December 2025 Newsletter
In this Clergy Letter Project update you’ll find the following 20 items:
- Religion and Science Weekend 2026;
- Across the Cosmos for December 2025: Spiders on Europa;
- Support for Science by Members of the Clergy is Evolving;
- Faith. Climate Crisis. Action.;
- The First Stars;
- Faithful Women in Science;
- Saints and Science;
- Support for Creationism Creeps Upward in Canada ;
- Publicly Funded Anti-Evolution Textbooks;
- Beauty, Fertility and Submission;
- A 20-Year Retrospective on the Intelligent Design Trial;
- Opting Out of Evolution Education;
- An Unholy Trinity of Science, Religion and Politics;
- Text With Jesus;
- AI Has Become a Technology of Faith;
- Deepak Chopra's AI Spirituality is Hijacking Spiritual Hunger;
- Why Clergy Should Risk Assault to Protest ICE;
- Veterans and the View from Air Force One;
- Creationism in California Middle School; and
- Dealing with Creationism in UK Schools.
1. Religion and Science Weekend 2026
Religion and Science Weekend 2026, 13-15 February 2026, is quickly approaching. As I previously reported, members voted for a wonderful theme for our 21st anniversary celebration: Truth Matters. Please take a look at our website listing all participating congregations and groups to see if you’re listed. If you don’t appear, please drop me a note and I’ll get you listed.
Let me be honest with you and express my concern. At this point, approximately two months before the weekend, we have fewer participants listed than we have had in previous years. Given the state of science, religion and the lack of respect for truth currently spreading like a disease, I have to believe that many more of you plan to address these critical issues. And, as always, anything you do to advance the importance of the compatibility of religion and science would qualify you as a participant. Additionally, you can participate at any time in the temporal vicinity of our designated weekend if that time doesn’t work for you. What’s important is that you engage in meaningful discussions about this important topic. So, please sign up now and, together, let’s make a large statement about religion and science.
_____ Yes, my congregation (or other group) and I plan to participate. Please add us to the growing list of participants.
Name of Congregation (or other group):
Location:
Your Name:
Simply reply to this email or send me a separate note indicating that you plan to participate and I’ll add you to our growing list.
2. Across the Cosmos for December 2025: Spiders on Europa
In this month’s installment of Across the Cosmos, Grace Wolf-Chase, Senior Scientist and Senior Education & Communication Specialist at the Planetary Science Institute as well as a Clergy Letter Project consultant, wonders whether conditions for life might exist on Europa after discussing data presented by her Planetary Science Institute colleagues. Well, maybe not spiders!
OK, the title of this column should have been “Spider-like Features on Europa,” but I shamefully wanted to grab your attention! One of my colleagues at the Planetary Science Institute, Elodie Lesage(1), is a co-author on a new study of a curiously familiar surface feature on Europa that was recently published in the Planetary Science Journal.(2) So-called “lake stars” on Earth are branching, radial patterns that form when snow falls on frozen lakes and the weight of the snow creates holes in the ice, allowing water to flow through the snow.(3) In a similar manner, the spider-like feature identified on Europa might have formed through the eruption of melted brines following an impact that produced the crater in which it resides.
Of course, conditions on Europa are very different from those on Earth! Europa is extremely cold, and its atmosphere is extremely low pressure.(4) To test the formation hypothesis, the team conducted both field and laboratory experiments, by observing lake stars in Breckenridge, Colorado, and recreating the process in a cryogenic glovebox at JPL, using Europa ice simulants cooled with liquid nitrogen. They ran the lab experiments under different temperatures and found that similar star-like patterns formed even under extremely cold temperatures (-100°C), supporting the idea that a subsurface brine reservoir could have erupted after an impact and spread through Europa’s porous surface ice.
Europa has long been of interest to both scientists and science fiction writers in terms of its potential habitability.(5) The current study, based on data supplied by the Galileo spacecraft in 1998, represents another step in the quest to determine whether Europa’s subsurface ocean might support some kind of life. “Using numerical modelling of the brine reservoir, we obtained constraints on the reservoir potential depth (up to 3.7miles below the surface) and lifetime (up to a few thousands of years post-impact),” Lesage said. “This is valuable information for future missions looking for habitable environments within icy shells.”(6) Indeed, the science team is avidly awaiting higher-resolution imagery from the Europa Clipper mission, a NASA spacecraft scheduled to arrive at the Jupiter system in April 2030.
Until next month,
Grace
Grace Wolf-Chase (she/her/hers) (gwolfchase@gmail.com)
Senior Scientist & Senior Education & Communication Specialist, Planetary Science Institute (www.psi.edu/about/staffpage/gwchase)
Vice President, Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science (CASIRAS: www.casiras.org)1. https://www.psi.edu/staff/profile/elodie-lesage/
2. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ae18a0
3. https://www.psi.edu/blog/europas-spider-like-features-and-the-potential-for-life/
4. https://astrobiology.com/2025/12/europas-spider-like-features-and-the-potential-for-life.html
5. e.g., see https://www.theclergyletterproject.org/pdf/abnews122019.pdf
6. https://www.psi.edu/blog/europas-spider-like-features-and-the-potential-for-life/
3. Support for Science by Members of the Clergy is Evolving
I’m proud to say that I was invited to write an essay discussing the scientific perspective of religious leaders by the editor of BioScience, a publication of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, for their issue commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Scopes Trial. The Rev. Rex Hunt, a member of The Clergy Letter Project, joined me in this effort. I hope you’re as pleased with our efforts as we are. You may be able to read the piece here, although it’s behind a paywall I was unable to afford to lift! I’m also posting an almost final draft here for those of you who are unable to get past the paywall.4. Faith. Climate Crisis. Action.
The Reverend Jessica Hetherington, a climate theologian from Canada and one of The Clergy Letter Project’s newest members, publishes an important, thoughtful blog entitled “Faith. Climate Crisis. Action.” I’m confident that her work will resonate with virtually all of you. You can access her site here.
5. The First Stars
The title of a provocative article in Scientific American says it all: “JWST May Have Seen the First Stars in the Universe.” You can read this interesting piece here.
6. Faithful Women in Science
Our friends at Science for the Church published an interesting article by Rebecca Randell entitled “Faithful Women in Science. Rebecca opens her essay by stating, “Over my years as a journalist, I’ve interviewed many Christian women who work in science. It’s important to me to recognize more women in science because I believe that God created women uniquely, giving them experiences and perspectives allow them to see God’s world in ways that benefit and contribute to science.” You can read the full piece here.
7. Saints and Science
In his latest article published by Science for the Church, Drew Rick-Miller, a member of The Clergy Letter Project, introduces us “to four scientists whose work can prepare us for the holiday season.” You can read his piece here.
8. Support for Creationism Creeps Upward in Canada
Our good friends at The National Center for Science Education have reported on a study showing a slight uptick in acceptance of creationism in Canada. They note, “Support for teaching creationism in Canada's public schools increased slightly in the last year and a half, according to a new poll, even though almost two thirds of Canadians agree that human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years.” You can read their piece here.
9. Publicly Funded Anti-Evolution Textbooks
AI.com published an article reporting on the fact that public funds in Alabama are paying for textbooks that attack evolution, including one that has a section entitled “Evolution, a Destructive Faith." The books also include “materials that downplay slavery, teach that humans lived among dinosaurs, and state that rock music and mental health issues are ‘signs of rebellion.’” You can read the article here.
10. Beauty, Fertility and Submission
What does a leading Christian nationalist pastor think of women and marriage? An article in Chron notes that he argues that “Christian women should lose 20 to 30 pounds if they're unmarried.” The article goes on to point out what he claims are the “three most valuable assets a woman brings into a marriage." These three are "beauty, fertility, and submission." Frightening and depressing. You can read the article here.
11. A 20-Year Retrospective on the Intelligent Design Trial
Monya Baker, senior editor at Issues in Science and Technology, published a 20-year retrospective on Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the trial that ruled the teaching of intelligent design to be a promotion of one religious perspective. Her detailed analysis can be found here.
12. Opting Out of Evolution Education
The latest free issue of Reports of The National Center for Science Education is filled with great stories. One that deserves your attention is entitled “Will a New Supreme Court Decision Encourage Opting Out of Evolution?” You can access the issue here.
13. An Unholy Trinity of Science, Religion and Politics
Susan Barreto, editor of Covalence and a good friend of The Clergy Letter Project, has a thoughtful piece in this month’s issue entitled “An Unholy Trinity of Science, Religion and Politics.” You can see what she has to say here.
14. Text With Jesus
A brief article in Axios discusses the ways that a growing number of clergy are making use of AI to reach out to congregants including a “text with Jesus” app and a “Rabbi Bot.” Sounds crazy to me! What do you think? You can read the piece here.
15. AI Has Become a Technology of Faith
This gift article from The Atlantic discusses Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington’s latest endeavor: a chatbot designed to help people suffering from all sorts of maladies. The author, Charlie Warzel, isn’t buying their hype. The piece is well worth your time and you can read it here.
16. Deepak Chopra's AI Spirituality is Hijacking Spiritual Hunger
Liz Bucar, a professor of religion at Northeastern University, wrote an op-ed piece published by Religion News Service that discusses her interactions with Deepak Chopra’s latest endeavor, where readers, for 50 cents per 30-minute session, or $10 a month, can ask Digital Deepak about their purpose, their fears, their path forward. After being distressed by the AI’s willingness to dismiss Chopra’s connection to Jeffrey Epstein, Bucar concludes by noting, “Real spiritual transformation requires friction. The discomfort of community. The challenge of tradition. The accountability of other humans who see you clearly and love you anyway. The ethical commitments that constrain your choices and force you to change. AI can’t provide any of that. It can only simulate intimacy while collecting data and generating revenue.” Her essay can be read here.
17. Why Clergy Should Risk Assault to Protest ICE
Religion News Service published a powerful op-ed essay by the Rev. Michael Woolf discussing how he was shot in the leg with a pepper ball by Illinois State Police while protesting outside the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois. He explains why his faith demands that he persists in these protests and asserts, “For people wanting to experience God, we are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church.” You can read his essay here.
18. Veterans and the View from Air Force One
The Rev. Ken Olson, a member of The Clergy Letter Project and a frequent contributor to this newsletter, has shared another one of his wonderful essays with us. Beyond his erudition and deep sense of humanity present in each of his pieces, I’m truly impressed that he continues to publish them in his local Montana newspaper, not a location known for its liberal sentiments. You can read his latest essay here.
19. Creationism in California Middle School
A middle school teacher in California has been teaching creationism as a fact as well as “sacred geometry.” The Freedom From Religious Foundation got involved to protect all students from this kind of extreme religious proselytizing. You can read more about the situation here.
20. Dealing with Creationism in UK Schools
With an uptick in anti-evolution beliefs in the UK, there is now a discussion about how best to deal with the topic in schools. This article in The Independent makes for interesting reading. You can look at it here.
Concluding Thoughts
Some recent polling suggests that we are falling further and further into the Dark Ages with a growing percentage of the population, at least those that self-identify as Republicans, believing that the moon landings were fake and that evolution is not real. Clearly our work is far from being done. Amid this disdain for science, we have supposedly religious people taking positions that run contrary to the basic principles of every one of the world’s major religions. Again, clearly our work is far from being done. And we have a government that is killing people from South America without trials, deporting people from the United States, ripping them away from their families and often from the only homes they have ever known, for years-old traffic infractions or for no ostensible reason at all, incarcerating more children than ever before, terrorizing many citizens, working to destabilize our international allies, and sliding ever more quickly into fascism. Yet again, our work is far from being done. In this holiday season, I wish all of you and your families nothing but the best and hope that, together, we can push back against an immoral regime and bring a sense of well-being to those with whom we share the planet. That so many of you are on this journey with me means a great deal. Thank you for all you do.
Finally, as I do every month, I urge you to take one simple action. Please share this month’s Newsletter with a colleague or two (or post a link via any social media platform you use) and ask them to add their voices to those promoting a deep and meaningful understanding between religion and science. They can add their signatures to one of our Clergy Letters simply by dropping me a note at mz@theclergyletterproject.org. Spread the word; change the world. Together we are making a difference.
Michael
Michael Zimmerman
Founder and Executive Director
The Clergy Letter Project
www.theclergyletterproject.org
mz@theclergyletterproject.org
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