My experience of morality, of beauty, of love — all these things point to the divine, which makes theism more likely than atheism. And then if you ask how can I believe in a God that allows so much suffering? Part of the answer is that I can only believe in God provided I know God knows what it’s like to suffer — and that is the Christian claim, that God knows human suffering.
“We had a pastor in our study group who hadn’t taken a vacation in 18 years,” said Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell, an assistant professor of health research at Duke University who directs one of the studies. “These people tend to be driven by a sense of a duty to God to answer every call for help from anybody, and they are virtually called upon all the time, 24/7.”
When former Episcopal Bishop Donald Davis of Erie was accused of child molestation in 1994, he resigned so quietly from ministry that most other bishops didn’t know why. It was the same year that an Episcopal bishop who had admitted molesting a minor was reinstated after a year’s leave. Since then, church laws have been changed to make it easier to remove offenders.
Vicki Black featured this quotation from the late William Stringfellow on the Speaking to the Soul blog yesterday. But it is a question that can’t be examined too often. Are some people poor because others are rich? And if so, what should Christians do abut that?
It is perhaps only more evidence for why we need ritual in our lives: that act of doing something one has done before, but, even though it’s the same thing, being able to see it as one never has before.
What Would Jesus Do? … Really? … Are you sure?
When the Rev. Torey Lightcap, in his first post of the morning, challenged Café readers to create a Facebook page welcoming Anne Rice to the
Rice’s fiction has made her the star of the niche she dominates, with many acolytes, and her ideas gain quick traction.
Mark Vernon, a former Anglican priest and now popular author and scholar of philosophy in Britain reports on a recent conference held at the Physics Department Oxford hard by the storied halls of Keble College.
This week’s Saturday collection is focused on kids and ministry to children both in the United States and internationally. We’re in the middle of summer and that means most diocesan and parish summer camps are in full swing. Two of the diocesan camps have gotten special attention from the media this week.