“While we obviously cannot change the past, it is clear that we must change the future. For our part, the first step is for law enforcement and the IACP to acknowledge and apologize for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in society’s historical mistreatment of communities of color.”
At third debate, Trump won’t commit to accepting election results if he loses
By Karen Tumulty and Philip Rucker, Washington Post
LAS VEGAS — A defiant Donald Trump used the high-profile setting of the final presidential debate here Wednesday night to amplify one of the most explosive charges of his candidacy: that if he loses the election, he might consider the results illegitimate because the process is rigged.
The Church Must Condemn Sexual Assault
By Jennifer Butler, Huffington Post
This moment presents all of us, especially faith leaders, with an opportunity and an obligation to directly confront the aggression and marginalization that almost every woman experiences at some point in her life.
Trump at the Al Smith Dinner: No Laughing Matter
By John Gehring, Commonweal
The quadrennial Al Smith Dinner offers the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates a brief respite from the campaign and a chance to toss some good-natured lines at each other, usually balanced with self-deprecating jokes. The white-tie event, set for Thursday at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, raises money for charitable causes and is, as the New York Times describes it, “a major social gathering on the American political landscape.”
Will evangelical women turn the tide against Trump?
By Emily McFarlan Miller, Religion News Service
Comments by Beth Moore and other evangelical women — notably, white evangelical women — who have started to speak out over the past week give “women in the pews, your average churchgoer, permission to speak out politically in a way that they didn’t feel comfortable doing before,”
1,000 Christian Women Ignore Male Leaders, Slam Trump
By Hannah Levintova, Mother Jones
Over the last week, a group of more than 1,000 Christian women have signed on to a letter strongly condemning Trump’s comments and calling out the leaders of their religious community for making excuses on behalf of the Republican nominee.
Clinton Challenges Trump for a Traditional Republican Bloc, White Catholics
By Jason Horowitz, New York Times
The Clinton campaign senses a rare opportunity to block Mr. Trump’s narrow path to victory by making inroads with a core part of the church: white Catholics, a prized group of voters that has defied predictions this year.
Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend to urge marginalized people to vote
By Kevin Kilbane, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel
The Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend will launch its Prophetic Voting campaign with a prayer vigil and voter canvassing … After the prayer vigil, people attending will go door-to-door in neighborhoods around the church to encourage people to vote their conscience and to hold elected officials accountable after they take office,
World Relief scrambling to settle more refugees in US
By Lauren Markoe, Religion News Service
World Relief, a Christian humanitarian group, resettled twice as many refugees to the U.S. in September as it had in August, an increase that foretells a more robust resettlement pace for the nation in general.
On Twitter, Jewish journalists targeted by a torrent of anti-Semitism
By Lauren Markoe, Religion News Service
A flood of anti-Jewish hate speech targeting Jewish journalists on Twitter rose with the political fortunes of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. A report released Wednesday (Oct. 19) by the Anti-Defamation League does not directly indict Trump for this upswing in anti-Semitism. But it explicitly connects some of his supporters to the hate speech.
Columbia church finds itself at center of U.S. Supreme Court squabble
By Rick Montgomery, Kansas City Star
It started with pea gravel. Now it’s a lawsuit that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear to decide crucial questions about religion and government. A Lutheran church in Columbia has challenged a Missouri decision denying a grant to its preschool, which sought to replace the gravel on its playground with softer, safer material.
By MSNBC
Watch Faith in Public Life Action CEO Rev. Jennifer Butler discuss Christian voters and the 2016 election.
Deep Dive of the Week
Addressing Challenges to Progressive Religious Liberty in North Carolina
By Carolyn Davis, Lauren Kokum, Claire Markham, Center for American Progress
North Carolina is a state rich with diversity. Its motto, “Esse quam videri”—to be, rather than to seem—challenges its residents to act, not just speak, to uphold the state’s values. The state’s diversity must be protected and nourished to ensure progressive values and maintain a true democracy. When the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, people; women; and religious minorities are threatened—as they have been in North Carolina—the state is falling short on its commitment to its residents and its own values.
