Year: 2009

Freaks for Christ: Mourning Brother Squirrel

Some time back as I drove to work, I noticed a dead squirrel in the middle of the opposite lane. Two other squirrels were trying to rouse him, shaking his body to and fro without success. A third was chattering from the bank on the side of the road, clearly agitated. They were all running back and across the road. Should I stop? Keep going?

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The socialist gospel

Every true disciple of Jesus Christ gives an affirmative to the question which Cain raised only in denial: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Socialism, as Christians view it, is only a consistent carrying out of this principle as far as necessary, viz., that each man is his brother’s keeper. We say, only as far as necessary.

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Conservative Christian groups fight free speech rules

A national conservative Christian group is calling on several Texas colleges and universities to drop or change their free speech and expression rules because they fear students who voice conservative political or religious views would be sanctioned.

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Don’t ask. Don’t tell. Doesn’t work.

You know that society is moving toward the acceptance of gay relationships when Joint Force Quarterly , a prestigious journal published by the National Defense University Press for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff gives the top prize in its 2009 essay contest to a systematic dissection of Don’t Ask. Don’t tell.

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Mapping the religious divide in the healthcare debate

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has released a useful backgrounder on the role of faith groups in the increasingly bitter U.S. healthcare debate. The report focuses on the two large faith-based coalitions that have emerged on opposite sides of the political struggle to overhaul America’s system of healthcare, which is President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.

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Executive Council reorganizes itself

The council had been divided into four standing committees (Administration & Finance (A&F), Congregations in Ministry (CIM), National Concerns (NAC) and International Concerns (INC)). At this meeting the members were asked to consider if that structure still serves the needs of the council and the church, and how to clarify their individual responsibilities.

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Planting a Lutheran church in America

From Henry Melchior Muhlenberg’s theological orientation and his realization that adaptation to a new American environment was essential if Lutheranism was ever to become a true ecclesia plantata emerged his ecclesiastical polity.

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Imagine no religion

No Spanish Inquisition. No witch trials in Europe or Salem. No Catholic-Protestant struggle in Northern Ireland. But no Bach Cantatas or Mozart’s Requiem. No Gandhi. No Peace Prize for Desmond Tutu, and no Truth and Reconciliation Commission. No St. Francis. Readers – what would break your heart if we had no religion?

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Breaking: Pro-TEC ruling in Pittsburgh case

The property is to be held or administered by the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Regardless of what name defendants now call themselves, they are not the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America.

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