Answering critics’ calls to let new leaders shepherd northwest suburban Willow Creek Community Church, lead pastor Heather Larson and other church elders resigned Wednesday and apologized for mishandling allegations that church founder Bill Hybels engaged in improper behavior with women.
A kind of homelessness: Evangelicals of color in the Trump era
As President Trump and his administration continue racialized policies and rhetoric, the question of how evangelicals of color will identify — how they manage their religious and racial identities — is becoming more fraught.
Are churches safer when worshippers are armed?
Connie Peterson is an accountant whose work requires a calculator, not a weapon. But she doesn’t go anywhere without her gun — not even to church.
Starting a conversation about anti-blackness
The term anti-blackness is relatively new. Some think it should replace racism and white privilege as the organizing concept for addressing the mistreatment of African Americans.
Kendall Vanderslice: It’s lonely to eat alone
Has the idolization of the nuclear family stifled our imagination about how to live in Christian community? What might it look like to sleep, eat and organize our days around the communion built at the Eucharist table?
He’s a superstar pastor. She worked for him and says he groped her repeatedly.
Bill Hybels built an iconic evangelical church outside Chicago. A former assistant says that in the 1980s, he sexually harassed her.
Duke Divinity dean steps down with no explanation. She had sparked some controversy.
Elaine Heath, dean of Duke Divinity School, left that job Thursday, according to a story published on the university’s website.
Headed for a larger stage, Nadia Bolz-Weber leaves her ‘house’ in order
Ten years after founding Denver’s House for All Sinners and Saints as a 39-year-old seminary student, Nadia Boz-Weber has stepped down to explore life as a full-time “public theologian.”
In a time of irrational fear and new media: The deadly ‘dance plague’ at 500
The deadly “dance plague” of 1518 took place in a rapidly changing world where suddenly old verities were in question and a new media brought all manner of unconfirmed, superstitious ideas. Sound familiar?
What the early church thought about God’s gender
A scholar says limiting God to masculine pronouns and imagery limits the countless religious experiences of billions of Christians throughout the world.
The pope’s groundbreaking rejection of the death penalty
The Church has underscored its opposition to the destruction of any kind of life, even when that means defying the state. And Francis is willing to alter Church teaching to make that clear.
Baptist convention to encourage political action
The Progressive National Baptist Convention will push churches and their communities to be civically engaged at its upcoming 57th annual conference, themed “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community,” opening Monday.