Latest Articles
Open-door policy: Churches worth visiting
Michael Crosbie’s article on church design in this issue takes readers on quick visits to several churches. It reminded me of my own love of church buildings....
Kashmir winter: Relief is us
This year’s natural disasters—a tsunami in South Asia, a series of brutal hurricanes in the Gulf and a massive earthquake in Kashmir—are enough to make Left Behind enthusiasts see portents of the e...
Century Marks
Bryan Rehm sued the Dover, Pennsylvania, school district over its requirement that intelligent design be taught as an alternative to evolution in the ninth-grade biology class. Rehm says he's been accused of atheism. “They don’t know that I’m the co-director of the children’s choir at church, or that I run the music at the second service, or that my wife and I run vacation Bible school,” he said. He maintains that intelligent design is not credible science, and that evolution does not explain away the existence of a divine Creator (beliefnet.com).
Precarious vision: The U.S. role in a Middle East solution
Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is the latest in a series of events that make a settlement between Israelis and Palestinians more possible than it's been for a long time. Most Israelis and Palestinians appear willing to make the necessary concessions. Yet there are barriers to peace that will never be overcome unless the U.S. takes a more active role and invests large amounts of money to assist both sides. How can the U.S. support a peace process based on the outline of the Geneva Accord?
Discard pile: Not every vote is counted
Forty-some years ago, chances were you knew it if you were being denied the right to vote....
Storms wreck churches, clergy salaries: Over 900 churches affected
More than 900 houses of worship on the Gulf Coast have been destroyed, seriously damaged or forced to suspend services by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, leaving many clergy without salaries....
FEMA grants $66 million to Methodists for Katrina counseling: Grant derived from donations made by foreign governments
For a post-Katrina counseling program, the United Methodist Committee on Relief will receive a $66 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that was derived from donations made by...
Miers's beliefs, identity were in dispute before nomination was dropped: Episcopal ties overlooked
As U.S. senators and other political leaders pressured the White House for more written evidence of U.S....
Church groups cheer food stamp funding: Senate panel votes against cuts
Religious groups are claiming victory in the fight to preserve funding for food stamps after a key Senate panel voted to keep $574 million for the program....
Synod affirms priestly celibacy, other rules: Catholic bishops embrace traditional teaching
As more than 250 bishops filed into St....
Churches remember Rosa Parks's courage: "She recognized a law higher than human law"
Rosa Louise Parks, a woman of faith whose soft-spoken refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, launched the civil rights movement, was hailed widely last month at her death....
Canadian churches accept ruling on Indian sex-abuse claims: Churches will pay 25 percent of compensation to victims
Canada’s two largest Protestant denominations say they are satisfied with a decision by the country’s Supreme Court that stipulates how religious groups and the federal government should divide the...
Americans idolize model family but see limits, study shows: Recognizing gap between ideals and reality
A new survey shows that even as Americans have become more accepting of nontraditional family structures, their view of the ideal family has remained the same—a heterosexual couple, married for lif...
Briefly noted
A Christian missionary group being expelled from Venezuela vehemently denounced charges by President Hugo Chavez that it is involved with the CIA....
What kind of Christian? The man on the train: The man on the train
As our train ambled through the outskirts of London, I thought I would kill some time by quizzing my children on a few items I’d tried to instill in their brains as a little bonus above and beyond their school curricula. I elicited mild groans and chuckles when I asked, “How did the Gettysburg address begin?” and “Can you count to ten in Spanish?” But when I asked, “Can you name the books of the Bible?” a train rider across the aisle turned, and his eyes flew wide open.
Divestment: Corporate actions
For most media in Israel, American Protestants are simply the people who book Bible tours of the region. In June 2004 this indifference changed....
In distress: The designer jeans industry
Soon the fashionistas will fashion a new craze to replace the craze for distressed jeans....
Methodist court says pastors may bar gays from membership: No automatic right to membership
An openly gay United Methodist minister lost her bid to return to the pulpit when the denomination’s highest court upheld her conviction on charges of being a “self-avowed practicing” lesbian....
First Sunday of Advent (Isaiah 64:1-9; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9)
The preacher must remind those who feel worthless already that Isaiah is not trying to make them feel worse.