Waters: Health officials pushing pastors to keep pews empty
The pressure to move all church gatherings online has set off a tense debate about whether canceling on-site services is an act of faith or a betrayal of it.
David Waters
Investigative reporter
David Waters is Distinguished Journalist in Residence and assistant director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis.
There are 125 articles by David Waters :
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April 2020
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Coronavirus
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March 2020
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Guest Columnists Waters: A bishop’s long Lent in coronavirus quarantine
Rev. Brad Whitaker was Hamilton County’s first confirmed COVID-19 case. Church leaders and county health officials began notifying anyone who had come in contact with him. That list included Bishop Phoebe Roaf of the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee.
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Coronavirus Waters: As shelters close and cheap motels fill, city’s homeless struggle to find sanctuary in a pandemic
It’s difficult for a woman to find space at a homeless shelter in Memphis. It’s nearly impossible for her to find shelter with her teenage son, even under normal circumstances. Efforts to mitigate the spread of coronavirus have caused nearly all of the city’s homeless shelters to close, partially or entirely.
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Spirit of Memphis Waters: Lenten preparations in a pandemic
Typical Sunday attendance is about 70 at Trinity United Methodist Church, about 40 at Shiloh United Methodist in Fayette County. Their virtual worship service had 400 views on Trinity’s page and 322 on Shiloh’s page.
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LIVE
CoronavirusCoronavirus daily blog, March 20: Graceland closing through at least April 3
The total number of Shelby County cases is up to 30, and Shelby County Schools is scrapping its plan to provide lunches for students due to a Central Nutrition Center employee testing positive for COVID-19.
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Guest Columnists Waters: As pandemic advances, faith leaders embrace worship services for the digital age
“One of our biggest challenges is that many people don’t believe in the seriousness of this pandemic,” Catholic Bishop David Talley told colleagues in a webinar. “Please believe in what science is saying. This is not the devil. This is what science is telling us.”
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Coronavirus Coronavirus daily blog, March 19: Tipton County records first COVID-19 case
Mayor Jim Strickland announces churches, dine-in restaurants and gyms must close.
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Metro Synagogues, churches, mosques join in urging online-only services
“The people who are most vulnerable to COVID-19 are those over 60, those with significant chronic disease issues, and those who medications compromise their immune systems,” said Dr. Scott Morris. “Those are the people who go to church.”
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February 2020
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Premium
MetroWith six kids in college, refugee family works while others wait
Faith-based agencies in 2019 resettled the fewest refugees in Tennessee in more than two decades. The numbers likely will be even lower this year. Meanwhile, some legislators are challenging Gov. Bill Lee’s decision to continue participating in the nation’s 40-year-old refugee resettlement program.
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Binghampton’s Promise
Part three of a three-part series from the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis
The Pride of Binghampton: The success of Binghampton's bold 30-year development plan hinges on its remarkable nonprofit and faith-based support system. -
Health Care Scientists report gains in treating kids suffering chronic trauma
A new therapy is a possible breakthrough in treating children who have suffered significant abuse, neglect, exposure to violence and other adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs.
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January 2020
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Guest Columnists Waters: They came to learn Greek, and stayed for Father Vieron
Monday, for the first time in 48 years, Rev. Nicholas Vieron will not conduct his annual Adult Greek Class, a Memphis tradition. His mind and soul are willing. His body, not so much these days.
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October 2019
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Metro Binghampton’s Promise
Part one of a three-part series from the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis
The 100-year-old neighborhood in the middle of Memphis always seems to be under construction and duress, but the people who live and work there still believe in its promise.
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Metro Binghampton’s Promise
Part two of a three-part series from the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis
A TIF Grows in Binghampton: Residents have invested their lives in Binghampton, and they want a say in how their property taxes are reinvested in their neighborhood.
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Premium
EducationMemphis brainpower counters attacks of trauma, distress on adolescents
In Part One of our three-part series: Pediatricians and nurses at LeBonheur and psychologists at UTHSC screen children for poverty and trauma, and prescribe social services to help them.
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September 2019
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Hearing is believing: kids benefit from Memphis audiology research
In Part Three of our series: Audiologists at U of M are pioneering new methods of diagnosing and treating children with hidden, brain-based auditory deficits that disrupt learning and behavior.
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Metro Memphis wired for advanced exploration of trauma on young brains
In Part Two of our series: U of M and UTHSC scientists use non-invasive "brain training" to treat developmental trauma.
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August 2019
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In case you missed it: Memphis’ third-grade reading crisis
A three-part series from The Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis explores the challenges and possible solutions to improving third-grade reading proficiency locally.
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Pressure is on SCS to fulfill pledge, close third-grade literacy gap
Special Report: Memphis' Reading Test
PART 1: Meeting goals for third-grade reading proficiency in Tennessee is a daunting task unless dramatic improvements occur in Shelby County, where the hurdles are high and the challenges complex. And in Memphis, a city where nearly four in five children in public schools aren't reading on grade level, the undertaking is monumental.
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May 2019
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Spirit of Memphis Waters: A couple say farewell to Memphis after ‘grueling but healing’ work on the Lynching Sites Project
Randall Mullins and Sharon Pavelda founded a project to identify and memorialize lynching sites in Shelby County, and helped create a community of supporters, from the National Park Service to the local NAACP, preachers and politicians, activists and academics.
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Education Third-grade goals putting SCS teachers to the test
PART 2: High-stakes testing has shifted the focus of kindergarten from what's developmentally appropriate to get kids ready for school, to what's academically required to prepare students for their first standardized achievement tests in third grade.
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Education Costly failures come with lesson: Reading success begins at birth
PART 3: Billions of government and philanthropic dollars have funded new curricula and standardized tests, teacher evaluation systems, charter schools and takeover schools. But it hasn't made much of a dent in the third-grade reading gap or any other measures of student performance.
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Opinion Waters: A pastor and a prophet departs Idlewild
Since Steve Montgomery arrived here from Atlanta in 2000, he has played a role as pastor to the entire community. No one has done more to extend "radical hospitality," as theologian Henri Nouwen called it.
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Metro ‘A child of God like everyone else’ makes history in the Episcopal Diocese
Phoebe Roaf didn't see a woman wearing a clergy collar until she was in her 20s, and didn't wear one herself until she was 41. On Saturday, she became the first female and African-American to serve as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee.
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March 2019
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Guest Columnists Waters: For Kilzer, triumph and tragedy were all there in the music
John will be lamented and loved as a survivor and casualty of addiction, a saint and sinner, a gentle and tormented soul whose life and death, head and heart, darkness and light were a parable, a revelation, a psalm.
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