Latest Articles
Episcopal Church said to face sanctions over support for gay bishop: May be placed on "quarantine"
Leaders of the Episcopal Church may be placed on quarantine by the rest of the worldwide Anglican Communion because of the U.S. denomination’s approval of an openly gay man, V....
Data bite: Americans in poverty
The percentage of Americans in poverty and without health insurance grew in 2003 for the third straight year—to 35.9 million people (one out of every eight) in poverty and 45 million (15.6 percent)...
Cheney differs with Bush on amendment to ban gay marriage: A decision for the states
Shortly before the start of his party’s national convention, Vice President Dick Cheney surprised many of his and President Bush’s most conservative supporters by publicly differing with the presid...
Court says breakaway church owns property: United Methodist church in Fresno
In what could be a landmark case in church property disputes, a California court has ruled that a breakaway Fresno congregation may keep its property after it decided to sever ties with the United ...
Drug discounts save Methodists $349,000: Innovative church-sponsored program
United Methodists who have signed up for an innovative church-sponsored drug discount program have saved $348,728 in prescription costs since the plan was unveiled in March, church officials say....
Judge upholds charter of Greek Orthodox: Laypeople seek role in selecting archbishops
A New York judge has sided with the Greek Orthodox Church in a fight with lay activists over its constitution, ruling that the court has no authority to interfere in an internal church dispute....
Priest who ministered to Gibson is disciplined: Celebrated Latin mass for conservative splinter group
A Toronto-area Catholic priest who served as spiritual adviser to Mel Gibson during filming of The Passion of the Christ has been suspended by Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, archbishop of Toron...
Reed admits taking casino lobbyist fees: Former head of Christian Coalition
Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition and now a Republican strategist, admitted that he accepted $1.23 million in consulting fees tied to Indian-run gambling casinos, the Washin...
Partial-birth abortion ban again ruled wrong: Judge calls law unconstitutional
A second federal judge has ruled against the government’s ban on so-called partial birth abortions, saying the federal law passed by Congress last year is unconstitutional. ...
Most faiths unfamiliar to Protestant clergy: Catholicism and Judaism most familiar
Most Protestant ministers in a recent survey have expressed little familiarity with the key beliefs of a number of non-Protestant religious groups....
Very religious students have some 'liberal' views: More progressive on gun control and death penalty
Strongly religious college students have conservative views on sex, abortion, gay rights and drugs but more liberal views on gun control and the death penalty, a new study says....
Pope's icon return lifts hope of church détente: Representation of Mary and Child handed over in Moscow
Russian Orthodox church leaders have welcomed Pope John Paul II’s decision to return a precious icon to Russia, a representation of Mary and Child that was handed over in Moscow in late August by a...
WCC urges Korea sanctions be lifted: Calls for restoration of humanitarian aid
The World Council of Churches has appealed to the international community to help lift sanctions against North Korea and to restore humanitarian aid to defeat hunger and malnutrition in the country...
Briefly noted
The U.S. government has revoked the work visa of a Muslim scholar who planned to teach at the University of Notre Dame during the fall semester....
Unjustly taxed: The Bible and politics in Alabama
When has a master’s thesis in theology ever spurred a governor to try to amend his state’s constitution? Perhaps only in the case of Susan Pace Hamill, whose concern for justice an...
Enemy territory: Unexpected tastes of joy
Although it would be easier at age 48 to take up the violin or pole-vaulting, I am tiptoeing into a long-postponed project of learning how to love my enemies....
Sensitivity training: Lessons from Senator Paul Simon
Former Illinois Senator Paul Simon, who died last December, was the son of a Lutheran missionary and an avowed liberal Democrat....
Coded messages: A Lutheran cast of characters
I was an innocent Nebraska teen visiting Milwaukee when I saw my first musical, which I thought was about Oklahoma....
Don't say when: Expecting the Second Coming
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. . . ....
Measure of faith: 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10
An emphasis on the decision character of faith has a long and deep history in the American psyche going back to our Puritan and evangelical ancestors. From Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney to Billy Sunday, Billy Graham and their successors, faith, as encountered in the idiom both of born-again revivalism and of religious “progressives,” has served as shorthand for “I have decided to follow Jesus.” But the biblical meaning of faith cannot be reduced to individualistic voluntarism.