Court rules against Christian legal student group. A federal appeals court has upheld an “open membership” rule for student organizations at a University of California law school, making a Christian student group ineligible for recognition because the group requires adherence…
Smorgasbord religion on the rise throughout United States
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Friday afternoons find Ann Holmes Redding at the Al-Islam Center in Seattle, reciting Muslim prayers. Come Sunday, she heads about two miles south to kneel in the pews of St. Clement’s of Rome Episcopal Church. “My experience…
Keep me
‘Keep me a hundred years, and you shall find a use for me.” In 1885 William H. Whitsitt penned this line on the inside front cover of his secret diary. The diarist painstakingly and neatly recorded his activities and his…
Finding an antidote to biblical dummies?
Did you hear the one about little Johnny’s Sunday school teacher talking to the boy’s father, a deacon? The teacher good-naturedly approached the dad in the church parking lot. “You’ll never believe what happened in Sunday school,” he began. “I…
Reconciliation, collaboration among Baptist Border Crossing themes
LIBERTY, Mo. (ABP) — Speakers challenged nearly 1,000 ministers and laypeople from several Baptist denominations and Midwestern states to become agents of reconciliation, collaboration and justice during the Baptist Border Crossing April 2-4 at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Liberty,…
Obama rounds out appointments to faith council; Dungy not on list
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The White House announced 10 new appointees April 6 to a diverse panel that will advise President Obama on issues related to government partnerships with religious and other community-service organizations. The appointments round out the Obama’s 25-member…
Top Army chaplain raises Jewish ire with call for fasting during Passover
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Army's chief of chaplains is being criticized for a proclamation calling for prayer and fasting on April 8, which coincides with the first night of Passover. The Jewish holiday — one of the faith's most important…
EDITORIAL: Finding an antidote to biblical dummies?
Did you hear the one about little Johnny’s Sunday school teacher talking to the boy’s father, a deacon? The teacher good-naturedly approached the dad in the church parking lot. “You’ll never believe what happened in Sunday school,” he began. “I…
SECOND OPINION: Saying no to Sunday church
For five decades and in growing numbers, American Christians have been saying no to Sunday church. I think it is time we listened. We have labeled them “unchurched,” “nonbelievers,” “former Christians,” “happy pagans,” “lost,” and a “mission field” that’s “ripe…
HERITAGE: Keep me
‘Keep me a hundred years, and you shall find a use for me.” In 1885 William H. Whitsitt penned this line on the inside front cover of his secret diary. The diarist painstakingly and neatly recorded his activities and his…
Obama rounds out appointments to faith council; Dungy not on list
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The White House announced 10 new appointees April 6 to a diverse panel that will advise President Obama on issues related to government partnerships with religious and other community-service organizations. The appointments round out the Obama’s 25-member…
Opinion: God wrote a book — How the Bible was made
(ABP) — My first Bible was a red King James Version New Testament given to me by the Gideons when I was in the fifth grade. I took it home and read its first words: “The book of the generation…