The Weekly is a rundown of news by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission highlighting the week’s top news stories from the public square and providing commentary on the big issues of our day.

What You Should Know About Hurricane Harvey

Last weekend the area around Houston, Texas was struck by Hurricane Harvey, a storm which continues to leave devastating rainfall and flooding in its wake. Here are several facts and figures to help put this natural disaster in perspective:

• Harvey was the strongest storm to hit Texas since the 1960s. Harvey has made landfall three times since Friday, once as a hurricane and twice more as a tropical storm.

• The highest gust reported on land during this storm was recorded at 132 mph in Port Aransas, Texas.

• Harvey has produced the greatest amount of rainfall ever recorded in the continental United States from a single storm. A rain gauge near Cedar Bayou, about 40 miles east of Houston, has registered 51.88 inches of rainfall as of 9 pm CDT on Wednesday. (60 inches of rain is considered a once-in-a-million-year event.) Average rainfall totals will end up around 40 inches for Houston.

• The total amount of rain that fell on the Houston area since the storm made landfall is estimated to be 20 trillion gallons.

• If the amount of rainfall that had fallen on Texas by Sunday was spread over the city limits of New Orleans, it would reach to 128 feet in height—roughly reaching as high as a 12-story office building.

• If the rain had been snow it would have been the equivalent of nearly 210 inches, or 17.5 feet of snowfall.

• The storm has affected about 6.8 million people in 18 counties, a quarter of the Texas population. The Texas Education Agency estimates more than one million students in the state's public school system have been affected by the storm, and 200 of the state’s 1,200 school districts have had some sort of closures this week.

• An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 homes have been destroyed in the Houston area alone.

• All of Texas’s National Guard, 24,000 troops, have been deployed in the state. As of Thursday, the National Guard has made 8,500 rescues, evacuated 26,000 people and done 1,400 shelter-in-place welfare checks in Texas so far. Currently, there are 32,000 people in shelters throughout the state.

• As of Thursday, 40 people have been arrested in Harris County for looting.

• More than 1,800 staff members, one million meals, one million liters of water, 20,000 tarps, and 70 generators have been deployed to Texas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA has also deployed 14 urban search and rescue teams, 65 mobile emergency response support staff and 10 mobile communications office vehicles.

• As of Wednesday, the storm has been responsible for at least 38 deaths.

Click here to learn more about how you can help victims of Hurricane Harvey.

This week on ERLC podcasts: On the Capitol Conversations podcast, Senator Ben Sasse joins Russell Moore to discuss parenting, education, and vocation in an era of historic disruptions in the workforce. 

Other Issues

American Culture

Boaters from around the country helping with water rescues in flood-ravaged Texas
Julia Jacobo and Gio Benitez, ABC News

Boaters from around the country helping with water rescues in flood-ravaged Texas

Facebook has more people than any major religion except Christianity
Michael J. Coren, Quartz

The number of Facebook monthly users has surpassed the followers of Islam, and is closing in on the most numerous religion, Christianity.

Bioethics

Iceland Capital’s Only Baptist Pastor Doesn’t Want Down Syndrome Eliminated
Gunnar Ingi Gunnarsson, Christianity Today

Pro-life minority faces major challenge in ‘most godless country’ in Europe.

Colorado case spotlights divorce dilemma on frozen embryos
Shannon Levitt, Crux

After Sofia Vergara's court battle over frozen embryos made news, other cases are coming to light. In Colorado one woman is fighting to keep her embryos for future implantation while her ex-husband wants them to be destroyed.

South Carolina governor ends funding of abortion clinics
Catholic News Service

Citing South Carolina’s “strong culture and longstanding tradition of protecting and defending the life and liberty of the unborn,” Gov. Henry McMaster has instructed state agencies to stop all forms of funding to any practice affiliated with an abortion clinic. His order also directs the state Health and Human Services Department to request waivers allowing the agency to stop funding abortion clinics through South Carolina’s Medicaid provider network.

The Ethics Issue Blocking Organ Transplant Research
Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic

Doctors have a short window of time to experiment on brain-dead donors to improve procedures—and that's if they can get permission.

Christianity and Culture

Southern Baptists talk sex, LGBT issues at parenting conference
Holly Meyer, The Tennessean

Last year, an elementary school classmate came out as a transgender boy to Dean Inserra's fourth grade son. So, the Southern Baptist pastor turned it into a teachable moment.

TRUSTEES: ERLC seeking to equip churches
Tom Strode, Baptist Press

The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is committed to equipping churches to produce justice, holiness and reconciliation with the Gospel of Jesus, Russell Moore told the entity's trustees at their annual board meeting.

Died: Michael Cromartie, the Church’s Ambassador to Washington
Kate Shellnutt, Christianity Today

The late DC leader is remembered for his integrity, friendship, and bridge-building between Christians and the media.

Family Issues

ERLC conf. urges parents to be models for children
Tom Strode, Baptist Press

Christian parents must seek to be what they want their children to become, a sellout audience was told during the final two days of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission's 2017 national conference.

International Issues

Child suicide bombings by Boko Haram at all-time high
Diana Chandler, Baptist Press

Boko Haram's abuse of children as suicide bombers is at an all-time high in the Lake Chad region including northeast Nigeria and neighboring countries, UNICEF said Aug. 22.

Religious Liberty

Trump’s Justice Department Still Defending Obama Contraception Mandate
Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal

Advocates for religious liberty are dismayed that little has changed with respect to the Obamacare contraceptive mandate, even after President Donald Trump signed a religious freedom executive order earlier this year.

Sexuality Issues

Evangelicals counter 'agree to disagree' sexuality
Tom Strode, Baptist Press

A coalition of evangelical leaders, including about 70 Southern Baptists, has issued a statement on biblical sexuality countering the idea that Christians "should agree to disagree" in their views of homosexual practice and transgenderism.

California Could Start Jailing People Who Don’t Use Transgender Pronouns
Anders Hagstrom, The Daily Caller

A bill that passed the California state senate and is now moving through the Assembly could threaten jail time for anyone who refuses to use a transgender person’s preferred pronoun.

Mattis: For now, transgender troops can keep serving
Catherine Garcia, The Week

Defense Secretary James Mattis announced on Tuesday that transgender troops can continue to serve in the military, pending the results of a study conducted by a group of experts in the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.