Faith and public education
Welcome to the 21st edition of North Carolina Religion Roundup: Historic Black churches in the Triangle, Barbie, Sinead O’Connor, and more.
Happy Thursday! Thanks for reading the 21st edition of North Carolina Religion Roundup, a newsletter that highlights major religion news and trends in the Triangle and greater NC.
I’m senior reporter at EducationNC, where I cover education news and policy, and faith. I am also a third-year M.Div. student at Duke Divinity School, where I’m starting my fall term this week studying preaching and “Modern Christianity Outside the West.” I do apologize for the long break between my last edition and this one. In addition to starting a new role at work, I was busy wedding planning and taking finals for school. I am hopeful to follow a more regularly monthly cadence for this newsletter moving forward!
Last edition, I included a Q&A with the NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NCCADP), about their work to end the death penalty in North Carolina. As the legislative long session in NC continues, I’m struck by the prevalence of faith-based organizing — across religion, denomination, ideology, political party, geography, and tradition. This (lengthy) edition is full of many examples.
I’d love any thoughts or feedback on this roundup. Plus, I’d love it if you’d share this newsletter with a friend or on social media. AND, if you’re a religion writer or faith leader who is interested in contributing in any way to future editions, please reach out. Thanks for following along!
This week:
In Story to Follow, I highlight recent trends and legislation impacting public education, and where there are religious intersections. I also highlight recent celebrations of historic Black churches in the Triangle.
In a Nutshell, I share religion stories across the state, including updates on the SBC, UMC, and interfaith efforts to serve communities across the state.
And in What I’m Reading, I feature two pieces. The first explores the creation image of the Garden of Eden in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie. The second highlights Irish singer Sinead O’Connor’s Muslim faith, and the lack of media coverage of that faith in the obituaries following her death.
Story to Follow: Faith and the future of public education
The Republican-led legislature in North Carolina has introduced multiple bills this legislative session expanding school choice through private schools and charters, which are public schools with more flexibility. Among other things, the legislature has proposed $636 million over the next two years to fund private school vouchers through the Opportunity Scholarship Grant Reserve.
That proposal would remove all income eligibility requirements for recipients, starting with the 2024-25 school year. Importantly, the proposed expansion could pose a threat to overall funding for public schools and more importantly to enrollment.
Religious schools account for 88.2% of the private school voucher dollars in the state, WRAL reported in June, though religious schools comprise 64.1% of the state’s private schools. Nearly all of the schools are Christian, and a few are Islamic or Jewish.
“If parents want their private religious schools to stay free from government interference and not be sullied by the government in any way, then they should actually want there to be no connection between these private religious schools and government funds,” Rachel Laser, chief executive of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told WRAL. “Because with government funds, strings are attached, and they should be, that's what we want, right? And at the same time, we don't want that in our religious institutions, because that's dangerous.”
Teachers march through downtown Raleigh calling for more education funding from the state legislature in 2018. Mebane Rash/EducationNC
The vouchers, which are up to about $6,000, do not fully fund the majority of most private schools. The N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has previously said it expects most of the new voucher funds to go to students already enrolled at private schools.
At the same time, private schools across the country are seeing an increase in enrollment — including many religious schools. The Diocese of Charlotte is reporting a 12% increase from a decade ago, and a nearly 18% increase since the pandemic began in 2020. Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools enrollment is also increasing, the Charlotte Observer reported last week, up 18.6% since 2020.
In June, Oklahoma approved the first religious charter school in the U.S., which will offer online, Roman Catholic instruction funded by taxpayers. Already, the approval has revived legal debates over the separation of church and state.
What does all of this mean for public education? As I’ve reported at EdNC, traditional public schools remain the top choice for most of North Carolina’s students — and this holds true across the country, and geographic and partisan boundaries.
Public schools are also required to serve all students, which is not true of private schools. While some private schools specifically serve students with disabilities, for example, most either do not offer the specific services offered by public schools, or otherwise reject students based on their grades and test scores. Religious private schools also do not have to serve LGBTQ+ students, or students who do not follow their faith.
As we think about the future of education that we want in North Carolina, we must think of all of these nuanced realities. And as the majority of students and families continue to choose public schools, we must invest in them. Whether or not the state continues to invest in non-public school options, public schools must receive the resources they need to serve the students who will continue to come to them well.
Regardless of where you stand on the issue of separation of church and state and how it relates to this conversation, I hope future discussions will start by prioritizing the well-being and investment in all of our students.
Story to Follow: Historic Black churches in the Triangle
This week marked the 60th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington. In Durham, hundreds gathered at St. Joseph AME Church on Sunday to commemorate the event, WRAL reported, which is credited with helping to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
"Today is a time where we focus not just on commemoration and looking at what happened 60 years ago, and celebrating many of the advancements over the last 60 years," Rev. Dr. Jay Augustine said. "But today is also a day of continuation where people are continually mobilizing coming together to fight against the deliberate attempts to roll back many of those rights."
The historic Black church is 153 years old.
Earlier this month, St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Raleigh celebrated its 175th anniversary, the News and Observer reported.
“Nobody told me that the road would be easy,” Rev. Dr. Larry McDonald Sr. said. “But I don’t believe that he brought me this far to leave me.”
St. Paul AME was Raleigh’s first independent Black church. Like many Black churches in the U.S., the church has historically served as a center for social justice and civil rights activism in the community since its founding.
As national conversations about religion, politics, nationalism, and division continue, we would all do well to remember that some traditions — though not monolithic, of course — have historically and consistently led the way in integrating faith and justice.
I previously wrote about the history of Black Christians and churches fighting for social justice because of their faith, in December 2020 for the Chatham News + Record.
“In every aspect of life, wherever Christ would be and whatever side Christ would be on, that’s the side that we need to be on,” Rev. Dr. Carl Thompson told me then, noting that opinions regarding this vary starkly among American Christians. “I’ll just point here that we don’t see the white evangelical church or the traditional church on the side of Christ in some issues — mainly the issue of racism in this country.”
In a Nutshell:
Steven Furtick’s Elevation Church Leaves the SBC, Christianity Today
In June, Southern Baptists voted to further expand restrictions on women in church leadership, possibly leading to hundreds of expulsions among other churches. In North Carolina, Elevation Church, a megachurch in Charlotte, left the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in July. Elevation’s letter gave no reason for the church’s departure after more than two decades in the SBC, per the article, but, Holly Furtick, wife of Elevation pastor Steven Furtick, is described as a church cofounder and preaches on a regular basis. Hear more on the decision from WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson.
Some worshippers switching congregations amid United Methodist split over LGBTQ issues, the Associated Press
United Methodist Church congregations across the country have been deciding and voting on whether to disaffiliate from the UMC denomination due to debate about the theology of LGBTQ+ people. This AP article features a North Carolina “Lighthouse” church, which welcomes members who wanted to stay United Methodist after their churches voted to leave. “Part of the Lighthouse mission is to let people know the United Methodist Church is still here and still welcoming,” said the Rev. Ed McKinney, pastor of Stokesdale United Methodist Church. Earlier this month, I attended Duke’s Convocation on the Rural Church, which focused on gathering with hope after the last years of disaffiliation.
Charlotte getting Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple, Queen City News
Charlotte will soon be home to a temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, LDS President and Prophet Russell M. Nelson announced in April. The temple will be part of a project to build 15 new temples around the world. The church said that more than 94,000 LDS members live in North Carolina who are part of nearly 180 congregations, but the state only has one temple currently, in Apex outside of Raleigh.
Several Raleigh residents woke up to antisemitic flyers in their driveways, the News & Observer
Several Raleigh residents woke up earlier this month to find antisemitic flyers in front of their homes, the N&O reported. This is not the first time antisemitic content has been found in Raleigh neighborhoods. Last August, Rabbi Eric Solomon of Beth Meyer Synagogue found flyers with “Holocaust imagery” that he called “deeply upsetting.” Though the Raleigh Police Department was informed of the 2022 flyers, spokesman Lt. Jason Borneo told The N&O that they had stopped investigating the incident because “they did not rise to the level of a crime.”
Jewish clergy group: The NC legislature is running roughshod over our religious beliefs | Opinion, the N&O
The Republican-led General Assembly passed new abortion restrictions into law on May 16, overriding the Governor’s veto of Senate Bill 20, which places a ban on abortions after 12-weeks in most cases, among other things. “For thousands of years Jewish tradition has embraced a sacred obligation to preserve life and protect and prioritize the health and well-being of the pregnant woman; this bill does not,” write Rabbi Judy Schindler and Rabbi Andy Koren in the N&O. “For the Jewish faith, and for those of many other faiths, a human being’s life does not begin until the first breath, live birth. Therefore, the only thing being compromised by SB 20 is women’s health.”
North Carolina clergy demonstrate against legislature’s new abortion limits, Religion News Service
Led by the Rev. William J. Barber II, a dozen Christian clergy hosted a press conference at the General Assembly on May 12 to denounce a bill approved earlier this month that bans abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Most Christians — as most Americans — favor keeping abortion legal, RNS reported. “Please don’t quote the Bible to tell me you can make your faith the law of the land because I read the Book, and it is clear about what we must demand of political leaders in the public square,” said Barber, leader of the Poor People’s Campaign and Repairers of the Breach. Also check out: Q&A: Rev. William Barber on ‘extreme and violent’ NC agenda, Moral Monday revival, from the N&O. Barber retired as pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro on June 18.
In NC, a church network turns unused church buildings into homes for refugees, RNS
Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan about two years ago, a group of Baptist churches has started retrofitting vacant church-owned buildings for refugee housing, RNS reported in May. The initiative, organized through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina but open to any religious congregation, encourages churches to refurbish church-owned parsonages, office buildings, youth clubhouses or single-family homes and make them available to refugees or humanitarian parolees for a nominal fee.
A Matter of Faith: Duke Health Partners with A.M.E. Zion Pastors to Rebuild Trust in Health Care, Duke University School of Medicine
Duke Health is working to rebuild trust in health care by partnering with pillars of the Black community, the college said, “A.M.E. Zion pastors who have long been pivotal in the struggle for justice, equality, and civil rights.” The partnership, Health Equity Advocates Liaisons (HEAL), is modeled after a Cultural Ambassadors program that links Yale School of Medicine with A.M.E. Zion churches in Connecticut to broaden community participation in clinical research. The partnership follows Duke Health’s public pledge in 2020 to stand up for health equity and against racism.
Charlotte Catholic fired him after he posted about his gay marriage. Now courts will rule, the Charlotte Observer
Almost a decade ago, a substitute teacher at Charlotte Catholic High School went on Facebook to announce plans to wed his longtime partner, the Observer reports. Today, the couple is still married, but Lonnie Billard was removed from his job for the post, described as a public challenge to the Catholic Church’s longstanding doctrinal support of traditional marriage. His 2017 sex-discrimination lawsuit against his former school and Catholic leaders in Charlotte is still moving through federal courts, the Observer reported in May, with the case to be heard by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the second most powerful court in the U.S.
Shaw University reopens campus mosque, but ‘fight not over yet,’ group says, the N&O
Shaw University has reopened its campus mosque to worshippers after closing it during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Muslim community and Shaw University have reached an agreement to allow worshipers into the King Khalid Mosque again while negotiations over the long-term status of the property continue,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations stated in a news release. “The fight is not over yet, but the community is back in the masjid.” The initial agreement allows access to the mosque for three years and, for two months, “to engage in good faith negotiations to find a long term solution,” said Nigel Edwards, an attorney representing the mosque, in an email to the N&O.
Returning a Voice to an Enslaved Muslim Scholar, Duke Today
For nearly two decades, Duke professor Mbaye Lo has worked to bring attention to the life and writings of Omar ibn Said, a 19th century West African Muslim scholar enslaved and brought to North Carolina, where he astonished people with his knowledge even as they kept him enslaved and used his life to promote the “benefits” of slavery. This month, Lo and UNC-Chapel Hill professor Carl Ernst’s book on Omar ibn Said, “I Cannot Write My Life,” was published by the University of North Carolina Press. Check out a Q&A with Lo on the book and research process at this link.
Evangelical Colleges Will Continue to Pursue Diversity Without Affirmative Action, Christianity Today
Last month, I spoke with several evangelical colleges for CT about how the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling against race-based college admissions would impact their diversity efforts. Leaders at many evangelical colleges told me they don’t expect the decision to hinder their work, but that they’re using this moment to communicate the biblical heart behind their diversity efforts. One leader I spoke with, Warner Pacific University President Brian Johnson, grew up in public housing in Durham. “This work is a deep personal calling to me,” he said. “In fact, it’s a ministry. I rejoice that God has given me the exact life experiences needed to seek out and expect great things from every single student who walks through our door.”
Charlotte wants housing to replace vacant school. Jewish cemetery is wary of city’s plans, the Charlotte Observer
The Jewish cemetery that’s the final resting place for Charlotteans such as Leon Levine, Harry Golden and Al Rousso faces a potential space crunch as the city looks to redevelop an adjacent property for mixed-income housing, the Observer reported earlier this month. Leaders of the Hebrew Cemetery of Greater Charlotte, at 1801 Statesville Ave., say they’re disappointed in the possibility the city will sell the former site of Double Oaks School to the “highest bidder for high-density housing” instead of a possible expansion of their own. It would effectively lock the cemetery into a site that will only last for 10 to 15 more years, its leaders say.
Seminar Integrates Faith and Science to Respond to Environmental Challenges, Duke Divinity School
Duke Divinity School hosted a week-long seminar on science and theology last month for 10 graduate students and young professionals. It was presented through the In Lumine Network, which brings the Catholic intellectual tradition into dialogue with disciplines such as theology, philosophy, and the natural and social sciences. “I want my future to be involved in medicine and public health, and I had been told that faith was a really important thing to have in that area because of the difficulties—the sickness, the death,” said Marisabel Sanchez, who is conducting public health research at Notre Dame and plans to enroll in medical school. “This seminar has given me the language to fully express my faith and spirituality in a more scientific setting.”
~What I’m reading~
Still from Barbie. Courtesy of WarnerBros
In the beginning, there was Barbie, Vox
Last month, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie took the movie world by storm. In this Vox article, writer Alissa Wilkinson argues that the movie is one big biblical metaphor. Here’s an excerpt from the really fascinating piece.
The Barbies live in Barbieland, an analog for the Garden of Eden, where every day is a sunny and perfect day — especially for our heroine, Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie). Her home is a Barbie Dream House in Barbieland, where the Barbies run all aspects of the world. She has a load of friends, all named Barbie, and a boyfriend named Ken (Ryan Gosling) who hangs out with the other Kens at the beach. He is not a lifeguard, nor is he a surfer; his job, he insists, is “beach.”
One day, in the middle of a party, Barbie suddenly starts thinking about death, for no reason at all (especially because she’s a plastic doll and one that is, as you probably know, virtually indestructible). When a tragedy strikes — I won’t ruin it — Barbie is forced to leave paradise and go to the real world, and Ken hitches a ride. When they get there, they discover that they’re suddenly self-conscious and aware of being looked at (this movie’s version of Eve and Adam discovering their nakedness). The plot soon thickens, because not only does Barbie realize that women do not have the same kind of standing in the real world as they do in hers, but men can leer and jeer and make crude comments and stupid decisions, and it’s just sort of what they do. Meanwhile Ken ... discovers patriarchy.
…
Ken’s discovery of patriarchy (which seems to have a lot to do with the subjugation of women and with horses, as far as he can tell) is the means through which a sort of original sin leaks into Barbieland, though by the end of the film it’s clear that this isn’t a typically shallow Hollywood take on feminism. Sure, Barbies were created to teach girls that they could be anything, but what else did they do? (By the end, we learn that in a truly ideal world, the Barbies and the Kens would live in harmony and equality — and that won’t happen overnight.)
Read the full piece at this link.
Also check out, “Barbie and Ken Go East of Eden,” in Christianity Today.
Sinead O’Connor was a rock star and a Muslim. Why did obituaries miss this? Opinion from Religion News Service
The Irish singer Sinead O’Connor died last month at age 56. The singer will always be connected with Roman Catholicism, writes Anna Piela, after ripping a photo of Pope John Paul II in two on Saturday Night Live in 1992 to protest the church’s handling of sexual abuse by priests. “But the rites for her burial Tuesday were not Catholic but Muslim, and Sheikh Umar Al-Qadri, an Islamic scholar and the chief imam at the Islamic Center of Ireland, eulogized her as Shuhada Sadaqat, the name she took after converting to Islam,” Piela writes. “It’s not something the news media have reported much about, part of a seemingly willful ignorance that was more interested in her reputation as a rebellious and even sacrilegious celebrity.” Here’s more from the piece:
In her interview on “The Late Late Show,” she said: “I had been a Muslim all my life and didn’t realize it. … I am home.”
This fact, that it was Islam that finally brought her peace, has been neglected entirely or treated as a footnote.
Her obituary in Vogue does not mention her Muslim faith at the time of her death but makes an obligatory note of the photo-tearing incident. The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Chicago Sun-Times all made only brief asides saying that she had converted and changed her name. (In its story today [Aug. 8], The New York Times included more about her Muslim funeral.)
…
The obscuring of O’Connor’s Muslim faith by the mainstream media suggests that the Islamic faith is still seen as somehow incompatible with show business. Few Muslim female singers reach global fame on this scale, so it is disappointing that so few in the media saw O’Connor’s brilliant life as a chance to challenge Islamophobia. But more disappointing is that in remembering her, something so important as her religious agency — her religious choice, belief, practice and identity — was seen as an afterthought.
And also check out, “Long-term adoption of hybrid services represents a major shift from the traditional church model,” from Duke’s Faith and Leadership. The article explores recent research which suggests Covid shifts to online church services are here to stay, at least in some way.
That's it for this month’s edition of North Carolina Religion Roundup. Thanks for reading. Until next time. And in the meantime, I gladly welcome any tips, feedback or news you think I haven’t included but should in future editions. — Hannah