The online editorial staff comprises Betsy Shirley, Jenna Barnett, Josiah R. Daniels, Mitchell Atencio, Heather Brady, Kierra Bennning, and Zachary Lee.

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Amid Immigration Crisis, New Details About Abuse in Detention Centers Emerge

by the Web Editors 08-03-2018

Image via REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare. 

Immigrants have described the conditions in detention centers as “hieleras,” the Spanish word for ice boxes, and “perreras,” the Spanish word for dog pounds. In Laredo, Texas, a mother fleeing violence in Honduras with her two young sons said in a statement that they family was forced to sleep on the hard floor of the holding cell, clothes still wet from crossing the Rio Grande. Mothers also said they were given little to no food and are unable to produce enough breast milk to feed their children.

Weekly Wrap 8.3.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week

by the Web Editors 08-03-2018

3. They Went Viral in the Videos of #LivingWhileBlack. Now They’re Running for Office and Becoming Activists

“It seems a new video emerges every week in the burgeoning genre of white people siccing police on nonwhite people for taking part in everyday activities … Now, some of the small but growing numbers of people featured in those videos are using the attention to run for office, become activists, form nonprofits or otherwise enter the fray of race, politics and social change.”

4. Is Neuroscience Getting Closer to Explaining Evil Behavior?

Why some people choose to do evil remains a puzzle, but are we starting to understand how this behavior is triggered?

Happy Earth Overshoot Day

by the Web Editors 08-01-2018

Hurricane Harvey is pictured off the coast of Texas, U.S. from aboard the International Space Station in this August 25, 2017 NASA handout photo. NASA/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

“Our current economies are running a Ponzi scheme with our planet,” Mathis Wackernagel, chief executive and co-founder of Global Footprint Network, said. “We are borrowing the Earth’s future resources to operate our economies in the present. Like any Ponzi scheme, this works for some time. But as nations, companies, or households dig themselves deeper and deeper into debt, they eventually fall apart.”

Weekly Wrap 7.27.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week

by the Web Editors 07-27-2018

5. Loneliness Is the Common Ground of Terrorism and Extremism

“What is the right way to deal with these lonely extremists? If Arendt is right, then the structural causes of loneliness run deep – often, far too deep for a few personal connections to make a difference.”

6. Inside the Cross-Country Journey to Reunite an Undocumented Mother with Her Three Children

The TIME documentary follows Yeni González, as grassroots activists banned together to get her out of detention in Eloy, Ariz., to her kids in New York City.

Voices of Evangelicals Calling for a More Moderate SCOTUS Pick

by the Web Editors 07-26-2018

Image via REUTERS/Leah Millis. 

The women leaders are also calling evangelical women to contact their senators and encourage them to appoint a more moderate Supreme Court justice, fast for 35 days, listen to stories and testimonies of people of color, and act based on discernment

Weekly Wrap 7.20.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week

by the Web Editors 07-20-2018

1. When a DNA Test Shatters Your Identity

The generation whose 50-year-old secrets are now being unearthed could not have imagined a world of $99 mail-in DNA kits. But times are changing, and the culture with it.

2. Shadow Politics: Meet the Digital Sleuth Exposing Fake News

Buried in media scholar Jonathan Albright's research was proof of a massive political misinformation campaign. Now he's taking on the the world's biggest platforms before it's too late.

Weekly Wrap 7.13.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week

by the Web Editors 07-13-2018

6. Twenty-foot-tall rice could feed a flooded planet

When Climate change floods regions around the world, deepwater rice could thrive while other species die.

  1. As Gov’t Says 3,000 Migrant Children Are in Custody, Detained Mothers Are Organizing the Find Their Kids

Paula White Faces Theological Backlash After Saying Jesus Never Broke the Law

by the Web Editors 07-11-2018

Children are escorted to the Cayuga Center, which provides foster care and other services to immigrant children separated from their families, in New York City, U.S., July 10, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

After praising a child detention center in Virginia, White responded to immigration advocates, saying, "I think so many people have taken biblical scriptures out of context on this, to say stuff like, 'Well, Jesus was a refugee.' Yes, He did live in Egypt for three-and-a-half years. But it was not illegal. If He had broken the law then He would have been sinful and He would not have been our Messiah."

Weekly Wrap 7.6.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week

by the Web Editors 07-06-2018

1. Women Faith Leaders Bear Witness at the U.S.-Mexico Border
“Gloria Anzaldúa famously referred to the U.S.-Mexico border as una herida abierta — an open wound. … But if the border is a wound, then perhaps we can best describe our nation as doubting Thomas before his encounter with Christ.”

2. Americans Are Having Fewer Babies. They Told Us Why.
From The New York Times. Spoiler alert: Babies are expensive.

Scott Pruitt Resigns as EPA Chief

by the Web Editors 07-05-2018

FILE PHOTO: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington. June 21, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has resigned, Trump said on Thursday.

2017 Marked Massive Drop in U.S. Resettlement of Refugees

by the Web Editors 07-05-2018

A Rohingya refugee is seen in Balukhali refugee camp at dawn near Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh, March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne//File Photo

But in 2017, only 33,000 refugees resettled in the U.S., the country’s lowest total since the years following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a sharp decline from 2016, when it resettled about 97,000.

Photos from Families Belong Together Rallies Across the Nation

by the Web Editors 06-30-2018

Jonathan Reed of Silver Spring, Md., holds up a sign as he stands in a spray of water from a fire truck during rally in Washington, D.C. June 30. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Tens of thousands of protesters marched in cities across the United States on Saturday to demand the Trump administration reverse an immigration crackdown that has separated children from parents at the U.S-Mexico border and led to plans for military-run detention camps.

Weekly Wrap 6.29.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week

by the Web Editors 06-29-2018

1. How We Treat Immigrants Is How We Treat God

“There may be political, economic, and personal reasons for an unwillingness to love immigrants, but according to Jesus, there are no spiritual ones."

2. Hey, White People: Pixar’s Dumpling Short ‘Bao’ Isn’t About You

A uniquely Chinese immigrant story has left white, Western moviegoers baffled.

3. The Neuroscience of Pain

Brain imaging is illuminating the neural patterns behind pain’s infinite variety

Funeral Held for Antwon Rose, Unarmed Teen Shot by Police, Amid Protests

by the Web Editors 06-25-2018

Image via TheNoxid / Flickr

Protestors have marched the streets of downtown Pittsburgh since Rose, 17, was fatally shot three times by an East Pittsburgh police officer as he ran from a vehicle, after it was stopped by police who were investigating a nearby shooting.

Weekly Wrap 6.22.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week

by the Web Editors 06-22-2018

1. AUDIO: Good News or Bad News? The Meaning of ‘Evangelical’ in Today’s America

Jim Wallis recorded this episode of his podcast Soul of the Nation live from The Summit, Sojourners’ annual gathering of leaders and change makers. Here, he talks with some of those leaders to discuss what the word “evangelical” means in our present context.

2. Meet the Man Going Head-to-Head with Federal Agents to Help Asylum-Seeking Immigrants Cross the Border

It takes physically showing up.

From Franklin Graham and Ralph Reed to the AME and Friends: Religious Leaders Say No to Family Separation

by the Web Editors 06-19-2018

Women of faith gather outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection on June 19 to demand an end to family separation. Image via Jenna Barnett/Sojourners.

A breathtaking number of faith groups across denominations and traditions have condemned the Trump administration’s new decision to separate families at the border, along with Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ remarks about why this practice is biblical. From leaders like Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention and Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, even Franklin Graham, a longtime and vocal Trump supporter, to groups like the Sikh Coalition, the Jewish Orthodox Union, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Friends Committee have all made statements condemning the approach. Here are a few statements from some of the organizations that have spoken out against the separation of families, and the policies pursued by the Trump administration.

More Than 600 UMC Clergy and Laity Bring Charges Against Jeff Sessions

by the Web Editors 06-19-2018

FILE PHOTO: Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center's Annual Leadership Mission to D.C. June 13, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Bourg/File Photo

More than 600 United Methodist clergy and laypeople have signed on to a formal complaint against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a member of the UMC, for the charges of child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination, and dissemination of doctrines contrary to the standards of doctrine of the United Methodist Church.

Weekly Wrap 6.15.18: The 10 Best Stories You Missed This Week

by the Web Editors 06-15-2018

1. Tell the White House to Stop Separating Families
Tearing children from their families is traumatic and harms their mental health. It’s also not biblical, Jeff Sessions.

2. Five First Responders to the Pulse Massacre. One Diagnosis: PTSD.
“My head’s still not right,” said one paramedic who responded to the Pulse nightclub shooting two years ago. He and some other responders say their departments haven’t given them the help they need.

Sessions Cites Bible in Defense of Separating Families

by the Web Editors 06-14-2018

Attorney General Jeff Sessions in Washington, D.C., on June 13, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday doubled down on his policy of separating parents from their children upon entering the United States illegally — by quoting Scripture. 

Dorothy Cotton, Civil Rights Pioneer, Dies at 88

by the Web Editors 06-12-2018

Image via Dorothy Cotton Institute website 

She was a leader in numerous institutes and organizations. She developed the Citizen Education Program where she trained marginalized people to become politically involved and organized and understand their civil. She was also a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, serving as an educational director in the 1960s.