Penny Elkins has been named president of Mercer University and will assume that post Jan. 1 upon the retirement of William Underwood. Elkins has been a member of Mercer’s faculty and senior administration for more than 25 years and currently…
Look to a different future, Buttigieg advises
Things in the United States are even worse than they appear, and the hope is not in rebuilding the systems that have been destroyed by Donald Trump, Pete Buttigieg told the Texas Tribune Festival Nov. 14. The former U.S. secretary…
Camp Mystic’s owners hit with four lawsuits
Camp Mystic in Texas is the target of at least four new state lawsuits related to the deaths of 25 campers and two teenage counselors during catastrophic flash flooding July 4. An estimated 135 people in the Hill Country region…
US bishops choose leader accused of ‘enabling’ abusive priests
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops elected conservative Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City as its new president Nov. 11. The move by the American Catholic Church drew both calls for unity from the new leader and a…
Love for neighbor can guide church through change, Curry says
The American church is in a time of transition, and it is not yet clear what form the church will take in the future, Bishop Michael Curry told the Texas Tribune Festival Nov. 13. Curry, who is now retired as…
‘You can’t fully appreciate how little he knew,’ Bolton says of Trump
President Donald Trump is a danger to the world because he doesn’t listen and doesn’t know what he thinks he knows, John Bolton told the Texas Tribune Festival Nov. 13. Bolton, former U.S. national security advisor and former U.S. ambassador…
Panelists offer three takes on state of religious liberty today
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is unconstitutional and opened the door to the death of religious liberty in America, political science professor Marci Hamilton told the Texas Tribune Festival Nov. 13. Hamilton, a lawyer with extensive experience in religious liberty…
Ken Starr resurfaces in Epstein files
Former Baylor University President Ken Starr’s role in the Jeffrey Epstein saga resurfaced Nov. 12 as the House Oversight Committee released thousands of pages of documents about the disgraced financier and his connections to the nation’s political elite. That dump…
‘We could all be climate refugees’
Naira Santa Rita, an internally displaced person from Brazil, directed her message to the entire audience: “Anyone of us in this room could be a climate refugee.” In a space shared by people from across the world, these were the…
At COP30, a conversation about spiritual change
Where are we? Where do we want to go? And how will we get there? Those are the three questions asked at a Talanoa dialogue, a structured conversation held in groups as a way to find a way forward at…
Trump pardons 70 allies who promoted his lies about 2020 election
A Sunday announcement that President Donald Trump had pardoned Rudy Giuliani and more than 70 others who promoted Trump’s lies about the 2020 election shows he continues using his power in his second term to promote the mischief he incited…
Moody Bible Institute sues Chicago Schools over student teacher placement
Moody Bible Institute of Chicago has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the city Board of Education for barring its students from student teaching opportunities. “As a condition of participation, Chicago Public Schools insists that Moody sign agreements with employment nondiscrimination…