The Christian Century

During what some call the start of a recession, mainline church officials are assuring pastors and retirees that their pension funds are secure. But the officials are concerned about how the economic woes will affect their operating budgets and ministries.

In a sign that once-frosty relations between the independent-minded Baptist General Convention of Texas and the large Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth may be thawing, the BGCT’s new executive director spoke at the seminary last month.

An Episcopal Church committee voted October 17 to oust more than 50 California clerics who left the denomination last year to join a more conservative province in the Anglican Communion.

In the wake of recent deadly violence against Christians in northern Iraq, the top executive of the National Council of Churches has welcomed the urgent call by Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, for the UN and the Iraqi government to denounce expulsion threats against the country’s Christian minority.

Cuddle and preach? Some people allege that Mattel’s Little Mommy Cuddle N’ Coo doll emits the words “Islam is the light.” The toy manufacturer says that the sound emitted resembles the word night, right or light. The company promises to eliminate the misleading sound in future production of the doll (UPI).

A prominent Roman Catholic theologian in Poland has rejected a demand from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he retract and rewrite an article criticizing its attitude toward other Christian churches.

Mind-boggling: If the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street were paid out in $100 bills, it would amount to a stack 54 miles high. Given the magnitude of the plan, no wonder there is public outrage. But columnist James Carroll noticed another, similar figure: in the fiscal year just begun the Pentagon will spend $607 billion on regular military operations (as well as another $100 billion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq).