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Following the Prince of peace in a violent world
By the Stated Clerk, Clifton Kirkpatrick, in Perspectives, second issue |
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"...While many of us are pre-occupied with our own denominational struggles over confessional language and questions about ordination, millions of God's children are dying as a result of wars and other forms of violence; moreover, decisions being made by our own government are affecting many of these situations, directly or indirectly, for good or ill...
"As U.S. Christians, we must not ignore the perceptions of other nations, nor of many of our Christian friends around the world, that the U.S., with its unchallenged wealth and power, feels free to make unilateral
decisions affecting global economics and the environment; to bend the United Nations to our will and, most disturbing of all, to initiate a new phase of military imperialism under the guise of the "War on Terrorism," whose true aim is to advance the interests of the United States around the world..." |
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Other articles in this issue of Perspectives: |
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I Am Ecumenical; Therefore, I Am Evangelical by Theodore A. Gill |
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We Have Come This Far By Faith by Michael Kinnamon |
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Raising the stakes
Combative Virginian takes aim at "defiant" church officials
By Alexa Smith, PNS
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A Virginia lawyer has filed a total of 14 disciplinary complaints in six presbyteries where he says ministers and elders have publicly defied the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) by ordaining sexually active gays and lesbians or conferring church "blessings" on same-sex couples. |
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See also: |
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Eight disciplinary cases filed in Calif. ordination (The Layman Online) |
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Another TAMFS Evangelist Accused in Disciplinary Case (That All May Freely Serve) |
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More Light Presbyterians lament anti-gay judicial complaints (MLP)
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| Former pilot sees largest Ethiopian church in United States take off |
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A Christian who fled persecution in his native Ethiopia with virtually nothing now pastors the largest congregation of his former countrymen in the United States. Hanfere Aligaz's Evangelical Ethiopian Church (EEC) of Washington, D.C., is home to almost 2,000 Ethiopian believers.
Aligaz founded the church with just 15 people in 1982, a year after he and his wife and their four children fled their Communist-run homeland with just $140 between them.
But although Aligaz admits that he "didn't know anything about being a pastor or an evangelist," he is not altogether surprised at the way the church has grown. For, he said, he came to the United States in obedience to a call from God to start a church in the American capital. |
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An unholy hoax? - The authenticity of Christ
BreakPoint with Charles Colson |
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It's become the surest way to get attention during Easter: claim the resurrection of Christ was an unholy hoax.
The latest claimant is a researcher named Suzanne Marie Olsson. She says that she's convinced she has found the final resting place of Jesus—in a Muslim shrine in India.
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| Archbishop in Poland quits over allegations |
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A Roman Catholic archbishop in Pope John Paul II's homeland announced his resignation today following a Vatican investigation of newspaper allegations that he made advances on young clerics. |
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| Tax Reform: Russia, 1; United States, 0 |
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The nation that used to represent international socialism has junked its "progressive" income tax for a simple 13 percent flat tax.
What's more -- in a plot twist even novelist Tom Clancy might have scoffed at -- the idea came from President Vladimir Putin, a former head of the KGB.
Moreover, Russia's economy grew by more than 5 percent last year while most other nations were mired in recession
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Rethinking religious tolerance
Should one tolerate religious practices one finds intolerable?
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"...the more she learns about how women are treated in Afghanistan, Africa, and elsewhere, the more she finds many religious ways to be intolerable..." |
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Church shelters fight zoning laws
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A Pittsburgh church that runs programs for the homeless is challenging proposed zoning changes that it claims would interfere with its duty to serve the poor and infringe on its constitutional religious freedoms.
A city councilwoman requested the zoning changes for Allegheny United Church of Christ after angry neighbors complained that a homeless man recently had been convicted of murder and of sexually mutilating an 11-year-old boy. The church's doors are close to the home of the victim's family. |
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| Encounter with her minister broke trust, but not faith
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When Donna Scott filed a lawsuit alleging her clergyman had sexually abused her, she wasn't a child, but a wife and mother. And the alleged attacker was not a Catholic priest, but a Protestant minister.
"You're a 40-year-old with a master's degree," she told herself. "Who's going to believe you?"
After the abuse was revealed in 1996, the minister admitted in court records to having consensual sexual contact with Scott. He remained in the pulpit while Scott said she was ostracized from the church.
"People don't understand what it's like to have your faith twisted
by a minister," said Scott. "They don't need a knife or a gun. Their weapon is trust." |
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| B.C. for Good Friday
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See Johnny Hart's cartoon for today. |
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| Pedophile advocate featured at Penn State University
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A women's health conference at Penn State University featured an outspoken advocate of pedophilia and sadomasochism as a keynote speaker.
At the three-day Conference on Women's Health and Wellness, Patrick Califia-Rice, a self-described "transgendered bisexual person," spoke of a journey from "female to male sexuality."
The North American Man-Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA, includes this quote from Califia-Rice on its website: "Boy-lovers and the lesbians who have young lovers are the only people offering a hand to help young women and men cross the difficult terrain between straight society and the gay community. They are not child molesters. The child abusers are priests, teachers, therapists, cops and parents who force their stale morality onto the young people in their custody. Instead of condemning pedophiles for their involvement with lesbian and gay youth, we should be supporting them." |
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Jerusalem body 'has links to the Crucifixion'
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A 2,000-year-old shrouded body found in a tomb near Jerusalem could be that of a witness to Christ's crucifixion, a British archaeologist believes.
The remains, discovered by chance in a tomb south of the city walls, have startling links to the Easter story.
The shroud has been carbon dated to the first 50 years of the 1st century AD, coinciding with Christ's earthly life. DNA tests on the remains indicate that the body was that of a male who died of acute tuberculosis. |
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| Church flextime: Selling out or saving world?
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Across the country, churches are bending schedules to make encounters with the holy more practical, even if the new timing reflects a society's collective downtime rather than a liturgical calendar. With the shift, especially evident as Holy Week ushers in Easter, purists lament the loss of religious tradition while pragmatists applaud the popularity of flexible worship times.
At the core looms a perennial but primal question: Are churches transforming timetables to fit the world? Or are they transforming the world by bringing more people into churches through better timetables.
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AP's weekly religion news in brief |
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• Religion-based social programs more effective than secular
• Greek Orthodox parishes given two weeks for input on long-pending governing charter
• Mormon mini-epic has Hawaii premiere
• Ten Commandments plaque is favorite backdrop for weddings in Tennessee county
• Montana double murder case raises issue of religious retreats
• Monks lift siege at shrine where they believe the Buddha attained enlightenment
• U.S. synagogues organize Passover start in helping Jews of Argentina. |
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| Letters from readers |
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Timothy F. Simpson responds to letters from Kent Heier and Viola Larson |
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