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.
CA court sides with health department, bars indoor worship.
Judge bars defiant Los Angeles megachurch from holding indoor services, LA Times
“While the court is mindful that there is no substitute for indoor worship in the ‘spiritual refuge’ of a sanctuary, the court cannot ignore the County Health Order does not dictate a ban on worship,” Beckloff wrote in his decision granting the county’s request for a preliminary injunction. The order remains in effect until the issue is resolved.
The order allows outdoor services — which were already permitted under the county’s public health order — only if the church follows physical distancing and face covering measures.
Pew finds most teens hold the religious beliefs of their parents.
10 key findings about the religious lives of U.S. teens and their parents, Pew Research
The report looks at U.S. teens’ religious lives and the ways these reflect – or don’t reflect – the religious lives of their parents. It is based on a survey of 1,811 pairs of teens ages 13 to 17 and their parents, with one teen and one parent from each household. Each person answered questions not only about their own religious affiliation, beliefs and practices, but also about the role they think religion plays in the life of the other person taking the survey.
While over in Iran…
Iran’s secular shift: new survey reveals huge changes in religious beliefs, The Conversation
Our results reveal dramatic changes in Iranian religiosity, with an increase in secularisation and a diversity of faiths and beliefs. Compared with Iran’s 99.5% census figure, we found that only 40% identified as Muslim.
In contrast with state propaganda that portrays Iran as a Shia nation, only 32% explicitly identified as such, while 5% said they were Sunni Muslim and 3% Sufi Muslim. Another 9% said they were atheists, along with 7% who prefer the label of spirituality.
The pandemic hits in all kinds of ways.
Digging Stopped in Ancient Biblical Cities, Christianity Today
The pause couldn’t be avoided, however. For biblical archaeologists, 2020 will be remembered as the summer without digs. Most projects were stopped as the coronavirus spread and international travel was suspended.
It remains too big an issue: pastors committing suicide.
Helping Protect Your Pastor from Death by Suicide, Nicholas Davis
I’m sharing this because I don’t want you, someone you love, or your pastor to die by suicide. Andrew Stoecklein’s death struck my wife and me hard because like him, we are a family of five with three young boys. At the time of his death, I was 31 and a lead pastor of a church in Southern California. It was too close to home.