Of AI, SMU, Prayer in School and More
United Methodist Insight Highlights June 30, 2025
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Let’s Not Miss Our Moment: 10 Concerns about AI and the Church
Blake Davis of Discipleship Ministries offers reflections from two years of teaching about artificial intelligence (AI) to ministry leaders.
It’s time to stop debating whether AI is genuinely intelligent and focus on making it work for society. From The Conversation.
High Court: Church Can Sue for SMU Control
The United Methodist jurisdictional conference sued the university in 2019 after the university’s board moved to gain independence from the conference and, by extension, the denomination.
United Methodists Provide Vital Aid in Congo
In war-torn eastern Congo, the United Methodist Committee on Relief recently provided food and other support to 200 households. Millions are facing food insecurity in the region since M23 rebels seized the cities of Goma and Bukavu earlier this year.
Prayer in School Divides Americans as Texas Law Takes Effect
Overall, 52% of Americans approve of Christian prayer in schools, according to a new analysis of data from the most recent Pew Religious Landscape Study, published earlier this year. Forty-six percent disapprove.
What Church Do You Attend? Maybe More Than One, Survey Finds
Five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost half of churchgoers are regular participants in congregations other than their primary one, either attending in person, watching online or on TV, or taking part in events.
Perhaps the story related in 2 Kings can best show the danger of false expectations. It is the story of Naaman, and how he is healed of a “dreaded skin disease” (leprosy or other).
The milking barn was a holy place on the Sumwalt family farm, where young John felt confident enough to ask. his father Leonard when he would be able to receive Holy Communion.
A Plea to Congo Central Conference Delegates
The general secretary of United Methodist Africa Forum, the Rev. Gabriel Banga Mususwa, urges delegates to the coming Congo Central Conference to beware of manipulation by forces who seek to divide the UMC in Africa.
The deaths of four major religious figures – Pope Francis, John Cobb, Martin Marty and Walter Bruggemann – prompts the Rev. Jane Ellen Nickell to reflect on their influences on religion and on her ministry.
‘Great White Christian Freakout’ Shifted America, Jones Says
The U.S. was just beginning to come to terms with the effects of racial injustice when the “great white Christian freakout” ushered in the era of Donald Trump and empowered religious nationalism, said Robert P. Jones of PRRI.
Wesley Bros: Go and Sin No More
The story of the woman caught in adultery begs many questions, not least of which is why it's so often cited out of context of its full meaning. It's especially misused to abuse LBGTQ-plus persons.