Search for "cheap airline tickets for children to st louis mo phone number 1-800-299-7264"

“Saints Are Only Human”: Leaving the Church, But Heeding this Pope’s Lessons

By Elizabeth Colmant Estes

…got her ass thrown in jail.” I get where he is coming from. But to me, the most important thing about the papal visit was not the agenda he upheld, but the stance he held up. At the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on September 23, those of us in attendance were reminded, via loudspeaker, that the Roman Catholic Church has made and continues to make mistakes. “Saints are only human,” a voice proclaimed during a pre-Mass program that ac…

How Much Did Jesus Care About Sex?

By Peter Laarman

…may have noticed that Rod Dreher’s surrebuttal makes strategic use of the most famous work of a much-revered figure, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dreher quotes The Cost of Discipleship to make the point that following Christ (discipleship) means you cannot pick and choose which parts of Christ’s teachings to follow, and that Christ himself was clear enough on the need to lay aside carnality in order to live close to God. Citing Bonhoeffer in this way is…

Beyond Alarmism and Denial in the Dominionism Debate

By Anthea Butler

…ents that people are involved in. In evangelical and Pentecostal churches, most people have a home church they identify with, but you have a favorite pastor or evangelist that you listen to occasionally. Studying scripture means you don’t just read the Bible, you read devotional books, and books designed to help your spiritual walk or the church broadly construed. That is the problem with focusing in only on NAR and dominionism. If you don’t know…

Episcopal Church Assault Data Reveals the Dark Side of Inclusive Christianity

By Charlotte Dalwood

…urrently, Episcopal canon law requires those preparing for ordination to demonstrate competencies in the “prevention of sexual misconduct.” The proposed changes would strike that requirement. Instead, ordinands would need to demonstrate the loftier-sounding, but more nebulous, ability to “form communities that understand and welcome diverse experiences of gender and sexuality, manifest safe and appropriate boundaries, and implement strategies to p…

Power Up: Turn Off the Cell Phone

By Daniel Schultz

…r if the convenience of having a cell is worthwhile, given that one of its most common uses is to find out where my wife got to in Kohl’s. But it seems to me that focusing on the micro-trend of rich people opting out of the plugged-in lifestyle doesn’t really get at the heart of the issue. I think the Amish, of all people, have it right. It’s not so much about what you as an individual are doing or not doing, as the effect technology has on the co…

Sacred Texting: When Religious Writ Gets Wired

By Rachel Wagner

…o traditional Muslim authoritative resources is forcefully challenging the most conservative modes of Islamic authority, allowing those who previously had no voice to decide for themselves what to believe and why to believe it, whether those in traditional positions of authority like it or not. For Christians, the problem of increasing accessibility of religious texts is just as intense, but takes on a somewhat different form: namely, easy public…

Put Your Money Where Your Mind Is: A For-Profit Meditation Studio Opens in New York

By Michael Schulson

…s just a block away from Washington Square Park, in one of New York City’s most chic areas. For the price of two entrees at Denny’s (plus a dessert), you can drop in for a 45-minute session that includes a brief introduction, a guided meditation, and a debrief Q&A with one of MNDFL’s 27 teachers. Special deals are available for your first month of visits. “In this branded form, it offers both health benefits and pleasure, and it can be delivered i…

LDS Church Labels Same-Sex Spouses “Apostates,” Bars Children From Baptism

By Joanna Brooks

…ion of children. Mormonism is a faith deeply rooted in families. Among the most beautiful and treasured Mormon doctrines is the teaching that intergenerational family ties continue after death. Many Mormon families with LGBT members have taken refuge in the belief that no matter how difficult the conflicts between Church doctrine and the reality of homosexual lives, these conflicts will be resolved by God in the eternities. Barring the children of…

Church’s Lawyers Have SNAP in Their Sights

By Kathryn Joyce

…vivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the oldest, largest, and most visible peer counseling group for victims of clergy sex abuse in any denomination, received a subpoena from a Kansas City, Missouri, priest being prosecuted for sexually abusing an older male victim SNAP has never met. The subpoena demanded a sweeping range of documents and correspondence concerning thousands of the estimated 100,000-plus people SNAP has counseled over…

Can Expelled Teach Us a Thing or Two?

By Arri Eisen

…ctive dialogues among them, rather than battle rhetoric, is the way to go. Most striking to me is how much the movie tells us about the failure of American science education. Expelled can be seen, in some senses, as a product of that failure; a failure to teach science as a process that has much power but also significant limitations. If the ‘creation/intelligent design/evolution controversy’ is a window into the American soul, then that window lo…