” she asked the crowd, leading several hundred women in the wave. “We pro-lifers, we have life on our side!” She was wearing a small gold necklace reading “mama,” a gift from her son. The ruling last summer in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eliminated the national right to abortion and sent the issue back to the states. It also radically scrambled the landscape of abortion in the United States, shuttering some clinics, prompting others to open, and setting up new battles over abortion pills, miscarriage care and contraception. Legal abortions declined more than six percent in the first six months after the ruling.

Persons: Bethany Bomberger, Roe, Wade, ” Ms, Bomberger, Louis, “ Organizations: Women’s, Jackson, Health Organization Locations: St, Dobbs v, United States

☆ Southern Baptists’ Fight Over Female Leaders Shows Power of Insurgent Right
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two summers ago, an insurgent group of ultraconservative Southern Baptists branded themselves as pirates, vowing to “take the ship” of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and steer it farther to the right on issues like sexuality and race. They were determined to halt what they saw as rising liberalism and drift from biblical truth. Many were outraged that one of their most prominent churches had ordained three women. Now, the ultraconservatives are seizing power, and the ship is beginning to turn. But it also stems from growing anxieties many evangelicals have about what they see as swiftly changing norms around gender and sexuality in America.

Organizations: Southern Baptists Locations: New Orleans, America

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