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Like others with DACA status, United Methodist pastor faces uncertain future

Orlando Gallardo was 15 when his mother decided it was worth the risk to send her youngest child across the border of Mexico to give him a chance at a better future.

“My mother always worried about me; she pushed me to get an education,” he said.

Gallardo had an older brother who was a U.S. citizen living in Iowa. He agreed to take parental rights and responsibilities for his youngest brother and filed the papers to get legal status for Gallardo.

Iranian dissident, a Duke professor, rushes return to U.S. in fear of another travel ban

Iranian dissident Mohsen Kadivar had begun what he expected would be a semester-long fellowship at Berlin’s Wissenschaftskolleg to work on a book. Instead, he returned to the United States on February 16.

Kadivar, a research professor in Duke University’s Department of Religious Studies, is a permanent resident of the United States. But immigration lawyers and Duke University administrators advised him to return in anticipation of another executive order barring travel for nationals of Iran and several other predominantly Muslim countries.

Muslim students join lawsuits against Trump

c. 2017 Religion News Service

LOS ANGELES (RNS) Despite President Trump’s threat of a “Muslim ban” during the 2016 campaign, Hadil Mansoor Al-Mowafak, a 20-year-old international affairs student at Stanford University, was taken aback when he banned travel from seven Muslim countries including Yemen, where her husband lives.

“I didn’t think it was even possible,” Al-Mowafak said. “I thought he just used the Muslim ban during his campaign and once he took power he’d face reality.”

Muslim groups raise funds to repair desecrated Jewish cemetery

c. 2017 St. Louis Post-Dispatch

UNIVERSITY CITY, Missouri — The damaging of dozens of headstones at a Jewish cemetery spurred Muslim groups to raise thousands of dollars to help with repairs.

A crowdfunding campaign started by social justice activists Linda Sarsour, of New York City, and Tarek El-Messidi, of Cincinnati, raised more than $20,000 within a few hours to help the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery after up to 200 headstones were toppled during the weekend. As of early Wednesday (February 22), the campaign had raised more than $55,000.

Christian aid group cuts staff members in wake of Trump’s executive order on refugees

World Relief has announced it will lay off more than 140 staff members and close five local offices as a “direct result” of President Trump’s order to more than halve the number of refugees resettled this year in the United States.

The Christian nonprofit is one of nine private agencies that contracts with the U.S. government to resettle refugees.

Polls say most Europeans want to ban Muslims from immigrating

When Americans demonstrated against President Trump’s recent entry ban on immigrants from seven mostly Muslim countries, marchers in London, Paris, Berlin, and other European cities quickly joined in the protest. The message from across the Atlantic seemed to be “we’re with you.”

The televised reports of the protests told only half the story, however. In fact, even less than half.

Neil Gorsuch, Supreme Court nominee, known to bioethicists as scholar on assisted dying

Neil Gorsuch of the Tenth U.S. Cir­cuit Court of Appeals, now the Su­preme Court nominee, is known as a scholar on physician-assisted dying.

Gorsuch, his wife, and two daughters attend St. John’s Episcopal Church in Boulder, Colorado.

Gorsuch is the author of The Fu­ture of Assisted Suicide and Eutha­nasia, which argues for maintaining laws against such practices. “All human beings are intrinsically valuable and the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong,” he wrote.

Frank Yamada to lead ATS after Daniel Aleshire retires

Frank M. Yamada, president of McCormick Theological Seminary, will be the next executive director of the Association of Theological Schools.

The ATS board unanimously voted to hire Yamada to lead the organization of more than 270 graduate schools in the United States and Canada. ATS’s work includes accred­itation and approving degree programs.

Yamada, an or­dained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), previously taught Hebrew Bible and directed McCormick’s Center for Asian American Ministries.

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Severe drought brings starving Kenyans to church doorsteps

When her pantry is empty, Agnes Mwikali walks down a dusty road to the local Roman Catholic Church mission. There, beyond the metal gate and the church garden where the crops are withering, she steps into the administration building and asks for a four-pound bag of cornmeal.

In Thatha, her home about 93 miles northeast of Nairobi, a severe drought has left many families without food, water, or pasture for their livestock. Mwikali, a 40-year-old mother, has watched as extreme temperatures have destroyed crops, drained water sources, and laid grazing fields to waste.