Avery D. Post, president of the United Church of Christ from 1977 to 1989, died on September 7. He was 96.
Post was known as an ecumenist, an advocate for social justice, and a skilled preacher. He led the denomination through years that included Cold War peace dialogues, racial justice activism, and support for emerging movements for women’s and LGBTQ rights and inclusion.
On September 13, Mark Galli—a former Presbyterian pastor and former editor in chief of the evangelical magazine Christianity Today—was confirmed as a Roman Catholic.
Last December, Galli penned a Christianity Today editorial calling for Donald Trump’s impeachment and removal from office and arguing that he is “profoundly immoral.” The editorial went viral, earning a rebuke from Trump on Twitter and bringing Galli, who retired from the magazine in January, a tsunami of publicity.
Gil Caldwell, a civil rights activist who later in life stood up for gay rights in the United Methodist Church, died September 4 at the age of 86.
The native of Greensboro, North Carolina, struggled with cancer, his son said on Twitter. The United Methodist News Service reported he had been in hospice care in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The liberal-leaning Christian group Faithful America is launching a new project focused on chipping away at President Donald Trump’s support among religious voters in three swing states.
The group’s anti-Trump effort is projected to spend $65,000—a fraction of the $50 million get-out-the-vote effort announced last year by the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition. But the project could have an outsized impact in the states of Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and it is the latest sign of progressive Christian groups engaging more actively in the presidential race.
Two soldiers who deserted from Myanmar’s army have testified on video that they were instructed by commanding officers to “shoot all that you see and that you hear” in villages where minority Rohingya Muslims lived, a human rights group said on September 8.
The comments appear to be the first public confession by soldiers of involvement in army-directed massacres, rape, and other crimes against Rohingya in the Buddhist-majority country, and the group Fortify Rights suggested they could provide important evidence for an ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court.
Anthea Butler, professor of religious studies and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said thousands of faculty supported a “scholar strike” for two days in September, during which they focused on racial injustice in or out of their classrooms.
“I would be down as a professor to follow the NBA and strike for a few days to protest police violence in America,” said Butler in an August 26 tweet. After that, Butler said, more than 5,000 faculty backed the initiative, which started on September 8.
A church in Savannah, Georgia, is the first congregation in recent years to depart the United Methodist fold in support of LGBTQ inclusion.
Over the past four years, multiple congregations have left the denomination in response to its intensifying disagreement over how accepting to be of homosexuality. Most have done so citing weariness with the debate or a lack of enforcement of the denomination’s bans on same-sex weddings and “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy.
In recent months, volunteers with United Sikhs have logged hundreds of hours, handing out thousands of meals to people without homes during COVID-19. Since the fires began scorching Northern California, those volunteers have prepared about 700 meals for people who have lost their homes or been evacuated.
Amarpreet Singh, who helps coordinate volunteers for the nonprofit humanitarian relief and development organization, said he is thankful for the opportunity to serve.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, one of the first Muslim women in Congress, has joined the Congressional Freethought Caucus.
Launched in 2018, the caucus seeks to promote secular government, separation of church and state, freedom of conscience, and policy “based on reason, science, and moral values,” as well as to oppose discrimination against nonreligious people.
Members do not need to identify as nonreligious.
Christian Century contributor and open media advocate William Fore died July 30 at the age of 92.
Fore, who was ordained in the United Methodist Church, spent 25 years leading the National Council of Churches’ broadcasting and film commission. In that role, Fore not only helped create hundreds of educational programs for network television, he also played a key role in improving the balance in television news.