Latest Articles
Fleeing Iraq: Christian targets of sectarian violence
One of the lesser-known calamities of the Iraq war is the flood of refugees it has produced....
Century Marks
Made in Japan: A Japanese Christian women’s leader has joined opposition political groups in urging the country’s health minister to resign because he said that women are “birth-giving machines.” “We Christian women cannot tolerate the idea that life is produced with machines. We believe that life is created by God and that we receive it,” said Junko Matsuura, chair of the Women’s Committee of the National Christian Council in Japan (Ecumenical News International).
Family reunion: Christian Churches Together
The multidenominational Christian Churches Together in the USA has just about got it together—enough at least for a small celebration....
Unsportsmanlike conduct: The canned-hunt industry
Canned hunts constitute a burgeoning industry, in part because old-fashioned hunting in the wild has become more difficult—a consequence of diminishing ranges and herds and the encroachment of suburbia and exurbia. At present there are at least 1,000 canned-hunt operations in the U.S. (if bird preserves—which release birds just in time for the hunter to shoot at them—are included, the number is closer to 3,000).It is also a highly profitable industry. Here’s what the hunter pays: Axis deer, $1,350; Aoudad sheep, $1,500; buffalo, $3,000; elk, $3,500 and up; red sheep, $4,500.
Presbyterian dissidents find church refuge: Evangelical Presbyterian Church invites them in
Dozens of church representatives of a movement of people unhappy inside the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have voted unanimously to pursue possible refuge within the conservative Evangelical Presbyt...
Conservative, evangelical, charismatic-friendly: Evangelical Presbyterian Church established in 1981
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which is offering a refuge for breakaway PCUSA churches, began 26 years ago with 12 churches and currently has 182 congregations in eight geographic presbyterie...
Ruling to remove gay pastor may rekindle Lutheran debate: Committee removes him while calling for reinstatement
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America may be asked to change a ban on practicing gay and lesbian clergy after a disciplinary committee voted to remove an openly gay pastor but suggested that t...
Bible scholar–translator Bruce Metzger dies: Was general editor for the NRSV
Bruce Metzger, a preeminent New Testament translator and textual critic, died February 13 at his Princeton, New Jersey, home at age 93....
Haggard's cure claim greeted by skepticism: Experts on both sides of debate doubtful
Claims by one of Ted Haggard’s spiritual overseers that he is now “100 percent heterosexual” should be taken with a significant grain of salt, according to experts with differing opinions on the va...
Bush library, institute for SMU get support: Opponents raise ethical concerns
A regional group of United Methodist bishops has affirmed the process surrounding the possible placement of President George W....
Antiwar Christians set March 16 protest: March on the White House
A wide array of Christian peace groups will march on the White House—and perhaps get arrested— March 16 to protest the U.S. military escalation in Iraq....
Jerusalem mayor halts ramp renovation, but disputed dig goes on: Excavations at holy site
The mayor of Jerusalem has suspended renovations near a compound housing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, while the municipality works on submitting new plans for a walkway leading to the h...
Survey: Conservative Jews back gay rabbis: Local bodies can make own decisions
Most of the “key constituents” in centrist Conservative Judaism would support gay and lesbian rabbis, according to an e-mail- and Web-based survey commissioned by the Jewish Theological Seminary....
Briefly noted
The American Jewish population is 20 percent higher than previously reported, according to a new study released by the Brandeis University Steinhardt Social Research Institute....
Graveside hope: A passion for funeral ministry
When I tell other pastors that I hate weddings and love funerals, they smile knowingly....
Alien witness: How God's people challenge empire
For complex historical and religious reasons,Americans have found it easy to view the U.S. as the “new Israel,” the carrier of God’s mandates in the world....
A way of seeing: Reflections on a work of art
A few weeks ago, oppressed by some worrying news, I stopped into our college art museum....
Reshelving: Frustrating congregations
This winter I had occasion to caress every one of my thousands of books, kiss thousands of them good-bye as I downsized my library, and decide which to save and which to give away....
Episcopal Church given deadline to bar gay bishops definitively: A tense standoff in Tanzania
Anglican leaders from around the world have told the Episcopal Church’s bishops they must declare unequivocally that they will not authorize same-sex blessings and that no one living in a same-sex ...
Heaven scent: John 12:1-8
What does God’s love smell like? Like honeysuckle on a warm spring day? Like a salty ocean breeze? Can God’s love also smell like a person who hasn’t bathed for days? For the people in the story in John 12, God’s love smells like their brother Lazarus, who has just been raised after four days in a tomb. Now his friends and loved ones are sharing a dinner in celebration and thanking Jesus, who has come out of hiding to see his friend Lazarus enjoying his new life.