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Confessions and Christology could be the hot-button issues at the 214th Assembly
By Leslie Scanlon |
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Concerns about the need for a clear theological witness — concerns which are shared by other evangelicals and have fueled the growth of the Confessing Church Movement — are ready to rise again when this year’s Assembly convenes in Columbus, Ohio, on June 15. |
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Kirkpatrick states he abhors anti-Semitism
Clerk also condemns Middle East violence against non-combatants |
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The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the General Assembly, has issued a statement abhorring anti-Semitism and violence against Jews and condemning all political violence involving attacks on non-combatants. |
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48 quit church, citing secrecy
Dissidents say fundamentalists run St. Andrew's |
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Forty-eight members of Tucson's largest, 1,600+ member Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation resigned their memberships Tuesday because they say a culture of secrecy and homophobia has taken over their once tight-knit church.
Church leaders say they continue to gain members and are sad about those who have left.
The dissidents say in a letter that St. Andrew's has "ceased to be a Presbyterian Church... In our opinion, the atmosphere at St. Andrew's has become repressive, secretive, homophobic, a place where many no longer feel welcome."
St. Andrew's withdrew its confessing-church alignment last week, but it was too late for those who have been increasingly uncomfortable with their church leadership.
Letter of the session to members and friends. "...we have resolved to have no formal alignment with the Confessing Church Movement..." |
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| Fire guts Red Wing, MN Presbyterian church |
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Friday, an early-morning fire gutted the 1857 worship space, burning through the roof, destroying what parishioners described as beautiful woodwork and dropping some of the wreckage into the basement. |
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A question of blood
By Dan Gordon |
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Dr. David Zangen, chief medical officer of the Israeli paratroop unit, which bore the brunt of the fighting in Jenin, stated that the Israelis not only worked to keep the hospital in Jenin open, but that they offered the Palestinians blood for their wounded.
The Palestinians refused it because it was Jewish blood.
The Israeli response, which could easily have been, "fine, have it your own way," was to fly in 2,000 units of blood from Jordan, via helicopters, for the Palestinians.
How do you negotiate with a hatred so great that it will refuse to accept your blood, even to save its own people’s lives? |
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N.Y. hospitals to deny choice on abortion training |
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In an effort to prevent a feared shortage of abortion providers, the nation's largest public hospital system plans to make abortion training a required part of its curriculum for medical residents.
The New York State Right to Life Committee has accused Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Republican who approved the initiative, of trying to "shove child-killing down our throats." |
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George Barna:
Pastoral compensation hits new high |
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Protestant pastors have finally broken the $40,000 barrier in average annual compensation package.
Pastoral compensation has risen from a median of $32,040 a decade ago to $40,077 today. That represents a 25% increase since 1992, a 10% rise in the past five years, and a jump of 4.9% above last year's average. When compared to the change in the Consumer Price Index during that period, Protestant pastors have remained just about even with the rising cost of living in the U.S. during the past decade. |
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Teaching alternatives to evolution backed |
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Two House Republicans are citing landmark education reform legislation in pressing for the adoption of a school science curriculum in their home state of Ohio that includes the teaching of an alternative to evolution.
"Where topics are taught that may generate controversy (such as biological evolution), the curriculum should help students to understand the full range of scientific views that exist," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Ohio board, quoting the conference report language. |
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| Public schools need religious studies, paper says
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Public schools should make religious education a mandatory part of the curriculum, a leading Canadian educator says.
Romulo Magsino, former dean of education at the University of Manitoba, said the legal concerns and fears of indoctrination that pushed religionout of the classroom in the first place were unwarranted, and cultural diversity, rather than being used as a reason for not teaching religion, "imposes an obligation on school systems to truly educate." |
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President weighs in on church scandal
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After sidestepping the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church for months, President Bush raised the topic during his meeting yesterday with Pope John Paul II, telling the Holy Father that he was ''concerned about the Catholic Church in America.'' |
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| Religious alliances favor, and oppose, constitutional amendment against homosexual marriage |
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Many constitutional amendments are offered but few succeed. In this case, an obvious obstacle is that two-thirds approval is required in the U.S. Senate as well as the House, yet not one senator was willing to co-sponsor the House bill.
Presbyterian members on the board of advisors: Parker Williamson (The Presbyterian Layman); Won Sang Lee (Korean Central Presbyterian Church); Bill Giles (The Presbyterian Coalition). |
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Death of an evolutionist — RIP Stephen Jay Gould
By John Wilson |
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Stephen Jay Gould had just published two books, reflecting two sides of his professional life. One was his scientific magnum opus, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, a volume of close to 1,500 pages.
John Maynard Smith wrote: Gould occupies a rather curious position... he has come to be seen by non-biologists as the preeminent evolutionary theorist. In contrast, the evolutionary biologists with whom I have discussed his work tend to see him as a man whose ideas are so confused as to be hardly worth bothering with... |
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Romanian Cardinal and symbol of resistance buried
Pope praises Alexandru Todea for keeping faith under Communism |
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Todea, who died last week at age 89, spend over 14 years in Communist prisons after refusing to give up his religion.
Before his funeral at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Blaj, 185 miles northwest of Bucharest, Pope John Paul II praised the Cardinal in a telegram for keeping his faith under the former "tyrannical regime." |
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Letters from readers |
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Deborah Milam Berkley "It is too bad that as a professor of history, Berry Craig does not show evidence of knowing his subject. What he tells his students about the purpose... and character... of the Confessing Church Movement is incorrect..." |
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John Ryan "...I regrettably do not see in Professor Craig's letter the slightest notion that one might treat those with whom one disagrees with a modicum of basic respect...." |
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David Freehling "The WitherSpoon Society article, by Barry Craig, sent off alarms in my head... this was the first real sense I had that the PCUSA was doomed..." |
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Eric Richey "... I find Witherspoon Society member Berry Craig's attack on the confessing church movement to be a bizzare read to say the least..." |
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Randy Larrabee "When I first saw the title "The 'Confessing Church': the new Puritans" I thought it a compliment..." |
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Malcolm M. King III "...we have too many Berry Craig's on both sides "slamming" the opposition, and too many Robert Bullock's who are not yet ready to let go of the past in order to grab on to the future." |
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Dan Reuter "If Mr. Bullock is right, is there any sense at all in maintaining the enormous apparatus and bureaucracy which, at the national level is the PCUSA?..." |
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Earl C. Apel "...I take issue with [Dr. Tilford's] statement "All homosexual activity is an abomination according to the Bible" since the Bible does not use the word homosexual at all and such a concept was not really known in those ancient times like it is today..." |
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