Articles by Tim Townsend

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Victims' group refuses to turn over names in abuse suit

Jan 04, 2012 by Tim Townsend
c. 2012 St. Louis Post-Dispatch ST. LOUIS (RNS) The director of a leading victims' advocacy group refused to answer some questions or turn over documents in a deposition held Monday (Jan. 2) in a Kansas City, Mo., clergy abuse case.
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Do Christian athletes seek big-dollar contracts like everyone else?

Feb 24, 2011 by Tim Townsend

As contract talks broke down be­tween Albert Pujols and the Cardinals, St. Louis baseball fans began nervously asking themselves a host of questions. He's a Cardinal for life, right? He ­wouldn't go to Wrigley Field because he likes winning too much, right?

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A ministry team responds to disasters

Jan 26, 2011 by Tim Townsend

Three years after a gunman opened fire and killed six people at a City Council meeting in Kirkwood, Missouri, pastor David A. Holyan found himself in Tucson, Arizona, within days after the January 8 shootings that killed six and injured 13, including Con­gresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

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Aiming to counter trend, UCC seminary will train military chaplains

Jan 11, 2011 by Tim Townsend

A military chaplain serves as both a religious leader and a listener—ideally one who can assist military personnel of all faiths. A frequent refrain among chaplains is that one is a "chaplain to all, pastor to some." But government statistics show that the nation's corps of chaplains leans heavily toward evangelical Christianity, failing to mirror the military it serves.

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Liberty leads ranks of would-be chaplains, but concerns persist

Jan 11, 2011 by Tim Townsend
(RNS) According to Air Force data, no training program is more popular among prospective chaplains than Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, part of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

One out of every five Air Force chaplain candidates studying at an evangelical seminary is enrolled at Liberty.
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U.S. allies keep close watch on Sudan independence vote

Jan 11, 2011 by Tim Townsend
ST. LOUIS (RNS) The people of south Sudan are voting this week on whether to split Africa's largest country in two and form the world's newest nation, or to reunite with their neighbors in the north.
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Church of God in Christ convenes away from home

Nov 24, 2010 by Tim Townsend

When is a church convention more than just another church convention? When 40,000 saints from the Church of God in Christ come marching in and relocate the year's largest convention from one cash-strapped city to another.

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Danforth Center hopes to set tone for civility

Oct 28, 2010 by Tim Townsend

Just across from the Gephardt Insti­tute for Public Service at Washington University in St. Louis, employees are moving into a new center named for another legendary Missouri politician.

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Conservative surge upends Missouri Synod president

Matthew C. Harrison takes the helm

Aug 03, 2010 by Tim Townsend

The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod has elected the denomination’s director of disaster response as president, a candidate backed by its more conservative members. Matthew Harrison received 54 percent of the vote for the three-year term, defeating three-term incumbent Gerald Kieschnick, who received 45 percent.