Latest Articles
Sound alternatives
If you are a regular listener to radio’s A Prairie Home Companion or a bluegrass fan, chances are you know the signature sound of Sam Bush, a mandolinist ...
Grace note: Gratitude and prayer
In his compact book Before God, George Stroup observes that we live in a time when many people no longer understand that their lives are lived coram Deo, before God....
Century Marks
Indiscriminate love: In August 1998, Sam Bowers, a former Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was finally convicted of a crime he had committed over three decades earli...
Allies against AIDS: Faith activists meet in Bangkok
We are here, we are there, we are everywhere!” Every day the Thai sex workers formed ranks and paraded through the convention center, their signs demanding acceptance, their chants in practiced Eng...
An 'aggressive' faith-based initiative: Concerns over church-state issues
A new report by an independent group explains in depth what observers of President Bush’s “faith-based initiative” have been noting for years now: that Bush has used his presidential powers to bypa...
In campaign, Bush moderates faith stance: Points to religious freedom
Even as the Democratic presidential candidate takes care not to wear religion on his sleeve, so too has President Bush struck moderate notes in speaking before the wider public....
ELCA numbers drop below 5 million: Baptized membership
The nation’s largest Lutheran denomination, above the 5 million mark in baptized membership since the merger of three Lutheran bodies in 1987, slipped swiftly below that in the past two years—sharp...
Kirkpatrick to lead Reformed alliance: World Alliance of Reformed Churches
Clifton Kirkpatrick, reelected recently as the top executive in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), was also the unanimous choice to be president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches for the ne...
Families sue over church van deaths: Five youth killed in rollover
The estates of five young people killed in a single-vehicle “church van” rollover accident last year have sued Ford Motor Company and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, claiming that Ford was negligent in manu...
California court voids 4,000 gay marriages: Couples wed in San Francisco in spring 2004
California’s Supreme Court has voided the marriages of nearly 4,000 gay couples who wed in San Francisco last spring, ruling that Mayor Gavin Newsom did not have the authority to flout state marria...
Florida court rules against vouchers: State constitution doesn't allow them
A state appeals court upheld in mid-August a lower court’s ruling that Florida’s school-voucher program violates the state constitution because it allows government-funded scholarships to be spent ...
Rochester seminary president to retire: G. Thomas Halbrooks
The president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New York, plans to retire next year from the American Baptist–related seminary amid signs that the school’s downsizing may he...
Episcopal Church intact a year later: Trouble in Anglican Communion
More than a year after the confirmation of an openly gay Episcopal bishop, who recently admitted he was not 100 percent sure he did the right thing, church officials say the denomination has not br...
Lesbian UMC pastor faces tough trial: Irene "Beth" Stroud
Three months after the United Methodist Church tightened its rules against “self-avowed, practicing” gay clergy, a lesbian pastor in Philadelphia will face trial after disclosing her sexual orienta...
Churches in Canada defend sanctuaries: Call deportation process flawed
Canadian church leaders have condemned remarks of federal immigration and citizenship minister Judy Sgro, who earlier this summer called on churches to abandon the time-honored practice of providin...