August 2025 Newsletter
In this Clergy Letter Project update you’ll find the following 20 items:
- Religion and Science Weekend 2026;
- Across the Cosmos for August 2025: Images From the James Webb Space Telescope;
- The Role of Truth in Science and Judaism;
- Christian Nationalists Misread the Bible;
- Reflections on Creation;
- The Reckless End Times Theology of Pastor John MacArthur;
- Free Progressive Religious Music;
- Permitting Politicized Congregations;
- Church Calls for Gays to Be Executed;
- Truth, Freedom and Hope in the Shape of Courage;
- Some Good News From Texas;
- The Scopes Trial Review I;
- The Scopes Trial Review II;
- The Scopes Trial Review III;
- The Scopes Trial Review IV;
- The Scopes Trial Review V;
- The Scopes Trial Review VI;
- The Scopes Trial Review VII;
- Comparing US and British Views on Evolution; and
- On Imperialism, Past and Present
1. Religion and Science Weekend 2026
Religion and Science Weekend 2026 is scheduled to take place on 13-15 February 2026 and it is now time to begin deciding upon a theme for this year’s celebration. Please think about possible compelling themes and send your ideas to me. After collecting them, I’ll share them with all of you to vote on next year’s theme. In the meantime, please let me know that you plan to participate in Religion and Science Weekend so I can begin to build our webpage listing all participants. I very much look forward to hearing from you. Thanks much!
2. Across the Cosmos for August 2025: Images From the James Webb Space Telescope
I’m very sorry to say that due to events out of her control, Grace Wolf-Chase was not able to share a column with all of us this month. In place of her usual wonderful thoughts I’ve opted to share this link to fabulous images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Enjoy!
3. The Role of Truth in Science and Judaism
You’ll not want to miss this engaging video entitled “The Role of Truth in Science and Judaism” produced by Sinai and Synapses in cooperation with Fourth Line Films. Given how central the message in the video is to the mission of The Clergy Letter Project, you might want to use this as a jumping off point for your Religion and Science Weekend 2026 activities. You can access the video here.
4. Christian Nationalists Misread the Bible
The title of a recent article in the Baptist News (“10 Bible verses Christian nationalists take out of context to seize power”) explains its content perfectly! It’s worth reading. You can access the piece here.
5. Reflections on Creation
Our good friends at Sinai and Synapses, working with Fourth Line Films, have created a fabulous video offering reflections on creation. The video is described as addressing the following point: “Judaism and spirituality can help us understand things that are too big for the human intellect to usually take on – like space, time, eternity, and the relationship between them.” You can watch the video here.
6. The Reckless End Times Theology of Pastor John MacArthur
The Reverend John MacArthur, the deeply fundamentalist pastor who promoted defiance to all Covid-19 protections, who denied the dangers of the virus, and who famously said, speaking about our planet, that “God intended it as a disposable planet,” passed away on 14 July 2025. After his death, Paul Braterman, frequent contributor to this newsletter and a member of The Clergy Letter Project’s list of scientific consultants, posted an undated version of an essay he wrote about MacArthur. You can read his thoughtful comments here.
7. Free Progressive Religious Music
Amanda Udis-Kessler defines her work as “Writing at the intersection of progressive religion, sociology, ethics, and social justice; writing to support human flourishing and ease human suffering.” She also composes incredibly moving sacred music which she encourages people to use for free. Her website, which includes an extensive collection of compositions that I suspect you’ll find useful, can be accessed here.
8. Permitting Politicized Congregations
Mother Jones recently ran an article discussing the ruling by the IRS permitting religious entities to endorse political candidates. The piece is entitled “Trump’s IRS Gives Christian Nationalists a Big Boost.” You can read the article here. Rolling Stone also covered the IRS decision, but with a slightly different take. Their article is entitled “IRS Rules Churches Can Endorse Candidates. A Progressive Pastor Says That's Great,” with the ”progressive pastor” in the title being Doug Pagitt, the executive director of Vote Common Good and a member of The Clergy Letter Project. You can read the article here.
9.
To give you a sense of just how extreme the religious right can be, I’m sharing a terribly distressing article about an Indiana clergy member who, along with his congregation, has called for the Trump regime to execute gay Americans. Please don’t ignore sentiments like this. They need to be taken seriously and countered. You can read the article here.
10. Truth, Freedom and Hope in the Shape of Courage
The Reverend Jim Antal, Special Advisor on Climate Justice to the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ and a member of The Clergy Letter Project, has posted a sermon he recently delivered at the Strafford, VT United Church of Christ. The sermon is entitled “Connecting Spirituality to the Events of our Time” and is described by Jim as follows: “A sermon connecting spirituality to action, the world around us, and the events of our time, drawing inspiration from Henri Nouwen, William Sloan Coffin and Cameron Trimble.” I suspect you’ll want to read it, which you can do here.
11. Some Good News From Texas
With so many distressing things going on in Texas, here, finally, is a bit of good news. As you’ll see in this news report published in The 74, a number of public-school districts in the state have begun to walk away, in whole or in part, from the Bible-infused curriculum being pushed by the state. You can read the article here.
12. The Scopes Trial Review I
As you likely know, this summer is the 100th anniversary of the Scopes Trial. An overwhelming number of articles have been published on the topic this month in recognition of the trial’s centennial. I’m sharing seven of these items with you this month. This first one is a piece written by the Rev. Dr. David Nikkel, emeritus professor of religion at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and a member of The Clergy Letter Project. The piece is entitled "The Scopes Trial and Its Long Shadow" and it was published by the journal Religions. You can read his essay here.
13. The Scopes Trial Review II
The AP ran an interesting story entitled “A century after a man was convicted of teaching evolution, the debate on religion in schools rages.” You can read the article here.
14. The Scopes Trial Review III
ReligionUnplugged ran a story entitled “100 Years Since The Scopes Trial: Evolution, Religion and America’s Classroom Conflicts.” You can read the article here.
15. The Scopes Trial Review IV
Paul Braterman, frequent contributor to this newsletter and a member of The Clergy Letter Project’s list of scientific consultants, posted an essay on Panda’s Thumb, entitled “The Worst Scopes Article Ever.” It makes for great reading. You can access the piece here.
16. The Scopes Trial Review V
The Tennessean ran a story entitled “Trial of the century: Why 100 years later, the Scopes case still matters.” Included in this article were comments from Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education. You can read the story here.
17. The Scopes Trial Review VI
The National Center for Science Education is offering a free webinar series entitled “The Scopes 'Monkey' Trial: Past, Present, and Future." You can learn more about this great series and register to participate here.
18. The Scopes Trial Review VII
In an article entitled “With a massive ark and museum, he spreads creationism a century after Scopes trial. He’s not alone,” the AP provides an introduction to Ken Ham and the Creation Museum. Despite offering publicity both don’t deserve, the story provides some critical comments about creationism while describing the nature of the current evolution/creation controversy. You can read the article here.
19. Comparing US and British Views on Evolution
An article in The Conversationv discusses the reasons behind the somewhat surprising fact that while American’s in fairly large numbers doubt evolution, the same isn’t true in Britian. You can read the article here.
20. On Imperialism, Past and Present
The Rev. Ken Olson, a member of The Clergy Letter Project and a frequent contributor to this newsletter, has shared two more of his provocative short essays with us. The first is entitled “On Imperialism, Past and Present” and the second is entitled “Not Seeing the Gorilla.” Both offer thoughtful reflections on the state of current society and are worthy of your time. You can access the first essay here and the second piece here.
Concluding Thoughts
This has been another terribly troubling month with Russia’s war in Ukraine continuing with more civilians being killed than ever, the horrors in Gaza escalating into mass starvation coupled with the killing of non-combatants simply looking for humanitarian aid, and environmental devastation, including deadly floods and fires, arising all over the globe. Democracy is being assaulted, often in the name of religion, and science is being undermined, often by those in power. Our collective efforts to explain that what is currently being done has no basis in the religious beliefs we hold dear and that we are all being put at risk when we ignore science, is more important than ever. I appreciate your efforts and hope you continue to speak truth to power.
On the positive side, I’m delighted to say that signatures on our Climate Crisis Letter have expanded to include clergy from 18 countries, up from 16 last month. If your signature has not yet been added, please let me know. And, if you could reach out to colleagues who might want to sign on but who haven’t (especially those from countries not yet represented – check our list here), that would be absolutely fabulous!
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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