Articles by John Dart

News

Church voice on war measured, or muffled?

Sparse news attention for statements on reconciliation
Sep 05, 2006 by John Dart
As bombs and rockets rained from the skies in Lebanon and Israel, the American presidents of international Lutheran and Reformed fellowships joined with the World Council of Churches to plead for an immediate cease-fire, saying that “the world cannot wait for signs of ‘a new Middle East’ to stop the killing.”
News

Presbyterian compromise

Ordaining gay clergy is a local option
Jul 11, 2006 by John Dart
At the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly in June, delegates agreed to a delicate compromise on the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy, an issue that has torn the denomination for nearly three decades.>Episcopalians seek compromise to avoid schism.>Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exhorts Southern Baptists to support the United States in spreading freedom.>Christian Reformed urge churches to raise moral questions about preemptive military actions.For detailed coverage on these denominational conventions, visit our news page.
News

Naming names

PCUSA eyes "third way" on homosexuality
May 16, 2006 by John Dart
“I have become profoundly disenchanted with our General Assembly process . . . the unsatisfactory way we were dealing with difficult and complex theological issues . . . and the toxic by-products of perpetually creating winners and losers, friends who are with us and enemies who oppose us.”
News

Paul almighty

A novel portrayal of an infamous figure
May 02, 2006 by John Dart
The long-lost apocryphal Gospel of Judas, published with Easter season media fanfare, begins: “The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot.”
Features

Miracle market

Mark's enigmatic ending

Apr 18, 2006 by John Dart

So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
—Mark 16:8

News

Mainline worries about dearth of young pastors

Fewer than 5 percent under 35
Apr 18, 2006 by John Dart
At the end of April, a new TV ad financed by the Episcopal Church will show 30-something Paige Blair of Maine talking casually about how during tough times, church provides her “some solace and perspectives that help me understand, reconcile and forgive.”
Cover Story

Charismatic and mainline

Domestication of a movement

Mar 07, 2006 by John Dart

One Sunday morning in 1960, the Episcopal pastor of a 2,500-member parish in suburban Los Angeles told his congregation that he and 70 other members had been “speaking in tongues."
At the end of the service, an assistant priest pulled off his vestments and stalked out, saying, “I can no longer work with this man!” Tumult reigned. One man stood on a chair, shouting, “Throw out the damn tongue-speakers!”

News

Long-lost Gospel of Judas to be published

Translations of Coptic-language text forthcoming
Dec 27, 2005 by John Dart
The heresy-fighting bishop Irenaeus of Lyon, France, mentioned the Gospel of Judas about 180 AD, linking the writing to a Gnostic sect. Some two centuries later, Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, criticized the Gospel of Judas for treating the betrayer of Jesus as commendable, one who “performed a good work for our salvation.”
News

IRS warning raises church leaders' ire

All Saints Episcopal's tax-exempt status at risk
Nov 29, 2005 by John Dart
A large, progressive Episcopal church in southern California, warned by the Internal Revenue Service that its tax-exempt status may be at risk over a preelection antiwar sermon delivered last year, says it intends to fight what it calls “unsupported” assertions by the federal agency.
News

Bush courts evangelicals for nominee support

President cites Miers's church membership
Nov 01, 2005 by John Dart
Before John Roberts was approved by the U.S. Senate as chief justice, backers of the federal judge, an active Catholic, warned that the nominee should not be put to an unconstitutional “religious test” in evaluations of his suitability.
News

After Katrina, pleas for a focus on poverty

No to cuts in antipoverty programs
Oct 04, 2005 by John Dart
After Hurricane Katrina produced vivid images of poverty in America, leaders of five mainline denominations renewed their call on Congress to oppose deep cuts to programs serving the working poor, children and seniors.
News

Defeated in votes, American Bapist conservatives organize

The Great Commission Network
Sep 20, 2005 by John Dart
Rebuffed at national meetings of American Baptists that declined to adopt tough stances against homosexuality, some conservative leaders will meet this month near Chicago to expand an alternate missionary organization.
News

Taizé founder buried in service led by Catholic cardinal

12,000 attended funeral
Sep 20, 2005 by John Dart
An estimated 12,000 Christians from many denominations attended the funeral of Brother Roger, the Protestant founder of the Taizé community in the picturesque Burgundy region of France. Presiding over the funeral Eucharist was Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican’s top ecumenical officer.
News

ELCA says no to gay pastors, blessings

Delegates decline to authorize existing practices
Sep 06, 2005 by John Dart
On the face of it, the nation’s largest Lutheran church didn’t budge on issues of homosexuality. Though aware that some same-sex couples receive blessings from pastors and that some openly gay or lesbian pastors are ordained, delegates to the biennial assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, held in Orlando, declined to authorize either practice, even on a provisional basis.
Features

Taking care of business

Administrators show ecumenical spirit
Sep 06, 2005 by John Dart
It was meant as a compliment when preacher-author Leonard Sweet praised his audience as “a kind of homeland security of the church.” Sweet, evangelism professor at Drew University Theological School, was speaking to an unsung national organization of church business administrators meeting in the Colorado Rockies.
News

Decision time for mainline Lutherans

ELCA considering same-sex blessings
Aug 09, 2005 by John Dart
The nation’s largest Lutheran denomination will finally speak with a collective voice this month on whether to allow gay and lesbian pastors and on whether same-sex couples may receive rites of blessing. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, whose biennial Churchwide Assembly meets August 8-14 in Orlando, is one of the last mainline church bodies to act on the controversies.
News

On gays, American Baptists keep 'paradox'

Maintaining an open stance
Jul 26, 2005 by John Dart
Resisting efforts to eliminate organizational havens for congregations that welcome gays, American Baptist leaders and delegates meeting in Denver maintained an open stance on homosexuality—even if that means living with a “paradox,” as it was put by the denomination’s top executive.
News

American Baptists face breakup threats

Homosexuality debate could shatter fragile unity
Jun 28, 2005 by John Dart
In an appeal to American Baptists last November, the denomination’s top official said he suffered “many sleepless nights” worrying whether controversies over homosexuality would shatter the fragile unity of the denomination. “I agonize over the fact that many feel a split is inevitable,” wrote A. Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.
News

Bush, ‘proud Methodist,’ opens a door

First meeting with UMC bishops
May 31, 2005 by John Dart
It was a modest gesture, but some United Methodists hope that President Bush’s first meeting with bishops in his own denomination will contribute to a new relationship with mainline church leaders.
News

Judicial posts

For justice or just us?
May 17, 2005 by John Dart
When some leading Christian conservatives threw their weight behind Republican efforts recently to speed Senate approval of judicial nominees of President Bush, they subtitled their widely viewed “Justice Sunday” rally at a Kentucky church “Stopping the Filibuster Against People of Faith.”