Despite what some critics assume, Brian McLaren, the most controversial of emergent leaders, does not represent all things emerging. But he does represent the more progressive wing, and his latest books offer a glimpse of where that movement might be heading.
Economics has given us a lot of better words, from self-interest to incentive to profit. They do not mean the same thing as greed, but they have displaced it, obscured it — and certainly demoted it from being a deadly sin.
As we previously reported, today is “Pulpit Freedom Sunday”, a day designated by the Alliance Defense Fund for ministers and other religious leaders to challenge the half century IRS prohibition on political speech by churches. To challenge that rule, several pastors plan to defy the ban by making endorsements from the pulpit. And, as we previously reported, many other religious leaders have challenged the wisdom of this challenge.
Over the weekend we heard from Christianity Today about the phenomenon of people on Wall Street turning to God because of market volatility. Today we have a piece from Reuters that spotlights Trinity Church Wall Street, the Episcopal church so close to Ground Zero, among others. Observations included more people coming to services, more of them wearing business suits to lunchtime services, and among regular worshippers, “more strained faces” according to a nearby synagogue.
On Thursday, the United Nations will convene for a special session to discuss the Millennium Development Goals. The Archbishop of Canterbury has invited all interested parties to attend an Interfaith Service of Recommitment and Witness of the Achievement of the MDGs at the Cathedral of St. John’s the Divine in New York City. While it is not clear whether Archbishop Williams will himself be present as some outlets have reported, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will officiate at the service and Archbishop of York John Sentamu will preach.
When last we heard from The Rev. Zachariah Char, his family was caught up in bureaucratic red tape and his wife had been attacked, and
The Houston Chronicle covers the beginnings of cleanup efforts in Galveston with an emphasis on the church buildings there, many of which date back to the 19th century. Workers set about wringing out carpets and turning on fans to exhaust the moisture from the buildings, helping to save them from the secondary damage that can be wrought by mildew and mold. Among those churches is Trinity Episcopal, which also withstood a nasty hurricane that hit the island in 1900.
Top faith surrogates will hit the trail for Obama. Some of those high profile figures include Former Indiana Congressman and pro-life Democrat Tim Roemer, Catholic legal scholar Doug Kmiec, and author Donald Miller.
Storytelling is one of the few human traits that are truly universal across culture and through all of known history. Anthropologists find evidence of folktales everywhere in ancient cultures, written in Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Chinese, Egyptian and Sumerian. People in societies of all types weave narratives, from oral storytellers in hunter-gatherer tribes to the millions of writers churning out books, television shows and movies. And when a characteristic behavior shows up in so many different societies, researchers pay attention: its roots may tell us something about our evolutionary past.
On Monday, Christians on Wall Street set up special prayer meetings for the week. First came the special prayer conference calls on Monday and Tuesday nights. Then, starting Wednesday, extraordinary prayer meetings were scheduled at Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Deloitte, and elsewhere. Pastors began planning to gather for a sidewalk prayer meeting outside of the stock exchange.