1. ‘We Are Heavily Armed. —the Pastors’: The Root of the Christian Right’s Embrace of Guns
“I’m reminded that at the root of much of the Christian Right’s antipathy to gun control is a sense of fear — a sense that they are the final guardians of God’s will for America, that they are being overrun by something they see as from the devil.”
2. A Short Timeline of Starbucks’ Fraught History with Race
The unwarranted arrest of two black men — who were prepping for a meeting — inside a Philadelphia Starbucks is just the latest incident in the chain’s history.
3. How Do You Tell the Kids That Grandma Is in Jail for Resisting Nuclear Weapons?
“I tried to figure out a way to talk to them that would make sense and, in thinking it through, I realized that none of this should make sense to anyone.”
4. Opioid Prescriptions Are at a 25-Year Low, But Opioids Still Leading Cause of Drug Deaths
“Addiction has become one of the most lucrative businesses in our country.”
5. Here’s How Focus on the Family Convinced the IRS to Call It a Church
Now that it’s an IRS-recognized church, Focus does not have to file publicly available tax documents, in addition to some other distinctions. “Everybody’s going to try to call themselves a church now,” Anthea Butler, professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said.
6. Sunday Is Earth Day. Here’s How Your Church Can Celebrate
A few ideas for showing gratitude for God’s creation and encouraging stewardship.
7. West Recovery, Five Years After Deadly Blast, Includes Advocacy
Five years after the West Fertilizer Company explosion in the small central Texas town that killed 15, including 12 first responders, residents are calling for regulatory steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
8. Here’s Why BuzzFeed News Is Publishing Thousands of Secret NYPD Documents
The NYPD database of disciplinary files was the basis of BuzzFeeed’s investigation, “which identified at least 319 NYPD employees who had committed offenses serious enough to merit firing but who were allowed to keep their jobs.”
A visualization of the global movement from Google Trends.
10. Ira Glass and the Compassionate Realism of 'Come Sunday'
“I felt very aware of the gap between that sort of cartoonish portrayal and the actual evangelicals in my life, who I really care for and who seem to be not cartoonish, and who actually seem to take very seriously Jesus' mission of love toward other people and their responsibilities to love other people.” —Ira Glass
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