The Christian Century

At St. Stephen Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, the 14,000-member congregation billed itself as a “seven-day-a-week” hub of activity, with choir practices, ministry meetings or small groups scheduled every night.

Then Pastor Kevin Cosby noticed a drop-off—people simply couldn’t afford the gas to drive to several activities on several different evenings.

True confessions: Michael Jinkins, dean of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, says that the pastor of a large evangelical church told him he had decided to do away with a corporate confession in worship services. It’s too much of a downer, the pastor explained. Jinkins asked him, “Isn’t it more of a downer for your people to leave worship without confessing their sins and hearing the assurance of God’s pardon?” (Cultural Encounters, Winter).

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu says that ousted South African president Thabo Mbeki scored significant economic achievements and promoted peace in Africa, but he made enemies within his own party due to “his intolerance of challenges and dissent.”

Michael Paulson of the Boston Globe has won the two top prizes for reporting and writing in covering religion news in 2007. The Templeton and Supple awards from the Religion Newswriters Association were presented September 20 at the RNA meeting in Washington, D.C.

Anti-Muslim discrimination reached an all-time high in 2007, according to a report released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

From Christians in Hawaii to Buddhists in Connecticut, and from Jews in New York to Muslims in Wisconsin, people of all walks of faith are finding a myriad of ways to care for the environment, states a first-of-its-kind report from the Sierra Club.

The U.S. State Department, in its annual report on international religious freedom, has admonished several Asian nations, including China, for severely repressing religion.