The Weekly is a rundown of news by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission highlighting the week’s top news stories from the public square and providing commentary on the big issues of our day.

5 Facts About Reformation Day

On Sunday, churches throughout the world will celebrate the 500th anniversary of Reformation Day. Here are five facts about the original “Protestant” holiday:

1. The anniversary of the Protestant Reformation is often called Reformation Day. The date celebrates Martin Luther's nailing his ninety-five theses to the church door Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517. (Some scholars debate whether he posted them to the door then, later in November, or whether he even posted them at all.) By posting them to the church door—which was similar to a public bulletin board—Luther intended to start a debate among his fellow academics.

2. While the historical date for the observance of Reformation is October 31st, most churches celebrate it on the last Sunday in October. The only countries in which Reformation Day is a national holiday are Chile and Slovenia. (Though in Chile it's called Día Nacional de las Iglesias Evangélicas y Protestantes—National Day of the Evangelical and Protestant Churches.)

3. On the day he posted the ninety-five theses, Luther was not yet a “Protestant.” (He would later say that at the time he was a committed Catholic who would have murdered—or at least been willing to see murder committed—in the name of the Pope.) In fact, the label Protestant wouldn’t be used until 1529. At the Second Diet of Speyer, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V canceled the Recess of 27 August, which allowed individual governments within the empire to decide whether they wanted to follow Reformation teachings. In response, followers of the new Reformed tradition issued a protestatio, affirming the reforming beliefs that they shared.

4. The theses that sparked the Reformation were not particularly radical, and key Lutheran doctrines, such as justification by grace through faith alone, were not included. The theses were mainly about the selling of indulgences, which the Catholic Church defines as “a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.” At the time, believers could pay for an indulgence to reduce the punishment of someone believed to be in Purgatory.

5. On this same day he is claimed to have posted his theses, Luther sent a letter to the Archbishop of Mainz, under whom, as it says in the letter, “Papal indulgences for the building of St. Peter's are circulating under your most distinguished name.” Soon after this letter was sent, the theses were circulating among the intellectual elite. Although the rapid spread of the ideas that launched the Protestant Reformation are often attributed to the printing press (which had been around for more than 60 years), some scholars now say the document went “viral” because of the “wider system of media sharing along social networks—what is called ‘social media’ today.”

This week on ERLC podcasts: Daniel Darling talks to Dean Inserra, pastor of City Church in Tallahassee, about evangelizing the Bible Belt. And on the new ERLC podcast series, “How to Handle,” Trillia Newbell and Phillip Bethancourt talk about church conflict.

Other Issues

American Culture

Pence: US Will Bypass UN and Aid Persecuted Iraqi Christians Directly
Kate Shellnutt, Christianity Today

Vice president reveals USAID will provide direct assistance to religious minorities targeted by ISIS.

Senators promote Solution Sunday, racial understanding
Tom Strode, Baptist Press

For two United States senators, a solution to America's racial division could start simply with a meal in a home.

Many minority students go to schools where at least half of their peers are their race or ethnicity
Abigail Geiger, Pew Research

Blacks and Hispanics make up 15.5% and 25.4% of the U.S. public school population, respectively. Yet large shares in each group attend schools where their own race or ethnicity accounts for at least half of students, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Department of Education data.

Poll: 1 in 4 service members has seen signs of white nationalism in the ranks
Catherine Garcia, The Week

A new Military Times poll finds that nearly one in four U.S. service members say they have witnessed examples of white nationalism in the ranks, and they view this as a greater national security threat than Syria and Iraq.

Bioethics

Undocumented teen obtains abortion after court battle
Renuka Rayasam, Politico

The undocumented pregnant teen at the center of a legal fight about the abortion rights of undocumented minors obtained an abortion this morning, according to her lawyers.

Christianity and Culture

Churches merge, close: 'We no longer live in Christendom. We really have to accept that it's a thing of the past'
Jonathan M. Pitts, Baltimore Sun

The merger would be the latest example of an increasingly common phenomenon: faith leaders closing or consolidating houses of worship as a way of adjusting to a culture that has grown less hospitable to their mission.

What’s Next for Bill Banning Late-Term Abortions
Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal

President Donald Trump has said he would sign a ban on abortions more than halfway through pregnancy, but first it needs to reach his desk. And for that to happen, it’ll take the votes of at least seven Democrats in the U.S. Senate

White Evangelicals Used to Dominate Christian Zionism, but Not Anymore
Emma Green, The Atlantic

Why thousands of Christians from across the globe travel to Jerusalem each year to celebrate a Jewish holiday.

Family Issues

Caring for Our Own: An Immigrant’s View of Elder Care
Luma Simms, Institute for Family Studies

Older immigrants tend to live near/with their adult children in part because of the value they place on family.

Health Issues

International Issues

Nepal Criminalizes Christian Conversion and Evangelism
Kate Shellnutt, Christianity Today

President approves new sanctions targeting non-Hindus and foreign missionaries.

What You Should Know About the Rohingya Refugee Crisis
Joe Carter, Providence

Bangladesh is building one of the world’s largest refugee camps to house the hundreds of thousands of stateless Rohingya people fleeing Myanmar. Here’s what you should know about what the UN Refugee Agency calls the fastest-growing refugee emergency in the world today.

Many Students Around the World Can’t Read or Add, World Bank Says
Josh Zumbrun, Wall Street Journal

Around the world, hundreds of millions of students are spending years in school while learning virtually nothing, and many countries are neglecting to even measure their progress, the World Bank warned in its flagship annual economic development report.

Religious Liberty

‘We got your back, Jack,’ conservative black clergy tell baker who refused gay couple
Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service

Conservative African-American clergy accused LGBT activists of hijacking the civil rights movement and launched a campaign to support a Colorado baker who refused to create a cake for a gay wedding.

Why the Government Shouldn’t Force Bakers—Or Anyone—to Express Support for Same-Sex Marriage
Steven Smith, Public Discourse

Antidiscrimination laws are fully within the government’s authority—but only when the government is not using such laws as part of a campaign to compel people to express “by word or act” their support for a government-prescribed orthodoxy.

Sexuality Issues

‘Men’ Get Pregnant Too, British Government Declares
Grace Carr, The Daily Signal

The phrase “pregnant woman” needs to be more inclusive and termed “pregnant people” in a U.N. treaty, the British government announced on Monday.