John Dart
Who’s counting? Doing the numbers on membership: Doing the numbers on membership
Journalists covering religion regularly cite membership figures for the various religious organizations....
Wanted: Megapastors: Can successors find success?
With his folksy, conversational style, Pastor Frank Harrington turned Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta into a megachurch over three decades....
Executing justice: Second thoughts on the death penalty
In the death chamber at San Quentin just after midnight on January 28, a confessed killer was executed by lethal injection....
Churchgoers from elsewhere: Surveys: ‘UUism' unique
Before the American Unitarian Association merged with the Universalist Church of America in 1961, the former group ran an ad campaign suggesting, “I was a Unitarian all along and never knew i...
Some funnies get serious: The ‘Rev. Sloan' on evil
Garry Trudeau’s long-running Doonesbury comic strip rarely spares the rod—or sharp pen—when satirizing presidents, cigarette companies and hardened conservatives....
Ecumenical chums: UCC and Disciples
It was a shoo-in vote by the coziest of ecumenical partners holding their biennial conventions together for the second time....
Presbyterian turnabout: Delegates urge gay ordination
Presbyterian moderator Jack Rogers has an unenviable task over the next 12 months....
The making of Jesus: An evangelist and an unhappy producer
Oklahoma-raised Bill Bright came to Los Angeles in 1944 and started a business selling candies, fruits and jams....
How the critics see Jesus
When Jesus played in theaters in 1979-80, the New York Times said it was “little more than an illustrated Gospel, with nothing in the way of historical and social context.” The...
Mainline ‘quietly effective’ The churches' political work behind the scenes: political work behind the scenes
Last fall, mainline denomination lobbyists scored big in the game of Washington politics when Congress passed legislation to provide $435 million in debt relief for developing countries—part ...
Gay and mainline: The success of the MCC
Callers to the California headquarters of an odds-defying denomination—one that worldwide has 300 churches made up largely of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons—are greete...
The Critical Edition of Q, edited by James M. Robinson, Paul Hoffmann and John S. Kloppenborg and Excavating Q, by John S. Kloppenborg Verbin
Most New Testament scholars believe that besides following the Gospel of Mark's narrative of Jesus's ministry and passion, the authors of Matthew and Luke independently drew from a common ...
Hues in the pews: Racially mixed churches an elusive goal
When Rodney Woo became pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston in 1992, the all-white congregation averaged 200 worshipers....
Connected congregations: Church Web Sites
Churches with Web sites and pastors using e-mail are praising how the electronic media keeps them in touch and enriches congregational life, a recent foundation-funded study discovered....
Simpsons have soul: TV's most religious family?
The enormous popularity of The Simpsons, now in its 12th television season, suggests that religious people have a sense of humor—contrary to the usual wisdom in Hollywood....
Ecumenical wobbling: The NCC reversal on marriage
When Robert Edgar of the National Council of Churches suddenly told the NCC’s General Assembly that he was removing his name from an evangelical-mainline-Catholic statement on marriage, it ap...
Men behaving badly: Gender and churchgoing
"Women are more religious than men.” That’s a longstanding generalization made by pastors surveying their pews and by social scientists surveying the public....