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Wednesday digest
New today (and yesterday) from the Century: Marilynne Robinson on the Easter Sunday gospel, Robert Harman on United Methodist identity, more.
Survey finds deep mistrust for Muslims in Canada
c. 2012 Religion News Service
TORONTO (RNS) A new poll shows that more than half of all Canadians distrust
Muslims....
Tim Tebow brings a little goodness to Gotham
c. 2012 Religion News Service
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) Tim Tebow is Howdy Doody in a helmet. No, he is Opie Taylor...
Church's mock raid leaves teen traumatized
c. 2012 Religion News Service
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. (RNS) The men burst into the church classroom and ordered the 15
teens in the youth group to the floor....
Pope arrives in Cuba, blasts economic 'selfishness'
c. 2012 Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Cuba on Monday (March 26),...
Ugandan church leaders recall encounters with Kony
(ENInews)--Although the Internet video "Kony 2012" is bringing world
attention to an infamous Ugandan warlord, calling for his arrest this year, it...
Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012: John 20:1–18
The risen Christ does not rebuke Mary for her error. He seems rather to enjoy the occasion of her surprise.
Invitation to #Unco12
Unco is short for Unconference. It’s specifically designed for discussions on the future of the church. It’s a percolator for new ministries and ideas, usually within mainline contexts.
The Aesthetics of Violence in the Prophets, edited by Chris Franke and Julia M. O'Brien
Lately there has been a surge of studies variously construed as focused on "religion and violence," "the Bible and violence" or "God and violence." Most of these studies are not very helpful, for t...
New clergy, new churches: Church planting as a first call
Emily Scott had an idea: what if young adults got together for a weekly agape feast? Soon St. Lydia’s was born--but Scott was not ordained.
Paul's urgent appeal
This week is Palm and/or Passion Sunday, and choices will vary as to the form of worship and the point at which the sermon falls. Palm Sunday, with its palms waving and salutations sung to the Savior, is an event that children will enter into readily even if adults are a bit shy. If the choice is for a Passion Sunday emphasis, a dramatic reading is memorable for those who speak the parts and those who listen--and the passion narrative lends itself particularly well to this approach.
It is, after all, the greatest story ever told.
Another option is to focus on the second lesson.
Monday digest
New today (and Friday) from the Century: First-call church planters, a bookstore browser's lament, more.
United we stand, divided we fall
Solomon is approached with a serious dilemma. The equation doesn’t seem to add up. Two mothers. One baby. In what's declared as an act of wisdom, Solomon decides to cut the baby in half to correct the equation. When threatening to do so, the truth is discovered and the baby is returned to his mother.
While moderating at a recent presbytery meeting, I had a new insight into this particular story.
Pope tells Cubans to look beyond Marxism
c. 2012 Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI on Friday (March 23) urged Cuba's
communist government to look for "new models" beyond its "Marxist ideology,"...
Study offers view of religious life behind prison walls
c. 2012 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS) Behind high prison walls and rolls of barbed wire, Muslim...
What Would Jesus Brew? Lots, beer makers say
c. 2012 Religion News Service
WILMINGTON, N.C.(RNS) All this talk of beer was making the former
seminarian thirsty....
A browser’s lament
My wife and I used to visit a bookstore at least once a week. We can’t anymore, unless we drive 20 minutes to the now nearest one.
"I deserve a happy ending"
Occasionally, a word or a phrase
encountered in everyday discourse will jump out and lodge itself in my...
Armed and dangerous
Jay Rubenstein offers a lively and well-researched history of the First Crusade. He has a gift for making thousand-year-old history both exciting and relevant.