Neuroscientists argue that noble ideas such as compassion, altruism, empathy and trust are really evolutionary adaptations that are now fixed in our brains. Our moral rules are actually instinctive responses that we express in rational terms when we have to justify them
As America’s leading Christian denominations are once again feuding and splitting over whether they should allow gays and lesbians to marry, or ordain them as clergy, is it a miracle there are any gay Christians? Given Christianity’s history of exclusion and often outright homophobia … why do homosexuals bother staying, not to mention believing?
All four presentations in the Diocese of Washington’s evangelism series are now available online. The presenters were Brian McLaren, Dean Ian Markham and Professor David Gortner of Virginia Theological Seminary and the Rev. Terry Martin, better known to some of you as Father Jake.
The bishop uses language in a way which abuses LGBT Anglicans. He categorises some of us as ‘non-celibate homosexuals’. This is equivalent to calling married people ‘non-celibate heterosexuals’. It is a deeply offensive way of describing people.
Changes in responsibilities at the Episcopal Church’s government relations office in Washington, D.C., have been announced, and the search for a director for advocacy has been temporarily suspended, according to an August 11 press release from the Office of Public Affairs.
That May survey indicating that a majority of Americans now consider themselves “pro-life” appears to have been a statistical outlier. But you wouldn’t know that from the news coverage.
Much confusion exists in the ordinary, popular mind about the much-used and much-abused words salvation and damnation. The ordinary/popular idea seems to be that of a God who sits like a chairman of Quarter Sessions or rather like the Lord Chief Justice and deals out sentences according to the verdict of acquittal or guilt. Is not this the lowest possible idea of God?
Executive Council should handle all routine (e.g., election of Church Pension Fund trustees), minor issues (e.g., interfaith relations, adding or deleting an observance from Lesser Feasts and Fasts), and implementation of ministry and mission priorities (e.g., approving budgets and staffing plans for the national Church).