…rishing other relationships, working to mend our broken world, and being a sign of faithfulness to their community.” I hate to admit to agreeing with Douthat, but he’s right. The church can’t retreat from its fight on gay marriage because to do so would take it back nearly 50 years to when it was on the brink of approving the use of contraception but backed down because it would codify the idea, which it had already tacitly accepted, that the purp…
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…ts with Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God (872, XXV). This is no mere theological quibbling. The cornerstone of Reformation theology developed by Martin Luther, then adapted by John Calvin on its way to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, was the idea that human beings could not ourselves determine what God had marked as sure indicators of God’s grace in us. Rather, Luther argued th…
…hat we may soon witness violent attacks and murders by individuals whose assignment of collective guilt is strengthened by visiting the museum and by consuming its incomplete and misleading content on Islam. These fears of the institution’s effect are magnified by the awareness that one of the key members of the board of directors, who serves on the crucial 11-person “program committee” that approves exhibition content, has argued publicly that Is…
…any neighborhoods across North Carolina, but in Durham, North Carolina his sign in your yard meant hopeful solidarity across the unbridgeable divides of race. It was a heady, heart-felt time for us, as we wrote letters and knocked door to door. But my daughter said something right after President Obama won that gave me pause. She woke up on November 5 with a deflated sense of purpose. She was going to miss being a part of a giant project for, well…
…ue with Grenell over his criticism of the Bush administration’s failure to sign a December 2008 U.N. resolution that called for decriminalizing homosexuality across the globe. While at the United Nations, Grenell fought unsuccessfully to have his partner, Matt Lashey, listed among the spouses in the United Nations’s Blue Book, a personnel directory. “It’s concerning that you would have somebody tapped to be potentially in an administration that wo…
…traditionally varies according to the Tibetan lunar calendar, in order to promote tourism. Of the various policies implemented by Chinese governmental agencies in recent years two have been the greatest source of friction between the clergy and the government. The control of the number of monks and nuns in monastic institutions, and the implementation of “patriotic re-education.” Since it is largely these policies that have brought the clergy int…
…r a floor vote, and despite the likelihood that Governor Mary Fallin would sign it into law, I think SB-1433 is in danger of becoming a political hot potato. The die-hard “personhood” position—which holds that not just life, but legal rights, begin at some poorly-understood “moment of fertilization”—is not a position all pro-life people are comfortable with. And it’s not hard to understand why: What of women with life-threatening pregnancies? Does…
…otesters got swept into the jailhouse. The UU engagement in Arizona made a significant impact. Following are seven lessons this experience offers for the faith community on effectively engaging and mobilizing people around the immigration crisis (or other social justice issues). 1) Engage leadership. The UUA president made a personal commitment on the issue. He offered to go to Arizona. He issued an invitation to others. He agreed to get arrested….
…oid offending the feelings of his fellow citizens. He would have carried a sign in front of the mosque: I will die for the freedom of these Muslim citizens to build their church here, and I will work my whole life to engage and persuade them that Christianity is the only true path to salvation. We may be in our waning years as an empire, but America need not perish as a powerful force for improving the lives of men and women everywhere. After a co…
