Society & Culture

The Vatican admitted Wednesday that it altered a photo sent to the media of a letter from retired Pope Benedict XVI about Pope Francis. The manipulation changed the meaning of the image in a way that violated photojournalist industry standards.

“Hobby Lobby owners Steve and Jackie Green opened up about the ‘phenomenal’ response they’ve seen from the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. and revealed they’re just at the ‘starting line’ when it comes to fulfilling their mission of sharing the Gospel around the world.” CPost

Jeffress said in the Fox News segment that none of this matters to evangelicals who voted for Trump. “Evangelicals still believe in the commandment: Thou shalt not have sex with a porn star,” he said. “However, whether this president violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him.”

“Joy Behar of the television show The View, took time today to formally apologize to Vice President Mike Pence. The TV personality had previously criticized the Vice President for saying God spoke to him.” WRNews

Michael Gerson: The Last Temptation: How evangelicals, once culturally confident, became an anxious minority seeking political protection from the least traditionally religious president in living memory

Denny Burk: Where I think the Gerson essay goes off track

“According to the High Court, those who hide their religious affiliations are equivalent to those who betray the state. Due to this reason, it was important for people who want government jobs to proclaim their faith.” RNS

“Religious freedom provides no legal basis to discipline transgender workers who violate workplace gender policies, a U.S. appeals court has ruled in a groundbreaking decision.” BPNews

“On May 18, 1927, a deranged and embittered farmer named Andrew Kehoe committed the worst school mass killing in American history.” Intellectual Takeout

Jules Woodson reacts to the apology issued by Andy Savage, a pastor at the Highpoint Church in Tennessee, who admits to a “sexual incident” when she was 17 years old.

Salon: “[There is a] link between evangelical Christianity and child marriage actually [that] has been explored recently in the wake of stories of failed Senate candidate Roy Moore’s proclivities. Evangelical communities still push for child marriages between girls in their “middle teens” and men in the mid-twenties or older.