The following articles have been selected because they are informative, instructive, entertaining, or simply interesting. Articles appearing in Your Friday Five do not represent an endorsement.
COVID-19 relief law aids charitable giving, By Tom Strode
ew COVID-19 relief legislation that maintains encouragement for charitable giving and funding for a small loan program that includes churches gained President Trump’s signature Sunday evening (Dec. 27).
In a sudden reversal, the president signed into law a combined legislative package that provides $900 billion for COVID-19 relief and $1.4 trillion for an omnibus spending bill that will keep the federal government funded through September 2021. Trump had decried the legislation five days earlier, describing it as “a disgrace” and calling for Congress to amend it to increase direct payments to Americans from $600 apiece to $2,000.
Preaching Heaven to Help Your People Fight Materialism, By Ryan Fullerton
As my Cameroonian co-pastor likes to remind me, materialism is a global problem. The maxed-out credit cards that fill the wallets of so many Americans and the extortion that lines the pockets of so many “officials” in the world’s poorest countries are symptoms of the same disease. Materialism is everywhere. The siren song of the prosperity gospel is as alluring in the double-wide trailers of rural Montana as it is in the mud huts of rural Africa.
Brexit: Johnson hails UK’s ‘freedom’ moment as EU era draws to close, By BBC News
Boris Johnson has said the UK has “freedom in our hands” and must make the most of it as the country prepares to leave EU trading rules at 23:00 GMT.
Historic changes to rules on travel, trade, immigration and security are to come into force as the UK enters a new era of relations with the continent.
UK officials have insisted new border systems are “ready to go” amid concerns about possible delays at ports.
15 Good News Trends from 2020, By Joe Carter
For many Americans 2020 has been one of the most depressing years on record. It has also been the deadliest year in U.S. history, due mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic, with deaths expected to top 3 million for the first time ever. With death, destruction, and divisiveness dominating the news cycle, it can lead us to despair over the direction our world is headed.
In 2021, Watch What The Supreme Court Does With Philadelphia’s Ban On Christians Parenting Foster Children, By Yaakov Menken
Not just foster care providers, but religious groups of all kinds are closely following the case of Fulton v. the City of Philadelphia. Indeed, all those who care about our nation’s children should be.
While this case before the U.S. Supreme Court to be decided in 2021 directly concerns the provision of foster care, by placing hypothetical arguments about non-discrimination ahead of the religious freedoms ensconced in the First Amendment — and ahead of children’s actual needs — the broader ramifications of the case threaten to force religion further from the public sphere.