By Leah Allen More than 50 Hispanic ministers and family members gathered in McAllen, Texas, July 26 to pray for those involved in the border crisis, as thousands of undocumented Central American families and unaccompanied minors enter the United States….
Should churches, denominations bear responsibility for unethical clergy? Some ethicists say yes.
By Vicki Brown Ministers are responsible for their actions as individuals, sometimes by civil authorities and ultimately by God. But what responsibility, if any, should the local church and the denomination bear for unethical behavior of their pastors and other…
Repenting of Christianity
Chinua Achebe’s classic novel Things Fall Apart centers around the life on Okonkwo, the powerful leader of his clan and their village, one of nine villages in the Umuofia region of Nigeria. Okonkwo is a fearsome warrior, well-respected among his…
“They are children”: Preachers and politicians part ways at the border
While politicians apportion blame for the thousands of unaccompanied Central American children arriving at our border, the faith community looks for ways to help. I over-simplify, of course. We confront a complex tangle of rhetoric and response, and there are…
A proper starting place
With three parts out of several written and published, I have enjoyed reading David Gushee’s careful examination of the issue of homosexuality and the church. The care and sensitivity he is bringing to the issue combined with an obvious desire…
Same-sex couple makes ‘journey of faith’ to wed
By Bob Allen A lesbian couple, members of clergy and other supporters boarded a bus in Louisville, Ky., July 28 for a three-hour ride to Illinois, where the couple was legally wed. The “Journey of Faith for Marriage Equality” was…
Poll: Americans feel good about evangelicals
By Jeff Brumley Jews, Catholics and evangelical Christians finished in that order in a “feeling thermometer” poll released recently by the Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project. Viewed with a cold, or more negative, attitude were atheists while Muslims…
The taller I become….
We’re remembering the Freedom Summer of 1964 this year, fifty years later. During those momentous times in US history, a broad group of organizations worked together to break the tyranny of the Jim Crow laws in Mississippi. Their primary goal…
SBC leader says border crisis ‘moral disgrace’
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist Convention official just back from a tour of two Texas facilities for migrant children said July 23 the young people he met there were no different from the kind of kids one might meet…