Some interesting law and religion stories from this week:
- In Raqqa, Syria, and with brute force, ISIS imposes its vision of a state that blends its fundamentalist interpretation of Islam with the practicalities of governance.
- Meriam Ibrahim, a Sudanese Christian woman who was sentenced to death for converting to Christianity, was released and met with Pope Francis in Rome, where she and her family will stay until they depart for New York.
- Despite rockets, Taglit-Birthright Israel is still sending thousands of young Jews to Israel.
- Turkey’s top cleric calls new Islamic “caliphate” declared by Islamic militants illegitimate.
- Muslim families driven from their homes by the fierce fighting between Israel and Hamas are observing Ramadan in Gaza City’s Greek Orthodox church.
- An evangelical Christian group plans to try to convert children as young as 5 in Portland, Oregon this summer.
- A day after most of Mosul’s Christians fled, Islamic State fighters stormed the fourth-century Mar Behnam Monastery near the city, expelling the Christians taking refuge there.
- Teams of lay evangelists target senior citizens in nursing homes offering “one last chance in this life for glory in the next.”
- Church of England selection boards are reported to have been encouraged to use a form of “positive discrimination” to appoint woman bishops.
- A group Roman Catholic monks in Massachusetts has embraced beer making, a centuries-old tradition it hopes can sustain the group’s aging members in a world of rapidly rising health costs.