Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Healing Presence
A sermon delivered by Kathy Pickett, Pastor of Congregational Life, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City Mo., on February 12, 2012. The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany Mark 1:40-45 2 Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 30; 1...
French Mormons Find a Less Hospitable ˜Mormon Moment’
CHESNAY, FRANCE (RNS) Past clusters of houses and frozen fields in this Paris suburb, the Palace of Versailles sparkles in the evening sun. But Mayor Philippe Brillault has his eyes set on a different landmark: an...
Company Touts Medical Tourism to Israel for Sick pilgrims
JERUSALEM (RNS) Every year, thousands of Americans travel abroad for less-expensive fertility treatments, hip replacements and other medical procedures. Now, an Israel-based tourism company is offering a package that...
Why Do Mormons Baptize the Dead?
(RNS) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has apologized for a Mormon who baptized the late parents of famed Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. But despite calls this week from Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and...
Is Your Worship as Genuine as Gate A3’s?
Every congregation needs to be engaged in a healthy conversation about worship. Hopefully, it is at the heart of your identity, calendar and thought-life. As you face the future, one powerful question you must wrestle...
How Protestants Have Made Accommodations
Keeping an eye and ear on hourly, daily and weekly incidents and trends in zones where "religion and public life" intersect is one thing. Taking looks at such incidents and trends in half-century cycles is another....
Churches Using Old Answers for New Problems
Management guru W. Edwards Deming is reported to have said, "Yesterday's solutions are today's problems." Solutions or responses to needs are formulated for a particular time, place and context. Often they deal with...
One weird winter
The winter of 2011-12, if it can be called that, seems destined to be one for the record books. The entire lower 48 states are experiencing warmer weather and less snow than usual, while northern areas are colder --...
Update: U.K. Innkeepers Fined for Turning Away Gay Couple
LONDON (RNS) Britain's Court of Appeal has ordered a pair of Christian innkeepers to pay 3,600 pounds ($5,800) in damages to a gay couple that was told they could not share a room in the couple's guesthouse. The...
New York Knicks’ Jeremy Lin Dubbed the ˜Taiwanese Tebow’
(RNS) New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin's underdog story and outspoken evangelical faith have some sportswriters dubbing him the "Taiwanese Tebow." But while Lin and Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow share similar...
Poll Finds Americans Split on Contraception Mandate
WASHINGTON (RNS) Americans are split on a federal mandate requiring nearly all employers -- even institutions with strong religious affiliations -- to provide insurance covering contraception. That's according to a new...
What’s So Funny? These 10 Bible Passages Are
Certain biblical passages make me laugh every time I read or hear them. Most of them, I realize, weren't preserved for my 21st-century sense of humor. Nevertheless, personality and culture mix with the ancient text to...
Amid Israel-Iran Tension, Will U.S. Seek Peace?
"Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!" That was a war cry widely heard in the Unites States after the USS Maine sunk 114 years ago today in 1898. The cause of that sinking is unclear even today, but popular opinion...
Peace Activists Encouraged in Oklahoma
News reports for the last few months have been filled with dire accounts about Iran's growing capacity for enriching uranium, the United States' exertion of greater pressure on Iran by strengthening sanctions and...
Attorney Drops Abuse Suit Against Vatican
VATICAN CITY (RNS) A prominent sex abuse lawyer has dropped a high-stakes lawsuit that sought to hold Pope Benedict XVI and other top church officials responsible for a clergy sexual abuse case. The Vatican's U.S....
Washington Becomes Seventh State to Legalize Gay Marriage
SPOKANE, Wash. (RNS) In an emotional ceremony Monday (Feb. 13), Gov. Chris Gregoire signed legislation that makes Washington the seventh state to legalize gay marriage. "Today is a day that historians will mark as a...
No Pews, No Suits, No Problem
(RNS) Ron Williams is the pastor of Church at the GYM in Sanford, Fla. As the Baptist church's name implies, Williams' congregation meets, well, in a gym. Williams said the goal is to remove the "stained-glass...
Why Future Christians Will Be Mystics
For many years now, I've had a growing conviction that the great Catholic theologian Karl Rahner was right to have claimed: "The Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all." He meant that people...
U.S. Apathetic to Middle East Injustices
I once had an argument with an American atheist Jew, who insisted that being a Jew was a matter of ethnicity and had nothing to do with "religion." Later, I found that I had on my side Jonathan Sacks, perhaps the most...
Faith Leaders to Pres. Hopefuls: Don’t Bring Immigration Rhetoric to Tenn.
Dozens of Tennessee faith leaders urged Republican presidential candidates to keep the bitter rhetoric on immigration out of the Volunteer State. Tennessee's Republican presidential primary is March 6. The plea came...
Overturning tables — and misconceptions
By John Pierce My parents, other relatives, neighbors, school teachers and church leaders taught me to value good manners. I still do (except when driving). I try to speak kindly to others, to be gracious in social...