Latest Articles
Dare to discipline? Kerry and communion: Kerry and communion
Is there anything laypeople can do to get themselves kicked out of the United Methodist Church?” My question stumped the speaker, expert on Methodist church law though he was....
Evangelicals decry Bush use of churches: Campaign sends laundry list of duties
A laundry list of duties sent to conservative Christian volunteers by the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign is causing alarm among evangelical leaders who are concerned that the use of congregations...
Cuban-born bishop likens ploy to Castro: Castro asked for names of church members too
In a Fourth of July message to clergy of the Diocese of Southeast Florida, Episcopal Bishop Leo Frade expressed “grave concern” that the Bush-Cheney campaign has asked volunteers to use church memb...
U.S. to deport Fuller professor back to Finland: Karkkainen doesn't fit post-9/11 visa definitions
An international expert in ecumenical and Pentecostal studies is being forced to leave the United States at the end of July because he does not fit post-9/11 visa definitions for continuing as a te...
PCUSA barely keeps ban on ordaining gays: A four-vote margin
It may have been a close vote, but the stance of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on issues of homosexuality remained unchanged in Richmond, and will stand for at least two more years as the denomi...
Union Seminary tops $39 million goal: New scholarships and endowments
The venerable Union Theological Seminary in New York, in dire financial straits a few years ago, topped its fund-raising goal of $39 million in cash, pledges and planned gifts at the start of this ...
Iliff president's exit leads to church probe: Charges of racist pressures
Two national United Methodist agencies are looking into disputes surrounding the sudden retirement of the first Latino president of Iliff School of Theology in Denver....
Faith groups praise rulings on detainees: Enemy combatants must be able to challenge detention
Christian and Muslim groups that had filed legal briefs on behalf of terrorism prisoners praised the late June decisions by the Supreme Court that said “enemy combatants” and foreign nationals deta...
AME Church elects more women bishops: New African leadership too
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, after electing its first woman bishop four years ago, raised two more females to the episcopacy this month at its quadrennial meeting in Indianapolis....
Theologian-bioethicist J. Robert Nelson dies: A leading ecumenist
John Robert Nelson, a pioneering proponent of church unity who was later prominent for his theological contributions to biomedical ethics, died July 6 at a Houston hospital of cancer and complicati...
Briefly noted
Colorado’s highest court has ruled unconstitutional a state law that would have set up a school-voucher program, including religious and other private schools....
Drawing lines: John Kerry and Israel
On July 28, delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Boston will nominate John Kerry as their candidate for president. They will also approve the party’s national platform....
How great we are: Graduation gifts
I am going to let the family of a recent high school graduate write most of this column....
Grief and war: The horrible cost
At times Michael Moore’s anti-Bush movie Fahrenheit 9/11 is simply sophomoric and manipulative—its style of satire and innuendo making it more a comedy than a documentary, more Sat...
A wandering faith: Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain. For centuries they had been tolerated there, and their labor had helped to build a great country. But King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, anxious to establish their hold over a newly united Spain by means of the Catholic Church and the Inquisition, gave the Jews a stark choice: they must be baptized or flee.
A lot of junk: Luke 12:13-21
Here in the rural upper Midwest, it seems every other person has a pole barn. Usually it’s full of old tires, a trailer, dozens of tools gathering rust, coffee cans loaded with lug nuts and screws. Ed and Edna’s place is pretty typical. Edna's cupboards, bureaus, garage, attic and spare bedroom have been crammed full of things that define her. (“Oh, you know Edna Furbelow,” says her neighbor, “she collected Hummels.”) Now that Edna has died and her husband’s pole barn has finally gotten emptied, everything must go.
Summer picks
If you are searching for a book to take along on summer travels, or simply for an excursion to the back porch, the editors have some recommendations:...
Make believe
One of my graduate school professors, commenting on a historian famous for his prolific reading and reviewing...