This morning in religion:
-- The controversy over the Rev. Louie Giglio continues even after he formally bows out of the inauguration. At Religion Dispatches, Sarah Posner asks how President Barack Obama's didn't anticipate the uproar over the pastor, and unpacks what it means for religion in the Obama administration and the Democratic party in the U.S. today.
-- The flare up over Giglio was over his comments on the "aggressive agenda" of the gay rights movement and his views that its a sin to have sex with someone of the same gender. A new Lifeway Research poll finds that a decreasing number of Americans share that view.
-- In addition to religion, I focus on covering death and end-of-life issues. Here's a fascinating piece in CNN about how Americans are "getting sicker and dying younger" than their international peers on other developed nations. Related: an earlier piece in the New York Times emphasized that that "younger Americans die earlier and live in poorer health than their counterparts in other developed countries, with far higher rates of death from guns, car accidents and drug addiction."
-- Flu season is well under way. In order to prevent infection, the Archdiocese of Boston is telling priests they can stop using a shared chalice for communion wine and that parishioners can bow instead of shaking hands when wishing each other peace.