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| City seeks to oust church's homeless camp
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Arguing that a homeless haven outside a Fifth Avenue church had become a nightly nuisance, City Hall asked the United States Court of Appeals in Manhattan yesterday to lift a ban on using the police force to roust the homeless from the site.
The church, the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, allows some 20 to 30 homeless people to spend the night on its steps and perimeter property adjacent to city sidewalks. |
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Sessions, presbyteries ignore PCUSA ordination standard
By John H. Adams |
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Local church sessions and, in some cases, entire presbyteries continue to ignore the constitutional standard that requires fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness for officers in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
One of the latest to join that league was the Presbytery of Yellowstone, which refused to take action against First Presbyterian Church of Anaconda, Mont., which is in open defiance of G-6.0106b, the ordination standard. |
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| Clerk's report on dissent case doesn't mention noncompliance - By John H. Adams, Presbyterian Layman |
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Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick has filed a written report with the 214th General Assembly in a judicial case that could determine whether the Presbyterian Church (USA) will muster the resolve to enforce its constitution.
Kirkpatrick's report does not reflect such a resolve. Submitting a report to the General Assembly a year after it was due, he merely acknowledges that the court has made a ruling and includes no reference to the fact that a Vermont congregation continues to publicly defy the church court's order. |
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Evangelicals and the art of institutional maintenance
By Robert P. Mills |
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"From political entities to church-sponsored universities to denominations to congregations, evangelicals have had little success maintaining the institutions they have founded...
"Throughout Church history, many ecclesiastical institutions have come and gone: Congregations have remained. And while institutional maintenance has not been evangelicalism’s greatest gift, we have proved gifted at planting, sustaining, and growing congregations.
"Perhaps today’s confessing church movements are connecting evangelicals not so that we may erect unsustainable institutions but so that we might sustain irreplaceable congregations." |
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Abortion and Pastoral Care Ministry - by Terry Schlossberg
What do we need to know about the community in which women make abortion decisions |
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This is an edited version of a presentation at Princeton Theological Seminary in April, 2002. |
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| Covenant Network GA recommendations |
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Also: info about their GA events, and more |
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Disturbing dichotomies at the town meeting on homosexuality
By Gerald McDermott, Roanoke [VA]
College |
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As a participant in Ted Koppel's town meeting on homosexuality in Virginia on Friday, I found both reason to cheer and cause for concern.
I was encouraged that most parties seemed to listen and show respect for one another. There was no name-calling or assignment of evil motives.
There were also surprises. Some conservatives may have been surprised to hear two lesbians profess their joy in Jesus, and some liberals may have been surprised to hear a conservative woman want to invite gays to her home for dinner.Yet I was disturbed by the abundance of false dichotomies. |
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| Scottish Church owns up to bigotry |
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For the first time in its history, the Church of Scotland admitted Wednesday that it had been guilty of religious bigotry, particularly against Irish Catholics.
Delegates at the church's annual general assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of a motion stating that the church "regrets any part played in sectarianism by our church in the past and affirm our support for future moves toward a more tolerant society." |
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| EEOC files Religious Conviction lawsuit |
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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a lawsuit against a Tampa company on behalf of a woman who claims she was fired because of her strong Christian beliefs. |
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| Don't preach in the Uzbek language, official orders church |
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A Pentecostal church group in Uzbekistan has been ordered not to preach in Uzbek, the state language of the Central Asian country, according to a May 27 report from the London-based Keston News Service. |
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'Love our Enemies' or 'An eye for an eye'?
BreakPoint with Charles Colson |
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As America wages war on terror, confusion over the morality of war itself is an issue the church must address. |
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| Colorado teacher loses bid to block graduation prayer |
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A federal judge late last week refused to stop students at a rural Colorado school from reading a prayer during graduation May 25.
U.S. District Court Judge Marica Krieger on May 24 denied an injunction filed by Plainview School math teacher Sean Shields, who argued the prayer violates the First Amendment's establishment clause, which forbids state-sanctioned religion.
Shields and his family are atheists |
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'Lavender Mafia' weakens church
By John Leo
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"...The rise of the sexually active gay subculture among the [Roman Catholic] clergy didn't cause the horrors of priestly sex abuse. The vast majority of gay priests would never prey on the young. But did the subculture play the role of enabler in the scandals? I think it did, expanding tolerance for the forbidden and generating a sense of futility among the rule-keepers..." |
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Leaders urge boycott of new gender-neutral bible
Today's New International Version not 'sufficiently trustworthy' |
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A broad coalition of church and ministry leaders has urged a boycott of the controversial new gender-neutral version of America's best-selling Bible.
More than 100 influential pastors, theologians and ministry heads -- from conservative evangelicals to Pentecostals -- have united to sign a statement saying Today's New International Version (TNIV) is not "sufficiently trustworthy to commend to the church." |
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Bending the Bible a bit
By Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI |
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Nothing seems more difficult in religion than separating fads from the holy. Even evangelicals are not immune from the temptation to have the Bible bent just a bit in an attempt to accommodate fads.
To say it outright, this commentator shares the concern of "100 Christian leaders," who have just refused to endorse a new Bible translation called Today's New International Version. |
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| Cypress invokes eminent domain to seize church land
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Cypress [CA] on Tuesday became the first Orange County city to use eminent domain to seize church property to make way for a shopping center, disappointing religious-rights advocates and 500 church supporters who packed City Hall.
Leaders of Cottonwood Christian Center say they will seek an injunction in federal court today to prevent the Cypress Redevelopment Agency from forcing the church to sell its 18 acres at Walker Street and Katella Avenue for $14.6 million.
The City Council, acting as the agency board, voted 4-0 late Tuesday to forcibly buy the land for a Costco-based retail center. |
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Overcoming Christian divisions
By Tom Ehrich |
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"...I agree with my pastor's depiction of this as a 'world that is too dangerous for anything but truth, and too small for anything but love.'
Truth isn't the same as right opinion. Love isn't the same as getting one's way. Truth comes from God and takes many forms, not just the ones we know and prefer. Love entails dying to self, not winning the argument." |
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| Catholic colleges head for showdown over obedience to church, academic freedom |
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A deadline looms Saturday that could ignite a smoldering conflict over academic freedom between the Roman Catholic hierarchy and theologians at the nation's 235 Catholic colleges and universities.
Acting on instructions from the Vatican, U.S. bishops have ordered Catholics who teach their faith's doctrine, morality, Scripture, law or history at Catholic schools to obtain a "mandatum" from the bishop of the diocese where the college is located.
The document, which the bishops agreed should be obtained by June 1 — this Saturday — attests the theologian teaches only authentic Catholicism.
Opponents have derided the requirement as a "loyalty oath." Faculty have complained it tramples their academic freedom. |
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Think tank wants more sex
By Mark Tooley |
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A religious think-tank is trying to persuade the religious and academic world that America needs MORE permissive attitudes about sex. Specifically, the Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics (RCPRH) wants to remove remaining religious taboos against abortion, homosexuality, teen-age sex, and other forms of non-marital sex.
RCPRH is headed by former Roman Catholic priest Daniel Maguire, who now teaches moral theology at Marquette University... its list of participating scholars includes numerous liberal Protestants and non-Christians... |
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NCC general secretary blasts Bush policy on Cuba
By Erik Nelson, Institute on Religion and Democracy |
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In a speech to the Washington Office on Latin America on May 20, Edgar charged, "In many ways, this president is blind and continues to encourage blindness in others."
Edgar did not name any specific changes that Castro should make. He painted a positive picture of life in Cuba, except for economic difficulties that he attributed to the U.S. sanctions. He asserted that religious freedom is "flourishing" on the island.
"I think God not only wants us to recognize our enemies but recognize our enemies when our enemies are doing the right thing," the NCC leader insisted. The council has a long record of proclaiming that Castro is "doing the right thing." |
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Letters from readers |
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Whitman Brisky "... I respectfully suggest that it is the liberals within the Church who seek to force their beliefs on the rest of us. In just this short piece, Mr. Craig calls us "Puritans" (which I view as a compliment although he clearly views it as perhaps the deepest insult), narrow-minded, self-righteous, ideologues, holders of dangerous beliefs (I suspect that for Mr. Craig any deeply held belief in absolute truth is dangerous) and Marxists (that one really is absurd)..." |
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Karl M. Everett "...Mr. Craig's article, The "Confessing Church": the new Puritans, is disappointing given his occupation as a teacher of history in a post secondary school..." |
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Robert Titus "Mr. Earl Apel's statement that homosexuality is not mentioned in the Bible and was not known in the ancient world as it is known now is false... The Theban pairs... Alexander the Great..." |
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Carl J. Batzel asks for a link to a previous article about the Puritans, as a contribution to the debate started here by Barry Craig. |
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