A roundup of interesting news from around the interwebs.
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In the New York Times, author Leigh Stein explains how social media influencers have given rise to a 21st century spirituality increasingly embraced by the “nones”—those who hold no traditional or identifiable religion:
Many millennials who have turned their backs on religious tradition because it isn’t sufficiently diverse or inclusive have found alternative scripture online. Our new belief system is a blend of left-wing political orthodoxy, intersectional feminism, self-optimization, therapy, wellness, astrology and Dolly Parton.
And we’ve found a different kind of clergy: personal growth influencers. Women like Ms. Doyle, who offer nones like us permission, validation and community on demand at a time when it’s nearly impossible to share communion in person. We don’t even have to put down our phones.
These new progressive religions, it goes without saying, have their own vocabularies. Consider this, from Campus Reform:
Hospitals in the United Kingdom have begun using the term “chestfeeding” instead of “breastfeeding,” just years after U.S. academics published a study in which they argued that the promotion of breastfeeding as the “natural” way to feed a child has many negative societal effects.
In early 2021, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals in the United Kingdom drew international criticism for swapping the word “breastfeeding” for “chestfeeding” in an attempt to be more inclusive of transgender individuals.
If these phrases don’t take off, you can be sure they’ll become mandatory shortly.
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As Kate Rogers, a feminist writer on Twitter, put it:
2021 so far:
4 x UK womens DV/rape refuges defunded because theyre not “gender neutral”
@UKHouseofLords fought gov to allow the use the words *women* & *mother* in a *maternity* bill
@ONS #Census2021 & @MoJGovUK going through judicial review for undermining sex data & rights
So the woke wars appear to be going well.
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Remember Jack Phillips, the baker who has been persecuted by LGBT activists all the way up to the Supreme Court—and when he won, they sued him again over a trans cake? He’s scored another victory. From The Christian Post:
A judge has decided to throw out one of two charges against Colorado-based Christian baker Jack Phillips over his refusal to make a transgender-themed cake. A trans-identified man who goes by the name Autumn Scardina filed a lawsuit against Masterpiece Cakeshop in June 2019 after the baker refused to make a cake celebrating Scardina’s gender transition.
The suit claimed that Phillips violated two state laws, the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act and the Colorado Consumer Protection Act, when refusing to create the cake. However, in a ruling released Thursday, Denver District Court Judge A. Bruce Jones granted the defendants’ motion to drop the charge of violating the CCPA by allegedly engaging in “an unfair or deceptive trade practice.”
Unsurprisingly, attendees at the Trump-dominated CPAC last month ranked abortion low on their list of priorities. From the Catholic News Agency:
Attendees at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando were allowed to select up to three issues as their top policy priorities for the Washington Times/CPAC straw poll. Options included “election integrity,” “immigration/border wall,” and “second amendment.”
A mere 16% of conference-goers choose pro-life policies as one of their top three issues, making it the issue that received the least number of votes among attendees. Election integrity, constitutional rights, and immigration were the three top-rated issues of importance, respectively.
