Features
Taking exception: Gay marriage legislation
Recent advances for same-sex marriage have raised important issues concerning religious liberty. The four New England states (Con necticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont) that recently recognized same-sex marriage have all had to consider how broadly to protect churches, organizations and individuals that object to participating in or facilitating such marriages. A national TV ad against gay marriage sounded alarms about religious liberty and triggered parodies from gay rights groups (and Stephen Colbert).
For the glory of God: Conductor John Nelson
John Nelson is a world-renowned conductor noted for his commitment to contemporary sacred music. He was born in Costa Rica to American missionary parents. He attended Wheaton College and the Juilliard School of Music. He founded and serves as the artistic director of a nonprofit organization, Soli Deo Gloria, which sponsors the creation of contemporary sacred music.
Church netiquette: Ministry by e-mail
Like most pastors, I claim that the face-to-face meeting is the best way to do the ministry of the church; also like most pastors, I spend an enormous amount of time reading and composing e-mails. I am driven not so much by my own schedule or preferences as by those of my church members. Many of them use e-mail all day long and expect the church to do the same. If I want to keep up, I have to keep typing.
The church on Facebook: Why we need virtual community
"Oreon told me she’s praying for you,” my husband, Gary, said in between bites. We were having dinner one night when I was having a particularly stressful time at work. Gary is a pastor at a downtown Chicago church, and Oreon is one of the staff members there. “Why is Oreon praying for me?” I asked. I hadn’t had more than a passing hello with Oreon in weeks. “She saw your Facebook status message,” he said.
Books
World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty Is Vital to American National Security
President Barack Obama couldn’t have been more explicit in his inaugural ad...
BookMarks
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Humanitarian dilemma
What does it take to be a humanitarian worker? Idealism and commitment, surely, but also a gift for improvisation....
Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion
For a brief moment in the early months of 2008, Americans cared about the connections between African-American religio...
Driftless
Something has spooked July Montgomery’s cows....
Departments
Pro-choice perspective: On the occasion of George Tiller's death
The murder of abortion provider George Tiller prompts me to do something I do not like to do—venture into the issue of abortion. My hesitation is not because I do not have a position. I do....
The Cairo speech: A new beginning
President Obama’s June 4 speech in Cairo was just that—a speech. As commentators at home and abroad pointed out, it will take deeds to give substance to his call for “a new beginning” in relations between the U.S. and the Muslim world....
Beauty and delight: Artistic humility
My mother studied painting at the New York Art Students League with Joseph Solman, the American artist who died last year at age 99....
Summer in the city: Boundary-crossing music
If, as Karl Barth said, God may speak through a blossoming shrub or a dead dog, I reckon God may be found at rock festivals....
News
Moderate Baptist church calls second woman pastor: A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship congregation
A North Carolina Baptist church has called its second woman pastor—an act that is still rare among Baptist moderates, despite the fact that virtually all moderate and progressive Baptist institutions support women’s eligibility for the ministry....
'Violent murder in church,' Lutherans lament: George Tiller's congregation grieves
The 690-member Refor mation Lutheran congregation in Wichita, a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was “shocked by the violent murder” of physician George Tiller, 67, a “longtime member,” who was serving as an usher when he was ki...
Will Tiller murder alter abortion debate? Committed Christians on both sides of issue: Committed Christians on both sides of issue
The setting of the murder of physician George Tiller—a Sunday morning inside the Lutheran church where he was a member—counters the image of late-term abortion providers as secularists, casting him more as a churchgoing martyr than a godless murd...
Breaking glass ceilings at large churches: Women underrepresented among senior pastors
Methodists opened the ordained ministry to women in 1956, and today female ministers account for about 20 percent of the clergy in the denomination. And 14 bishops heading the 50 U.S....
Century Marks
Poor criteria: When writer Paul Wilkes helped start a ministry to the poor and homeless in Brooklyn, supporters discussed whether they should use some criteria to identify the truly needy. Wilkes's spontaneous response was: "Just that they come to us, literally begging, says enough. Let's not humiliate them further. I didn't see Christ applying a means test. We're not going to either" (In Due Season, Jossey-Bass).
Deaths: Frank H. Littell, Ralph D. Winter
Franklin H. Littell, who pioneered research studies on the Nazi Holocaust and on the history of Anabaptists, died at age 92 in his home in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, on May 23....
Swedish Lutheran Church elects lesbian bishop: Eva Brunne
The newly elected Lutheran bishop of Stockholm says that being a lesbian means that she wants to stand alongside people who feel powerless....
Christianity Today to close four publications, lay off 31 workers: Cites hard times in the industry
Publishing powerhouse Christianity Today International, citing hard times in its industry, is shutting down four publications and laying off 31 workers....
Media priest's conversion strains ecumenical ties: Alberto Cutié joins Episcopal Church
In the nearly 500 years since the Church of England split with the Roman Catholic Church, a fair number of converts have crossed from one church to the other....
Obama nominates Latino professor as Vatican envoy: Miguel H. Diaz
President Obama has nominated Latino theologian Miguel H. Diaz as the next U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. Diaz is a professor of theology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Minnesota....
Before Muslims, Obama uses family background to urge U.S.-Islam respect: Making a political liability into an asset
Dogged by persistent but untrue rumors that he is a closet Muslim, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign carefully sidestepped questions about his Muslim ancestry....
New Hampshire signs gay marriage bill: Bill makes space for conscientious objection
New Hampshire became the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage as Governor John Lynch signed a bill rewritten slightly by lawmakers to ensure that religious organizations and their employees would not be forced to participate in same-sex weddi...
Lectionary
Prophets at home: Mark 6:1-13
The villagers of Nazareth knew Jesus, and they thought him to be nothing special.