A version of this article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night.
Welcome back to the State of Faith, and welcome to 2026, which is already off to an eventful start.
Zohran Mamdani made history as the first Muslim mayor of New York City, among other historic firsts, and took his oath of office with his hand on multiple copies of the Quran, including a rare centuries-old edition. The ceremony included a fervent prayer by Imam Khalid Latif, who stood alongside several of the city’s faith leaders. Shortly after, Mamdani canceled executive orders, including one that broadened the city’s definition of antisemitism and another that prohibited city employees and agencies from boycotting or divesting from Israel.
Following President Donald Trump’s capture of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Pope Leo expressed concern and called for the sovereignty of Venezuela and “ensuring the rule of law enshrined in the Constitution, respecting the human and civil rights of each person and of all.” The country’s Catholic bishops asked for the decisions to “always be for the good of our people.” Some Venezuelan Christians expressed relief. “As Venezuelan Christians, we are often asked how we reconcile the command to love our enemies with the immense relief we feel today,” one told The Christian Chronicle.
These moments show how faith communities grapple with the tension between faith-informed moral principles and lived reality.
This tension was also evident in another message from Pope Leo to an audience of Italian mayors, in which he chose to bring attention to gambling. He condemned the pastime and said that it’s seen a sharp rise in recent years in Italy.
“Unfortunately, our cities know forms of marginalization, violence and loneliness that demand to be confronted. I would like to draw attention, in particular, to the scourge of gambling, which ruins many families,” Pope Leo said in his address.
Analysis by Caritas, a Catholic organization that produces research on social conditions in Italy, reported that the gambling sector in the nation has surged from 35 billion euros in 2006 to 157 billion euros in 2024, all while tax revenues increased more modestly from 6 billion euros to 11 billion euros, lagging far behind the sector’s overall growth. Gamblers also lost about 20 billion euros in 2024, the report said, with strong regional disparities, according to iGaming. Across 10 regions, the average loss per person exceeded the national average of 493 euros per person — many of them in southern Italy and the islands, areas particularly vulnerable to poverty.
Pope Leo connected gambling to deeper societal issues: “We cannot forget other forms of loneliness that many people suffer from: mental disorders, depression, cultural and spiritual poverty, and social abandonment.” He went on: “To bear effective witness to it, politics is called upon to weave authentically human relationships among citizens, promoting social peace.”
It’s necessary for authorities “to embody the virtues of humility, honesty and sharing,” he said. He emphasized that public service depends on attentive listening, which infuses humility, honesty and solidarity into action.
The pope’s message is relevant to the United States as well. Total commercial gambling revenue reached about $72 billion in 2024, up 8% from the previous year, and it’s mostly driven by legalized sports betting and online gambling. Digital gaming revenue is now outpacing traditional casinos. Lottery jackpots also made headlines: Michigan Lottery created dozens of millionaires, including a near-$33 million win, according to Huron Daily Tribune. Powerball and Mega Millions offered historic prizes approaching $1.7 billion.
Faith leaders in the U.S. have examined why gambling is harmful for society and the spirit. In 2005, two years before the first iPhone, President Gordon B. Hinckley, then president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke against playing poker, betting on horses and dog races, roulette and slot machines. “And so very many of those who become involved cannot afford the money it takes. In many cases it robs wives and children of financial security,” he said.
In 1987, then-Elder Dallin H. Oaks titled a Brigham Young University—Idaho talk on the subject: “Gambling — Morally Wrong and Politically Unwise.”
More recently, the United Methodist Church’s Book of Resolutions has called gambling a “menace to society” that undermines moral, social, economic and spiritual life. Catholic bishops in Minnesota urged lawmakers not to expand sports betting and in New York, about 30 local faith leaders publicly opposed a proposed casino project. Leaders said that gambling preys on people’s time and money and creates harmful illusions of wealth rather than benefiting the community.
Gambling and faith intersect in ways that go beyond money. From a spiritual perspective, gambling shifts trust from responsible stewardship and ethical decision-making to the randomness of chance. “Gambling is motivated by a desire to get something for nothing,” as the Church of Jesus Christ has put it.
And this chase can often lead to addiction, fractured families and eroded social trust. In the end, the cost of that gamble may be far greater than a potential reward.
Fresh off the press
- Zohran Mamdani’s Muslim faith was front and center during his inauguration ceremony.
- As Ukraine is pummeled by missiles, my parents return to their war-torn home.
- Why you should talk about faith at the dinner table.
Ross Douthat on Deseret Voices
In a recent conversation on the Deseret Voices podcast, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat talked with McKay Coppins about the openness in American culture to religion after decades of secularization, a shift that according to Douthat is driven by disillusionment with New Atheism, political despair and a renewed fascination with the mystical and supernatural.
In his latest book “Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious,” Douthat, who is a Roman Catholic, makes a rational case for faith. He points to unresolved mysteries of consciousness, the limits of materialism and the persistence of religious experience.
When Coppins asked Douthat why people should be Christian, here’s what he said:
“Ideally, when you look for a church or a religion, you’re looking for something that offers itself as the place that seems like the most important place where God stepped in, sent a message, right, delivered a revelation. And you can say, there have been a lot of revelations, and God has revealed himself in lots of different times and places, but you’re looking for the one that you think is the most important one. That can be then the kind of controlling revelation that you use to interpret the rest of the religious data. And, you know, again, allowing for my own inherent biases as someone who was raised Christian in a Christian culture and so on, I just think there’s a really, really strong case for that being the story of Jesus of Nazareth, the four Gospels, the New Testament, the story of his life, death and alleged resurrection. ...
“Crucifixion and resurrection looms very large. But I also think just the historical events themselves are the accounts, the narratives, the presentation, are extremely credible. ...
“The weight of evidence suggests that these Gospels are what they purport to be, they’re eyewitness or close to eyewitness accounts of events that a lot of people experienced and that have at their center, this crazy event, the resurrection that, you know, cries out for an explanation and doesn’t have a great one if you think it didn’t happen.
“So I could go on further, but that’s the basic argument that there is something historically distinctive and distinctive in historical credibility about the New Testament that, for me, stands out starkly among the religious competitors.
“Doesn’t mean that God isn’t present in other revelations and other religious texts. But if you’re looking for a moment when you know God reaches in and sort of grabs you by the lapels and says, OK, listen to me, and now do this, I think that’s it. I think that’s the place.”
Last year, I had lunch with Douthat in New Haven to talk about his book, and wrote this profile.
What I’m reading
- President Jeffrey R. Holland — Latter-day Saint apostle, defender of the faith and ‘pastoral genius’ — dies at age 85 — Deseret News
- Reporters at RNS share religion stories they are planning to follow in 2026. On the list are the 250th anniversary of the United States, Gen Z and spirituality, antisemitism in the U.S. and faith leaders’ responses to Trump’s deportations. — RNS
- Although the clerical abuse in the Catholic church has faded from headlines, it remains a defining factor in the U.S. Catholic Church’s steep decline, as it continues to lose cradle Catholics at growing rates. — Tablet
- How can we be more hopeful in the new year? Lauren Jackson at The New York Times has some tips. — The New York Times
- This is a rich portrait of a small town in Greenland, where the generations-old tradition of hunting polar bears that once sustained its people is slowly ebbing away. — The New Yorker
End notes
During Sunday school at church this week, a fellow congregant excitedly shared how ChatGPT was helping him study the Old Testament. He had asked the AI-powered tool to explain the context behind convoluted stories and unpack the Hebrew meaning of specific words. The result, he said, was a richer and more rewarding experience with a part of the Bible that often feels confusing or inaccessible.
“I can access stuff that was locked behind 12 Ph.D.s,” he said.
Have you turned to AI — chatbots, Bible apps or tools like ChatGPT — to help make sense of spiritual questions or scripture? I’d love to hear about your experiences and what you took away from them. Send a note to: mmanzhos@deseret.com.