Portugal legalized same-sex marriages last year, joining a small but growing group of countries around the world. According to an op-ed piece in the New York Times, it’s not a coincidence that some of the countries have made this decision. It’s because of their history.
Jesus is the cornerstone of a house built for those who are rejected by the world, Father Matthew says.
The Internet give us extraordinary tools to communicate a message to a large group of people. In recent months this ability has started to cause
Yesterday an important Evangelical leader in Texas, Robert Jeffress, introduced Rick Perry (his governor) as a “genuine follower of Jesus Christ” and then went outside
Too often, Christians dig such a deep pit for ourselves with our doctrines of sin that we have difficulty climbing out, even though we know we have Christ at our side. Beginning from the divine goodness saves us from the temptation of despair. It has the additional benefit of showing us the depth of our sin more clearly.
A pundit high up in the affairs of the multi-national corporations used the word ‘sacred’ about 20 times in just a few minutes to describe the instruments and machinery of global capitalism. We have gotten to the point where questioning the ultimate validity of the transnational capitalist system and the authority of its secretive priesthood is the equivalent of blasphemy.
When I started seminary and began envisioning myself as a clergyperson, I started looking at the style of women pastors, particularly women head pastors. And I noticed that virtually without exception, they had “The Haircut.” The Don’t-Think-of-Me-as-a-Woman-Think-of-Me-as-a-Pastor haircut.
Can anyone out there enlighten us on the moral and ethical case that the Occupy Wall Street protestors seem to be making against American capitalism, and whether it stands up to scrutiny?
Bishop Saul’s presentation has raised concerns about whether authority in our church might be concentrated in far fewer hands. A few suggestions, then, aimed at making sure that every alternative is explored as we attempt to develop a leaner bureaucracy while insuring that all orders continue to share authority in governing our church.
Consolidating formal theological education in a single seminary (or even two seminaries) shifts the institutional paradigm from weakness to strength and from survival to mission. Mainline denominations that do not make this shift fight a losing rearguard action, trying to sustain a nineteenth century model in a twenty-first century world.