Interfaith Religious News Service

Ethicists mark 75th anniversary of German ‘Confessing’ movement
By Bob Allen
Friday, May 29, 2009
ATLANTA (ABP) — A document written three-quarters of a century ago to protest rising nationalism in Nazi Germany’s Protestant churches provides instruction for American Christians navigating through today’s culture wars, say a Baptist ethicist and Methodist filmmaker working together against torture. [Read more →]

by Christy McKerney
The Washington Post
BIG SUR, Calif.— I had been traveling for half a year. And here I was on the road again, this time for relaxation and reflection.

The journey to Big Sur was, in part, a celebration of the culmination of a six-month project searching for the soul of America. Finding Faith: A Journey through America’s Religious Landscape, was intended to show real people talking about real faith around America. [Read more →]

from: Religious Right Watch

Same-sex marriage has nothing to do with religion. So wise up and shut up, religious liars.
Some religious leaders opposing same-sex marriage argue that it is an assault against them, and they say that churches would be forced to perform same-sex weddings. That would be miraculous indeed, since the Constitution of the United States guarantees religious freedom, and same-sex marriage is a civil contract, a government-issued contract, having nothing to do with religion. Same-sex marriage has nothing to do with religion and won’t make churches, mosques, temples or synagogues do anything they don’t want to; it has no effect whatsoever on any house of worship or any single worshiper’s beliefs or the devotional practices they share with others on holy days or anytime. [Read more →]

America’s richest people meet to discuss ways of tackling a ‘disastrous’ environmental, social and industrial threat
John Harlow, Los Angeles

SOME of America’s leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population and speed up improvements in health and education. [Read more →]

MARK BARNA
May 26, 2009 – 7:36PM

Two Christians carrying pamphlets and the Bible knock at a homeowner’s door. In their view, they are carrying out the great commission of their faith to witness about Christ.

But to the residents, the visit can be annoying and intrusive. [Read more →]

by David Sparenberg

Authentic freedom in the 21^st century is not limited to politically legislated freedoms, but extends far beyond; toward new and even the most ancient, most forsaken and forgotten, horizons; into the politics of experience—of the essential human as an awareness-existence partnered and part of the organic fabric of planetary life. Authentic freedom includes [Read more →]

by David Sparenberg

The obsessions of fundamentalism and outdated political reactions notwithstanding, gender is not an issue, sexual preference is not an issue. Even race, on this small Earth, cannot continue to be an issue. War is an issue, more so in this era of stockpiled weapons of mass destruction with capacity to transform [Read more →]

Some Christ Universal Temple members oppose Rev. Carlton Pearson’s appointment
Hundreds of Christ Universal Temple members oppose minister’s appointment

By Margaret Ramirez

Tribune reporter

Rev. Carlton Pearson is no stranger to controversy, and his arrival to Chicago brings a new storm.

Pearson, once regarded as one of the nation’s most influential Pentecostal preachers, was denounced as a heretic for his teaching that everyone goes to heaven: Muslims, Buddhists, gays, even the devil. He lost his followers, his friends and his Oklahoma church. After being shunned as an outcast, Pearson continued preaching his controversial “gospel of inclusion” and built a new following that raised his profile again.

Now, Pearson faces a different battle as he assumes leadership of the 6,000-member Christ Universal Temple, one of the city’s largest congregations. [Read more →]

By Michael Spencer, Christian Science Monitor

Editor’s (Alternet.com) note: Over the years, we’ve run dozens of pieces dissecting the influence of the evangelical Christian movement on American political culture. Most have been critical of its influence — its leaders’ desire to destroy the wall between church and state and turn the U.S. into a “Christian state” — and virtually all have been written by analysts outside the movement. The piece that follows is a departure. Written by Michael Spencer, who describes himself as “a postevangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality,” this essay, which was adapted from a series on his blog, InternetMonk.com, is from the perspective of an insider, a “true believer.” We hope you’ll find Spencer’s take informative.

We are on the verge — within 10 years — of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West. [Read more →]

The Quiverfull movement saddles women with a life of submission and near-constant pregnancies. One mother explains how she embraced the extreme Christian lifestyle — and why she left.

By Kathryn Joyce
Salon.com
Mar. 14, 2009 |

Vyckie Garrison wasn’t sure she wanted to use her real name in this article. Until last year, Garrison (then Vyckie Bennett), a 43-year-old single mother of seven living in Norfolk, Neb., followed a fundamentalist pronatalist theology known as Quiverfull. Shunning all forms of birth control, Quiverfull women accept as many children as God gives them as a demonstration of their radical faith and obedience as well as a means to advance his kingdom: winning the country for Christ by having more children than their adversaries. This self-proclaimed “patriarchy” movement, which likely numbers in the tens of thousands but which is growing exponentially, bases its arguments on Psalm 127: “Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They shall not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.” Quiverfull women commonly give birth to families of eight, 10 and 12 children, or more. [Read more →]

More than 900 Clergy Urge President to Support Comprehensive Sexuality Education

WESTPORT, CT, March 11, 2009 — The Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing today called on the Obama Administration to end federal funding for abstinence-only programs and commit to comprehensive sexuality education in the nation’s public schools.

“We urge you to help bring an end to sex education programs that fail our young people, and to renew our national commitment to education that honors truth, respects diverse values, and prepares our young people to lead healthy and productive lives,” Rev. Debra W. Haffner, director of the Religious Institute, said in a letter to President Obama. [Read more →]

By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium
“I think abstinence is, I don’t know how to put it — like, the main — everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all,” new mother Bristol Palin told Greta Van Susteren in an interview on Fox News (video below). Bristol’s unwed, teenage pregnancy made headlines last year just as her mother, Gov. Sarah Palin, kicked off her vice presidential bid. [Read more →]

Some faith-based leaders voiced support on Monday for President Obama’s budget proposal, applauding it for expanding program funding for low-income and poor Americans.

Some faith-based leaders voiced support on Monday for President Obama’s budget proposal, applauding it for expanding program funding for low-income and poor Americans. [Read more →]

Gladys Terichow
February 19, 2009

Deaths and injuries inflicted by the 22-day war in the Gaza Strip, along with destruction of homes, schools and infrastructure, are taking a toll on families in the Palestinian territory.

“The war is over but the suffering has not stopped,” said Majeda Al Saqqa, program director for the Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA), a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) partner organization that provides cultural, health and educational programs for children, youth and women. [Read more →]

Some of America’s largest volunteer-promoting organizations met in New York City on Friday to collaborate on how they can together respond to the economic crisis facing the nation today.
“We each have different strengths, different areas of expertise, and our roles should be complimentary, not competitive,” Carl A. Anderson, the chief executive officer of the Knights of Columbus, told over 175 representatives from around 110 groups. [Read more →]

Priest came under fire for suggesting hurricane was God’s punishment
The Associated Press
updated 1:38 p.m. CT, Mon., March. 2, 2009
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI on Monday formally rescinded the promotion of an ultraconservative priest who came under fire for suggesting that God punished New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina.
The Vatican announcement confirmed a previous decision by the priest, the Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner, to give up the promotion. [Read more →]

JIM JONES
Tuesday, Mar 3, 2009
The Rev. Bob Pearle says a different kind of church has risen in America. In vast auditoriums and smaller places people listen to preachers who roam the stage and tickle the ears with feel-good messages.
Many of those churches follow “Wal-Mart” strategies of pleasing customers but often soft-soap hard biblical truths like hell, sin and salvation, Pearle declares in his recent book, The Vanishing Church: Searching for Significance in the 21st Century. [Read more →]

October 6, 2008

New research claims Bible’s negative stance on women is a myth
by, Bess Twiston Davies

Delilah is dangerous, Jezebel, wicked, and as for Eve… Whether they are temptresses, harlots or simply Old Testament chattels, women (it is often argued) get a raw deal in Scripture, with the odd saintly exception (the virgin Mary). [Read more →]

By David Gushee
Thursday, 14 August 2008
(ABP) — In his recent book, The Great Awakening, Jim Wallis suggests that it is time to move beyond the conservative vs. liberal paradigm to a framework he calls conservative radicalism. This is true in American culture, in evangelicalism and certainly in Baptist life. As the new school year dawns, I find myself increasingly clear that this is the vision I want to try to impart to seminary students and undergraduates here at Mercer. Perhaps others in Christian higher education will find it relevant. [Read more →]

from Washington Post “On Faith” 

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/cal_thomas/

All politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, love to use God to baptize their political agendas. In August, 1994, President Bill Clinton addressed an African-American congregation in Maryland. Clinton told them it was “the will of God” that Congress pass his anti-crime bill. He didn’t say if God would accept any amendments. [Read more →]