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Century Marks
Beyond Belief: All references to God in the Oscar-nominated movie The Queen have been bleeped out in a version distributed to Delta and some other airlines. The president of the distribution company said it was a mistake made by an overzealous employee who had been told to edit out all profanities and blasphemies (USA Today, January 25).
Taking the plunge: Immersed in theology
One of the privileges of studying theology within the clerical formation programs of the Catholic Church is that you get to study philosophy first. For at least three years. In retrospect, the true extent of the privilege becomes clearer: when it comes time to study theology, the pupil has been primed to interpret, to be able to remove words and concepts from the meaning foisted on them by the gut, to separate them from inherited baggage, and to begin to detect where contemporary religious ideology and real thought might begin to diverge, and how to follow the latter.
Lost boys: Sudanese refugees in limbo
A handful of the “lost boys of Sudan”—the 26,000 children who fled civil war on foot—are on the big screen endearing themselves to American audiences....
In gender debate, Jesus is 'subordinate' Evangelicals tinker with trinitarian doctrine: Evangelicals tinker with trinitarian doctrine
For centuries, the equality of the persons of the Holy Trinity has been standard Christian teaching. And for decades, evangelical Christians have argued over proper roles for men and women....
An enduring doctrine in Christianity: Coequal three persons of the Trinity
The coequal three persons of the Trinity—God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit—has been a central teaching of Christianity since the fourth century....
Justice, Homeland Security departments get religion training: Understanding religious minorities
The departments of Justice and Homeland Security have begun training employees to better understand and protect the civil liberties of American Muslims, Sikhs and other minority ethnic and religiou...
Faith leaders to Rice: Boost peace process: Interfaith team and State Department begin talks
A six-member interfaith team of Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to increase U.S....
British Catholics must accept gay couple law: Adoption agencies may close
The Roman Catholic Church has lost the fight to opt out of new laws in England and Wales banning discrimination against gay couples, throwing its adoption agencies into a bind....
Clerics defend Obama amid smear campaign: Condemn "bitter, destructive politics"
A host of religious leaders have condemned “the bitter, destructive politics” that they say produced a political smear campaign against Senator Barack Obama (D., Ill.), who is preparing a run for ...
Baptist professor offers her version of dismissal: Klouda says gender was the reason
A female professor of Hebrew who was denied tenure at a Southern Baptist seminary says she was told by its president that her gender was the reason for her dismissal....
Most college freshmen OK on gay marriages: Sixty percent support right to marry
More than 60 percent of incoming freshmen in U.S. colleges and universities believe that same-sex couples should have the right to marry—a 3.3 percent rise from the previous year’s class....
IRS now demands receipts for even small church donations: New tax law affects charitable deductions
The next time you toss bills into the church collection plate, you might want to ask the usher for a receipt....
Vatican strengthens ties with Vietnam but not with China: Beijing consecrates bishops for state-run church
Rome’s push to restore diplomatic relations with Vietnam took an “important step” forward as Pope Benedict XVI met last month at the Vatican with Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung....
South African church torn on gay issues: Ndungane and Akinola compete to be dominant voice
Life is often violent at the intersection of white and black in the scrappy Cape Town suburb of Mowbray....
At Kenya funeral, Kobia decries criminal violence: Causes more deaths than warfare
Criminal violence, like the murder of a retired Presbyterian missionary and her daughter during a carjacking in Kenya, is claiming many more lives than warfare, lamented Samuel Kobia, the head of t...
Briefly noted
The president of the All Africa Council of Churches, a fellowship of mainline Protestant, Orthodox and indigenous Christians, has called Pentecostalism a “disease” spreading across Africa, a...
Overextended: The increasing demands on seminaries
Within a single week this past fall I received requests that the seminary I serve staff a youth retreat for a congregation, send a speaker about starvation in Darfur to a conference in Washington, ...
Fellow students: Theological formation in the parish
A quarter century ago, I dreamed of being a teaching pastor....