(1) The Data Don’t Lie: Couples That Pray Together Actually Do Stay Together (Christianity Today)
(2) Twelve Weird Items in Church Bylaws, by Thom Rainer
***Actual items found in church bylaws! A few examples:
No one can sell cassettes on church grounds.
No one is allowed to bring glitter to church.
No one can sell paintings on church grounds.
No one can come to church with diarrhea.
(3) Clinton v. Trump shrinks the God Gap (RNS)
As our attention shifts from the primaries to the general election, for the first time in years religiosity looks like it’s going to matter less than gender in determining the presidential vote.
…Since the God gap became salient in the 1990s, it’s always exceeded the gender gap. Not, evidently, this year. Between women’s support for one of their own and the misogyny of the other candidate, gender identity is trumping religion.
(4) Will Evangelical Voters Put Trump Over the Top in Indiana? (The Atlantic)
That’s the ninth-highest concentration of evangelicals nationwide, and almost nine points higher than the national average of 17.3 percent. In the 2012 election, exit polls recorded that fully 35 percent of Indiana voters identified as white, born-again Christians.
One story of the Cruz campaign is the senator’s failure to win states just like this. Once upon a time, such states were going to secure the nomination for Cruz—the slate of conservative, religious Southern states voting in the March 1 “SEC Primary” was going to stop Donald Trump and vault Cruz ahead. Instead, Cruz won his home state of Texas, along with Oklahoma and Alaska, but lost to Trump in Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. In those states, the twice-divorced New York billionaire won a plurality of evangelicals, beating Cruz among the very voters expected to make up his base.
(5) U2 guitarist The Edge plays historic concert at the Sistine Chapel
***Ok, so this is only on the list because I’m a big U2 fan, especially of “The Edge”—so bear with me.
U2’s The Edge became the first artist to ever stage a contemporary music concert inside Vatican City’s historic Sistine Chapel Friday when the guitarist played a short acoustic set as part of a conference on regenerative medicines.
…The Edge, whose father died of cancer and whose daughter fought leukemia, has been on the board of the Angiogenesis Foundation since 2007 (angiogenesis is the body’s ability to grow new blood vessels). The Sistine Chapel performance was part of the Cellular Horizons conference, where over 200 doctors, scientists, researchers and philanthropists gathered to discuss ways to combat diseases like cancer.
“When I was asked to perform in the Sistine Chapel I didn’t know what to say, because usually there’s ’this other guy’ who sings,” the Edge said, referring to Bono. “So it took me at least, well, 30 seconds to agree to it.”
Beyond Bono and Eugene Peterson: The Most Searched and Shared Psalms (Christianity Today)
***Yes, more U2. And some pretty cool infographics about the popularity of the Psalms in online Bible searches.
(6) College Rejects Missionary Founders, by Mark Tooley
***You may remember our talking about this “change the mascot” story last week. Well here’s a great follow-up piece of history and analysis by Mark Tooley.
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