Religion Dispatches
…e actually got upset. “What a terrible thing to call someone,” Seeger told USA Today in 2009. “I’ve made a lot of foolish mistakes over the years.” One of my favorite mischievous stories about Seeger comes from a college friend, who sneaked into a high-roller benefit at which the singer was appearing. When the bouncer tried to kick him out, Pete interceded—then told my friend he was now responsible for bringing him drinks all night. I love that Se…
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…’ve flirted with Lutheranism and interned in the Church of Scotland, the PCUSA has always been my true home. It’s through the PCUSA that I received a seminary education and found my pastoral voice. It’s in the PCUSA that I learned the hymns of the church and fell in love with Reformed theology. It’s the elders and members of the PCUSA who taught me God’s grace in word and deed. Because of this foundation, I was more than happy to champion the PCUS…
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…n and productivity consultant David Allen. Beset by scandals, including accusations of sexually manipulating followers, Hinkins stepped down from MSIA in 1988 but continued to write. Emma Sommers Richards The first female to pastor a Mennonite church in the U.S., Emma Sommers Richards died at 87. Her ministry “marked a breakthrough in North American Mennonite’s understanding that the Holy Spirit calls both women and men to pastor ministry,”accordi…
Read More…peated his claims that Muslims don’t worship the same God as Christians to USA Today last week, and threw in a little mockery of Hindus as well. And oddly — while many on the religious right are attempting to reach out to African-American conservatives — he told the newspaper’s religion reporter, Cathy Lynn Grossman, that “Obama pays attention only to black charismatic and Pentecostal pastors, such as his spiritual adviser, Joshua Dubois.” Partisa…
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…no hint of how, for example, a same-sex couple in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA, might see itself as morally equivalent to its heterosexually coupled next door neighbors despite the fact that state and federal laws, tax codes, and neighborhood children do not notice any difference. Apparently nothing that was spoken by lay Catholics at the Synods (who merit nary a mention in the text) seeped into the writers’ consciousness—only what was uttered by…
Read More…as apparently been reading my sister’s evangelism playbook. In an op-ed in USA Today he outlines the same kind of “love ‘em until they see the error of their ways” philosophy that the religious right should employ toward gays and lesbians. It is time for evangelical Christians to reform our rhetoric. This means doing away with clichés such as the infamous “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” Self-gratifying monologues are neither helpfu…
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…ter acceptance of pluralism during the 20th century. Today, even a growing number of evangelicals treat those positions as mainstream—but ecumenical institutions have struggled. During 1960s-era social transformations, conservative laity withdrew money and support from organized ecumenism. Meanwhile young liberal Christians often left it behind to do social justice work within a secular environment that offered quicker, bolder action. Others compr…
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…ica, United Methodist Church, American Baptist Church, Presbyterian Church USA, United Church of Christ, and the Reformed Church in America. Women are also ordained in Buddhism as well as in Reform and Conservative Judaism. The Roman Catholic Church, however, is not the only American religious denomination to deny women’s ordination: the Mormons, the Orthodox church, Orthodox Judaism, the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church, Islam, and the South…
Read More…yesterday that Initiative 26—part of the national anti-abortion Personhood USA campaign which seeks to grant fetuses legal status as persons—may be on the statewide ballot next year. The organization has lobbied for ballot initiatives in states across the country which would subject to popular vote the definition of life, which its supporters say begins at conception. According to the Jackson Free Press: “Plaintiffs carry a heavy burden in attempt…
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…. Louis, where a veritable rainbow of elders from groups including Dignity USA, Affirmations, Integrity, and the Institute for Welcoming Resources shared their experiences. For example, Darlene Garner who has a long, distinguished history of ministerial leadership was part of a splendid panel of lesbian feminists and trans women who spoke candidly about their histories and challenges. Two women’s groups, the Conference of Catholic Lesbians and Chr…
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