STAFF CHANGES Clarence “Whitey” Davis, to Sharon Church, Rice, as interim pastor. Tom Cribb, to Oakland Church, Roanoke, as interim pastor. RETIREMENT Al Peverall has announced plans to retire as pastor of Jackson Memorial Church, Chesapeake, effective Jan. 1. He…
IRS denies it told church not to pray for re-election
(RNS) — A Virginia pastor who prayed that God would re-elect President Bush says the Internal Revenue Service threatened him with charges of improper “electioneering,” but the IRS maintains it has made no decision in the case. The controversy erupted…
OPINION: A Christian film critic’s conundrum
I was once reprimanded by a reader for suggesting Casablanca as a video alternative because the Humphrey Bogart character owned a bar. I remember my consternation over the fact that this man had dismissed this classic romantic adventure that salutes…
Members of Congress accepting religious trips
(RNS) — Over the past four-and-a-half years, private organizations spent nearly $570,000 flying members of Congress and their families around the globe on religion-related trips, putting them up in hotels and feeding them, a study of congressional records shows. An…
LETTERS: Not the way of Christ
The guest editorial “Kill or be killed” by David Gushee left me wondering — what was the point that Dr. Gushee was trying to make? Was he saying that we have crossed some line where it is now legitimate to do…
Church and people news
STAFF CHANGES Jim Day, to Broad Run Church, New Baltimore, as pastor. John Compton, resigning as senior pastor of First Church, Alexandria, to accept a similar position in Mississippi. Lance Yost, to Jahnke Road Church, Richmond, as bi-vocational pastor. DEATHS…
LETTER: Kill or be killed
I was a bit surprised to read David Gushee’s article “Kill or be killed” in the Religious Herald [Oct. 21]. The piece was well-written and thoughtfully prepared, the kind of essay one might find in The Atlantic Monthly, for instance,…
HERITAGE: The laughing fit
There are few calamities as destroying to a public speaker than for the speaker or the audience to be stricken with a case of the laughing fit. Herein is the report of an outbreak in Campbell County. Recently this columnist…
Faith of our (early church) fathers
(ABP) — The faith of their fathers doesn’t impress youth and young adults very much. But the faith of the early church fathers is a different story. And it increasingly is their story as a generation starved for stable and…