From Loretta Lynn to Aaron Judge, the 9 top religion newsmakers of the week
Bart Barber, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Herschel Walker are among the others making headlines
by Bobby Ross Jr.
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(ANALYSIS) A country music queen. A home run king.
A former White House press secretary. A current U.S. Supreme Court plaintiff.
They are among nine key religion newsmakers who made headlines this past week (in alphabetical order):
• Bart Barber: I’m showing a little bias here because I wrote this week’s Associated Press profile of Barber, a small-town Texas pastor and rancher elected to lead the 13.7 million-member denomination at a time of major crisis. Barber will be featured Sunday night in a “60 Minutes” interview with Anderson Cooper.
• Chris Jones and Sarah Huckabee Sanders: Jones is the Democrat and Sanders the Republican in Arkansas’ gubernatorial race. “With two preachers' kids and a pastor in the race, Arkansans are poised to elect a governor who can sing hymns by heart and quote Scripture from memory,” the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Frank Lockwood writes as he delves into faith and politics. (Sanders served as former President Donald Trump’s White House press secretary from 2017 to 2019.)
• Aaron Judge: The New York Yankees star made history when he hit his 62nd home run of the season Tuesday night. Prayer and faith played a key role during Judge’s chase, reports the Deseret News’ Ryan McDonald.
• Loretta Lynn: The country music superstar and Kentucky coal miner’s daughter died Tuesday at age 90. “She really was serious about her faith and a devout member of the church,” retired minister Terry Rush, who maintained a close friendship with Lynn, told me.