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All the national PC(USA) news
"from left to right"
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All in favor
Theological task force consensus: There's got to be a better way
By John Filiatreau, PNS |
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"Members of the Theological Task Force are questioning whether the characteristically Presbyterian way of doing business – by way of passionate advocacy, parliamentary procedure, Robert’s Rules of Order and up-or-down votes – is the best way to go forward.
"One of the first decisions the 20 members of the task force made, more than two years ago – by consensus – was to make all their decisions by consensus.
"To this day they have not taken a single vote..." |
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Consensus decision-making
Viewpoint of Robert D. Dooling |
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...the glue that holds a consensus-oriented group together is its commitment to consensus itself.
Such a group cannot, by definition, be committed to the pursuit of genuine peace, genuine unity or genuine purity. |
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Berkley blog
Wishful positive thinking – Talk about a cup being half full! |
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Watch for vast, teeming swarms of new Episcopal converts in your neighborhood. |
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News of and for the wider Church,
in the USA and around the world
plus: opinions, resources
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Foes of gay marriage renew push for a ban
'You can't rule a constitutional amendment unconstitutional' |
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"...Gay groups and opponents of the anti-gay-marriage amendment in Congress say they take it seriously and, privately, express considerable alarm...
"I think you've got this panic on both sides," said an activist who talks to religious conservatives and gay rights groups..." |
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| Should judges be disqualified if their religious beliefs impact their votes? – by Jonah Goldberg |
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"...Democrats are taking the position that if you agree with your faith on abortion, gay rights, etc., then you face the presumption of incompetence when it comes to enforcing the law of the land. By this standard, committed people of faith will be less likely to be approved for judgeships. This is most certainly a bias against "serious" Catholics, among others. In fact, it's a bias against religious faith in general...
"...the "No Catholics Need Apply" rhetoric can go too far. But that doesn't mean [Republicans are] wrong for bringing the issue up." |
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| New front in religious battle |
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An Indiana Republican’s amendment to a pending spending bill could block federal marshals from enforcing a federal court order to remove a massive replica of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama State Judicial Building in Montgomery. |
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| Majority against blessing gay unions |
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A strong majority of the public disapproves of the Episcopal Church's decision to recognize the blessing of same-sex unions, and a larger share of churchgoing Americans would object if their own faith adopted a similar practice, according to a new Washington Post Poll.
So broad and deep is this opposition that nearly half of all Americans who regularly attend worship services say they would leave their current church if their minister blessed gay couples – even if their denomination officially approved those ceremonies, the survey found.
Even among those who acknowledged that they rarely or never attended church, nearly six in 10 objected to blessing gay couples.
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| Laodicean Episcopalians – by Craige McMillan |
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"...The Episcopal Church's leadership have now chosen to spit in God's face... Those engaged in open sin can never have a voice in church leadership, because God has forbidden it "
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| Cloning yields human-rabbit embryo |
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Scientists in China have, for the first time, used cloning techniques to create hybrid embryos that contain a mix of DNA from both humans and rabbits, according to a report in a scientific journal that has reignited the smoldering ethics debate over cloning research.
More than 100 of the hybrids, made by fusing human skin cells with rabbit eggs, were allowed to develop in laboratory dishes for several days before the scientists destroyed them to retrieve so-called embryonic stem cells from their interiors. Although scientists in Massachusetts had previously mixed human cells and cow eggs in a similar attempt to make hybrid embryos as a source of stem cells, those experiments were not successful.
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| Catholic colleges may make Catholics more liberal – By Terry Mattingly |
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The survey found that 37.9 percent of Catholic freshmen at Catholic colleges said abortion should be legal, while as seniors, 51.7 percent said that. Also, 27.5 percent of Catholic freshmen believed premarital sex was acceptable for people who ''really like each other.'' As seniors, 48 percent took that view. As freshmen, 52.4 percent favored legal marriages for homosexuals. As seniors, 69.5 percent held this view.
As freshmen, two-thirds of the Catholic students said they frequently attended Mass and one-third did so occasionally. As seniors, 13 percent had stopped attending and nearly half attended occasionally. Nine percent had left the church altogether.
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| Church must stop preaching to the converted, say British ad agencies |
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Traditional images of Christ on the cross and biblical quotations in bill-board adverts are a turn-off for church goers, advertisers have proclaimed today.
The chance for a good sing and the opportunity to have a heart to heart chat should replace traditional images of Christianity if churches are to reverse the decline in attendance, two agencies have suggested.
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BreakPoint with Charles Colson
A just peace – The need for religious liberty in Iraq |
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"...American officials in charge... are conceding far too much authority over the process to extremist groups of Shiite Muslims who would impose Islamic law as the law of the land, and they are ignoring more moderate Iraqi voices who are calling for respect for all religious traditions..." |
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| Could Rastas and Christians really unite? |
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A growing movement within Rastafari is calling Rastas away from their New Age beliefs and idolization of Haile Selassie – and to a Trinitarian, orthodox Christian faith. |
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I lost it – By Wendy Murray Zoba
Noted missiologist Ruth Tucker shines a light on the netherworld of apostasy in Walking Away from Faith. |
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Tucker, associate professor of missiology at Calvin Theological Seminary, has organized the book into three sections. In part one, she fleshes out the human side of the mystery by examining her own life and questions of faith, and the case studies of others.
"Doubt – no matter who writes about it – is not properly respected for the power it wields," she writes. "But little is said of the dark, fierce, hoary side of doubt, and of the logical next step – unbelief."
Click here to order this book |
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| Family ties stronger in religious homes, study says |
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The old adage “the family that prays together stays together” is now supported by science. Researchers at the University of North Carolina say teenagers in religiously involved families tend to have stronger relationships with their parents than teens from non-religious households. |
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| IFES now in 150 nations |
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The World Assembly of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, which met in Holland this summer, drew delegates from 115 national student movements, and from most of the other 35 countries where work has started. Countries that formally joined the Fellowship during the Assembly were Russia, Rwanda, Indonesia, Belize, Lesotho and St. Lucia.
The movement in Ukraine joined four years ago. Since then Ukrainian graduates have helped pioneer student ministry in Central Asia and this year there were delegates from all but one of the Central Asian republics. |
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| God’s gonna trouble the water – by John Arthur Nunes |
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Amazing lessons bubbled up during our church’s recent building project. We became more aware of the ancient intersection between theology and hydrology – the science dealing with the waters of the earth. Our parish discovered – or was discovered by – an opportunity to participate in a project of civic righteousness. More than anything, we learned how water is so deceptively complex... |
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| Letters from readers |
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Ed Koster responds to Earl C. Apel: "...though our personal walk with God is important, it is not the sum of it. I believe we walk arm in arm..." |
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Ed Koster "...I thank Mr. Tilford for clarifying his position and shifting the matter to something we can perhaps discuss without bloodshed..." |
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Edward Koster "...I have been called many things, but Mr. Gates is the first to call me lukewarm." |
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Andy Scott "J. Gresham Machen was, in several important ways, an ill-tempered crank. But as I read more about the Episcopal Church's recent convention, and reflect on our own denomination's troubles, I'm beginning to think he may have been onto something after all..." |
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C. Worth Wilson III "Mr. Koster may be correct that a vast majority of Presbyterians do not agree with the positions on either the left or the right. That I submit is the reason why there is a mass exodus of members from the PCUSA..." |
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Paul C. von Wedel responding to Earl C. Apel: "...based on my studies
of Reformed history, particularly that of the Church of Scotland (from
which American Presbyterianism is derived), I don't find "a tradition
of honoring ambiguity" anywhere. What I do find, however, is the exact
opposite..." |
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