Latest Articles
Methodist college drops 'Indians' team name: Complies with denomination and NCAA
United Methodist–related McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, has decided to discontinue calling its athletic teams “Indians” in keeping not only with the denomination’s two-year-old policy agains...
Episcopalians in Bay State to seek church rites for gay weddings: Study clergy role in civil marriage ceremonies
Massachusetts Episcopalians will seek authorization from their denomination to use the church’s official marriage rites in same-sex marriage ceremonies....
Gay megachurch welcomed to UCC: Chosen to be part of 50th anniversary event
Nearly a year after the 4,300-member Cathedral of Hope in Dallas voted to seek affiliation with the United Church of Christ, the gay congregation was admitted to membership October 29 by a regional...
Nuclear bomb race not a faith showdown, says atomic official: Global poverty and extremists are key issues
The head of the International Atomic Energy Association contends that although the nuclear weapons landscape is increasingly uncertain, it is not shaping up into a showdown along religious lines....
In Australia, debates arise on which party reflects church values: Call for "a different Christian voice"
Australian opposition lawmaker Kevin Rudd has triggered a national debate by criticizing the growing influence of conservative Christian groups in Australian politics....
Briefly noted
Half of U.S. evangelical Christians do not support government funding of faith-based organizations, a survey shows....
Performing the faith
George Lindbeck is one of the most influential Protestant theologians of recent decades. He taught at Yale from 1955 until his retirement in 1993....
Hell house
Halloween has come and gone in Habersham County. I cannot remember when I have seen so many houses draped with spider webs and strings of pumpkin lights....
Give hudna a chance: An obligation to find a lasting peace
Election season 2006 is over, and we can say goodbye to the negative media ads and stories. Opposing sides fought one another with reckless abandon....
Stirred up: A reflection on decades at the Christian Century
We have relegated to the “remember when” columns all resistance to the updating of Thanksgiving Day to lengthen time for Christmas shopping....
Century Marks
Real money: By one estimate, the war in Iraq may eventually cost the United States $2 trillion. Which raises the question: how else could we have used this money? According to Nicholas D. Kristof (New York Times, October 24), it is four times the amount of money needed to stabilize the Social Security system for the next 75 years, and it is four times the amount needed to provide health care insurance for all uninsured Americans for the next decade. Every minute we stay in Iraq costs another $380,000.
Change agent (Luke 3:1-6; Philippians 1:3-11)
Paul’s letter to the Philippians puts me in mind of the annual ritual of Christmas letters and how much I enjoy receiving them, though I have to admit that sometimes the correspondence can veer off into the stratosphere of braggadocio. You know the type.
Light the candles: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Luke 21:25-36
How odd that the most hopeful season of the Christian calendar begins in the midst of darkness! When we light the first candle on the Advent wreath, it will not be a second too soon. This Advent I feel an urgent need for the light that comes from God, and I do not think I am the only one.
Supersized: Analyzing the trend toward larger churches
Megachurches are increasingly difficult to ignore. By the latest count there are approximately 1,200 Protestant churches in the United States that have a weekly attendance of at least 2,000....
Anxious Muslims
When someone asks me why Muslims don't denounce terrorism, I suggest that he or she Google the words “fatwa against terrorism” (80,000 hits), or name cities in the Muslim world that held major demonstrations against the 9/11 attacks (Tehran, Karachi). Most Muslims do not approve of terrorism. Their response to it is fear—fear of extremists who seem unconstrained by mainstream Islamic law, fear of a son or daughter becoming a "holy warrior," fear for the future of an entire faith community.
Living the Sermon on the Mount
Early in his introduction, Glen Stassen asks why a book on the Sermon on the Mount belongs in Jossey-Ba...
Our favorite war
I occasionally hear parents complain that their elementary school children have ended up studying dinosaurs for several years in a row....