A Houston megachurch has been in the news due to member concerns about the ways its bylaws were amended and governance was effectively removed from the congregation and entrusted to a small group handpicked by the senior pastor. While this...
The conventional guidance, parroted as if it were gospel, goes something like: Be generous, follow your passions and do enough research to verify that a chosen charity won’t squander your money. It’s not that simple.
Some object that using taxpayer funds to rebuild houses of worship would violate separation of church and state, but proponents argue that religious groups, which are often at the forefront of disaster relief efforts, are being unfairly disadvantaged.
Grace & Main is an intentional community that offers homes for people who need shelter, an urban farm and weekly community meals, worship and communion. In the following reflection, Joshua Hearne pays tribute to Bruce, a beloved member of the Grace & Main family who journeyed from homelessness and addiction to leadership and service in a loving and transformative community.
The reactions to revelations of sexual abuse by the late theologian John Howard Yoder, and especially to a recent published response to Yoder’s actions by theologian Stanley Hauerwas, continue to prompt wide-ranging conversations. Here are two of the latest.
Southern Baptists in Arkansas recently endorsed a controversial statement released by a coalition of evangelical leaders in August that says the Bible does not leave room for people to identify as both Christian and gay.
In response to growing revelations of sexual abuse, many women have written #metoo on social media. But there is a perplexing silence among Latinas. There is too much evidence to suggest that this lack of voices means that sexual abuse is absent in the Hispanic community. Perhaps in a communal culture such as the Hispanic one, it makes sense that we move forward right now with a #wetoo, until we are ready to say individually #metoo.
Si bien aplaudo el valor de las muchas mujeres que han escrito #metoo en las redes sociales, me he quedado perpleja por el silencio casi absoluto de parte de las latinas. He vivido lo suficiente como para afirmar que esta falta de voces o reconocimientos no significa que el abuso sexual esté ausente en la comunidad latina.
Staff changes, congregational news and more from across the nation.
Besides growing a church with new converts to Christianity, New City Church’s central mission is to slow, stop, and even turn back the negative effects of gentrification in urban Minneapolis communities.
Barry Lynn, who is retiring as head of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, says he believes data and his experience paint an America becoming less tolerant of government-backed expressions of religion.
Recently, I dreamed I was named pope of the Protestant church, and given sweeping powers to instigate any changes/adjustments/new expectations that I chose. When I awakened from my fantasy, I jotted down some of my plans.
There is a vast difference between the reality and the rhetoric of religious freedom, which is often considered to be the ideal that promotes harmony and equality. But history suggests that it does, in fact, lead to more conflict.
