Faith - links
For Some Black Pastors, Accepting Gay Members Means Losing Others
When the Rev. Dennis Meredith of Tabernacle Baptist Church here began preaching acceptance of gay men and lesbians a few years ago, he attracted some gay people who were on the brink of suicide and some who had left the Baptist faith of their childhoods but wanted badly to return. At the same time, Tabernacle Baptist, an African-American congregation, lost many of its most loyal, generous parishioners, who could not accept a message that contradicted what they saw as the Bible’s condemnation of same-sex relations.
Mar 27, 2007
Topic: Faith, Family, Marriage, Sexual Purity, Homosexuality, Citizenship, Christian Citizenship
No Altar, No Pews, Not Even a Roof, but Very Much a Church
Homeless off and on since 1991, Rickey Robinson figures he needs to get close to God as often as he can. So on an especially icy Tuesday afternoon, as on many Tuesday afternoons, he bundled himself in a long black coat and joined a small group gathered in a corner of Franklin Square Park, where they prayed, sang a hymn and recited the 23rd Psalm.
Feb 6, 2007
Topic: Faith
Bible Class Can Be Difficult, But Legal
Thursday, January 25, 2007 9:20 AM CST
Editor’s Note: This is the second in a three-part series looking at issues surrounding a proposed elective looking at the Bible as a cultural document. Friday’s report will examine the history of the Bible in the classroom.
By Amy Sherrill
TIMES RECORD • ASHERRILL@SWTIMES.COM
The Bible can be taught in a secular manner in public schools, according to law professors, First Amendment advocates and religious leaders, but teachers and school districts must walk a fine line to do it legally.
In Fort Smith Public Schools, no classes incorporate the study of the Bible in history and literature, but a Fort Smith group hopes that the school district adopts its proposal to do so.
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The Rev. Richard Land, Southern Baptist Convention, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said that a public school attempting to teach a course on the Bible is fraught with difficulties that are exacerbated because schools deal mostly with minors.
“A lot of these questions are different questions when you’re dealing with college students,” Land said. “Even as an elective course, I don’t know how you’re going to teach the Bible objectively and fairly in a secular school. If you teach it as a secular subject, well, that’s going to be perceived as being an approach to the Bible that is not balanced or fair by people of religious faith.”
He added that when the school board gets ready to make its decision, members should ask the litmus test question: If the school board is willing to have an elective course on the Bible, is it also willing to have an elective course on the Koran?
Jan 25, 2007
Topic: Faith, Bible, Family, Children, Education, Citizenship, Church and State, Religious Liberty
BARNA : Who Qualifies As An Evangelical?
January 18, 2007
(Ventura, CA) – The media and social commentators frequently refer to surveys that describe the opinions and behavior of “evangelicals.” However, those analyses are based on surveys that ask adults whether or not they consider themselves to be an evangelical. For two decades, The Barna Group has been measuring the social, political, religious and behavioral characteristics of evangelicals as well – but using a substantially different set of criteria. The Barna Group’s nine questions pertaining to the spiritual beliefs of people have reported on a very different – and much smaller – group of people. To distinguish them from the self-described evangelicals, Barna has named the segment based on its answers to nine theological factors the “9-point evangelicals.”
Jan 22, 2007
Topic: Faith, Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, National
CNN - What is a Christian? (T-script)
CNN
ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES
What is a Christian?; New Moral Values; Evangelicals and Israel; End of Days; Capitalist Christian; The Seekers
Aired December 14, 2006 – 23:00 ET
As expert guests, Anderson will talk to Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Jim Wallis, author of “God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It” and president of Sojourners, a progressive Christian ministry, along with Dwight Hopkins, a professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Dec 15, 2006
Topic: Faith, Bible, Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Church and State, Religious Liberty, Social Issues
Gay and Evangelical, Seeking Paths of Acceptance
Justin Lee believes that the Virgin birth was real, that there is a heaven and a hell, that salvation comes through Christ alone and that he, the 29-year-old son of Southern Baptists, is an evangelical Christian.
Dec 12, 2006
Topic: Faith, Family, Sexual Purity, Homosexuality
WA Post: The Gospel According to Jim Wallis
Washington Post Magazine
By David Paul Kuhn
Sunday, November 26, 2006; Page W2
JIM WALLIS IS PREACHING ABOUT A BIBLE TORN APART. Wallis tells the crowd at the Seattle Pacific University chapel that when he was in seminary, a fellow student took hold of an old Bible and cut out “every single reference to the poor.”
“And when we were done, that Bible was literally in shreds. It was falling apart in my hands. It was a Bible full of holes. I would take it out to preach and say, ‘Brothers and sisters, this is our American Bible.’”
Nov 26, 2006
Topic: Faith, Apologetics, Bible, Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Church and State, Social Issues, War
For Evangelicals, Supporting Israel Is ‘God’s Foreign Policy’
As Israeli bombs fell on Lebanon for a second week last July, the Rev. John Hagee of San Antonio arrived in Washington with 3,500evangelicals for the first annual conference of his newly founded organization, Christians United For Israel.
Nov 14, 2006
Topic: Faith, Citizenship, War, Issues
Watchdog Group Accuses Churches of Political Action
A nonprofit group has filed a complaint asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the role that two churches may have played in the re-election campaign of Kansas’ attorney general.
Oct 26, 2006
Topic: Faith, Citizenship, Church and State, National
Court: Groups Must Offer Contraceptives
New York’s highest court ruled Thursday that social service agencies run by the Roman Catholic Church and other faiths must provide birth-control coverage to their employees, even if they consider contraception a sin.
Oct 23, 2006
Topic: Faith, Family, Life, Citizenship, Legislation, Religious Liberty