The Christian Century back issues from March 1995:
Are the poor with us? Welfare reform.(Editorial)
Mar 01, 1995; ... The poor you always have with you." Jesus' remark has always rankled liberals insofar as it seems to justify a complacent attitude toward poverty. But perhaps this bit of conventional realism on Jesus' part contains an overlooked message, one that challenges both liberal and conservative ...
Immigrant bashing: Proposition 187. (California elections)(Column)
Mar 01, 1995; ... In the western states where the populist movement had great influence, the most enduring reform of the movement was the popular initiative. In this form of direct democracy the people themselves--not their corrupt representatives, bought and paid for by bankers and robber barons--actually ...
Wild Life in Phoenix: reaching out. (Phoenix, Arizona)(Column)
Mar 01, 1995; ... THE PINK-RIBBONED Phoenix sky is still light as I board a battered green and white bus belonging to Neighborhood Ministries, the outreach arm of the nondenominational Open Door Fellowship. Each Monday night this bus winds its way through the back alleys of the Sunshine City, picking up ...
Easing of Iraq sanctions urged.
Mar 01, 1995 ... RELAX SANCTIONS against the people of Iraq, urged the heads of the National Council of Churches and the Episcopal Church in a January 26 letter to President Clinton that explored both the risks and benefits of taking such an action. NCC General Secretary Joan Brown Campbell, and Presiding ...
Reconciliation effort stalls in PCUSA.(Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.))
Mar 01, 1995 ... Moderator Robert Bohl has accused conservative critics of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) of "attempting to micro-manage" the denomination. Bohl made his comments after a meeting of the General Assembly's Committee on Reconciliation, established last year with the hope that denominational ...
Book attacking mainline seminaries raises ire.('Requiem: A Lament in Three Movements' by theology professor Thomas Oden)
Mar 01, 1995 ... Abingdon Press, the book publishing arm of the United Methodist Publishing House, has been criticized by denominational leaders and educators for releasing a book that accuses seminaries of promoting sexually permissive advocacy, political activism, and ultrafeminist hype." The 208-page ...
Sorting things out.(Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35)(Living by the Word)(Column)
Mar 01, 1995; ... LIFE IN THE first century must have been confusing. Individuals accustomed to local traditions and patterns of life were regularly thrown together with people from other localities. Political affairs were handled not by familiar figures but by Roman authorities--often with a ruthless ...
On the tide of the angels.(popularity of angel stories)(Cover Story)
Mar 01, 1995; ... MOTHER MARY ANGELICA, now the owner of a cable television network, says she encountered her guardian angel when she was 11. Crossing the street on the way home from school, she felt herself lifted by invisible hands out of the path of a car. Judging from the New York Times and Publisher's ...
Anachronism and adventurism: recent mission trends.
Mar 01, 1995; ... SINCE THE EARLY 1960s I have served as a missionary in four Latin American countries, and during that time I have become increasingly concerned about burgeoning missionary activity that is reminiscent of 19th-century attitudes and borders on adventurism. Some of those involved in the trend ...
The theft.(short story)
Mar 01, 1995; ... IT WAS ONLY LATER, when the burglary was already four weeks past, that Sarah Fielding began to be aware she was traveling over familiar ground. At first it shocked her, her own callousness, that she could ever, even in her unconscious, have paired this event with that other loss, so terrible ...
Generation Alone: Xers Making a Place in the World.
Mar 01, 1995; ... By William Mahedy and Janet Bernardi. InterVarsity, 183pp., $10.99 paperback.WILLIAM MAHEDY and Janet Bernardi "believe X is a generation of pioneers who will be privileged to stamp their imprint on the shape of civilization far into the future." In contrast, David Lipsky and ...
Late Bloomers: Coming of Age in Today's America: The Right Place at the Wrong Time.
Mar 01, 1995; ... By David Lipsky and Alexander Abrams. Times Books, 224 pp., $18.00.WILLIAM MAHEDY and Janet Bernardi "believe X is a generation of pioneers who will be privileged to stamp their imprint on the shape of civilization far into the future." In contrast, David Lipsky and Alexander ...
Versions of Deconversion: Autobiography and the Loss of Faith.(Brief Article)
Mar 01, 1995; ... by John D. Barbour. University Press of Virginia, 216 pp., $35.00JOHN BARBOUR'S studies in theology and literature at the University of Chicago have prepared him well to pursue the kind of theological analysis contained in this book. A professor of religion at St. Olaf College, ...
The Religious Critic in American Culture.
Mar 01, 1995; ... By William Dean. State University of New York Press, 256 pp., $16.95.IT WAS NOT until page 132 that I realized William Dean was talking to me. For much of the first part of the book he was exegeting John Dewey, Reinhold Niebuhr, William James and many others whose work I read, or ...
Church and state charity.(Column)
Mar 01, 1995; ... SOME 40 SUMMERS ago I sat in a South Side Chicago church with other congregants listening to our preacher tell us about what was going to happen in the long-closed north wing of the building. Most of the white parishioners had moved away and the racially integrated group that remained had no ...
Transatlantis.
Mar 08, 1995; ... JOURNEY STORIES are as old as the Old Testament. Abraham left Ur for a land that had been promised to him. Some of his descendants were forced into a journeysouthward, and they didn't return until Moses led them on another journey. Among the films with a journey theme at the Berlin ...
Nobody's Fool.
Mar 08, 1995; ... Reading the novel on which a film is based is not always essential, and at times it can be distracting, but reading Nobody's Fool before seeing the film is helpful. The richness of relationships, metaphorical descriptions, and subplots in the novel provide a depth that the film fails to ...
End of an Era.
Mar 08, 1995; ... A journey into maturity is the focus of a traditional coming-of-age film, Antonis Kokkinos's End of an' Era. It's about a group of high school seniors who, in a politically repressive period under Greece's last military dictatorship, attempt to stage Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros, in what they ...
Quiz Show.
Mar 08, 1995; ... Robert Redford has said that he views Charles Van Doren's exposure as a fraud on the 1959 television quiz show Twenty One as a moment when America began to lose it innocence. Quiz Show, one of the Academy Award nominees for best picture of 1994, was one of seven major American films on ...
The Promise.
Mar 08, 1995; ... Berlin has been described as a wounded city, still unsure as to how to recover from being divided for 28 years. Margarethe von Trotta's The Promise, the first major narrative film to explore the period of the Berlin Wall (1961-1989), examines that wound through the story of a teen-age ...
Before Sunrise.
Mar 08, 1995; ... Before Sunrise, directed by Richard Linklater, continues the director's involvement with the young adults he portrayed in his first film, Slacker. Ethan Hawke plays an American on a wandering journey through Europe. He meets a French student (Julie Delpy) on a train going to Vienna. They ...
If you stop to think about it.(theological reflection)(Column)
Mar 08, 1995 ... AN INCREASING number of commentators are linking the renewal of mainline Protestantism to the renewal of theological reflection. Benton Johnson, Dean Hoge and Donald Luidens argue that "if the mainline churches want to regain their vitality, their first step must be to address theological ...
Blasphemy in Pakistan.
Mar 08, 1995 ... A 14-YEAR-OLD Christian boy and his uncle who had been sentenced to die for insulting Islam were spared February 23 when a judge in northeast Pakistan ruled that there was no evidence against them. Militant Muslims immediately rallied against the decision. Extremists outside the court in ...
Gay activist arrested for trespassing at CBN.(Christian Broadcasting Network)
Mar 08, 1995 ... Mel White, a former ghostwriter for prominent figures on the Religious Right but now a gay activist, has been arrested on trespassing charges at Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, Virginia. White, who is a minister in the predominantly gay Universal Fellowship ...
After tasting failure.(Isaiah 55:1-9, I Corinthians 10:1-13, Luke 13:1-9)(Living by the Word)(Column)
Mar 08, 1995; ... THESE THREE texts invite repentance, calling us to turn away from false securities and toward God. Interestingly, the sharpest warning comes in Luke, whereas the strongest note of grace occurs in Isaiah.The exile was probably the original setting of Isaiah 55. Israel had been ...
Simmering abortion debate goes public in Brazil.(Cover Story)
Mar 08, 1995; ... MARIANA, a 22-year-old woman in Rio de Janeiro, discovered she was pregnant by a man she didn't love. She was not ready to raise a child. Her job paid little, and in Brazil being a single mother would stigmatize her as a "piranha," a whore. Despite her allegiance to a conservative Protestant ...
Ready-to-Wear.
Mar 08, 1995; ... "Have you re-invented yourself lately? If not, maybe it's time for a change." --advertisement for a women's magazine"Fashion? Well, here's the main thing: it's fun." --New Yorker (Nov. 7,1994)WHAT HAS fashion to do with religion? Fashion is play, is serious. Fashion for ...
Church smells.(Column)
Mar 08, 1995; ... ON VALENTINE'S DAY Natalie Angier reported in the New York Times on the scientific advances in understanding the sense of smell. Roses, chocolates and perfumes presented that day appealed "shamelessly to the second-sexiest organ of the body--the nose." Angier went on: "Nothing can evoke a ...
No sense of the sacred: updating a classic.('Silas Marner')(Editorial)
Mar 15, 1995; ... IF YOU DOUBT that modem culture has lost a sense of the sacred, consider Steve Martin's latest video release, A Simple Twist of Fate. My first viewing of the film was on an overseas flight, which meant that I paid only casual attention. But in the final reel it became apparent that something ...
A Simple Twist of Fate.
Mar 15, 1995; ... IF YOU DOUBT that modem culture has lost a sense of the sacred, consider Steve Martin's latest video release, A Simple Twist of Fate. My first viewing of the film was on an overseas flight, which meant that I paid only casual attention. But in the final reel it became apparent that something ...
Blue.
Mar 15, 1995; ... IF YOU DOUBT that modem culture has lost a sense of the sacred, consider Steve Martin's latest video release, A Simple Twist of Fate. My first viewing of the film was on an overseas flight, which meant that I paid only casual attention. But in the final reel it became apparent that something ...
Legal sea change.(Convention on the Law of the Sea)(Column)
Mar 15, 1995; ... SEA CHANGE" is one of those buzzphrases used to describe a radical transformation. In its "archaic" dictionary meaning, a sea change is simply "a change brought about by the sea." This definition reminds us that the real change occurs not only on the surface but also in the unseen depths. In ...
Religious speech, public money.
Mar 15, 1995 ... SHOULD A state university use mandatory student-activity fees to subsidize an avowedly religious magazine distributed on campus? When the framers of the Constitution wrote the First Amendment ensuring free speech and barring an establishment of religion, they didn't anticipate such an issue ....
Evangelical-Catholic pact questioned.
Mar 15, 1995 ... A document whose aim was to foster greater cooperation between Protestant evangelicals and Roman Catholics is instead causing friction among evangelicals, some of whom think the declaration undermines basic Protestant beliefs. "Evangelicals and Catholics Together," issued as an unofficial ...
Accrediting agency biased, say Baptists.(Association of Theological Schools)
Mar 15, 1995 ... The two-year probation assessed Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, by a major accrediting agency has renewed criticism among Southern Baptists that the agency is unfair to conservative schools. Paige Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological ...
Drawn together.(2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32)(Living by the Word)(Column)
Mar 15, 1995; ... CENTRAL TO these passages is reconciliation, the resumption of a healthy relationship. In Luke's parable of the prodigal son, reconciliation occurs when the father "put his arms around him and kissed him." In Paul's epistle the reconciliation is between God and human beings. "In Christ God ...
The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Non-Belief.
Mar 15, 1995; ... By George M. Marsden. Oxford University Press, 462 pp., $35.00.WITH THE BOOM times in higher education over, colleges and universities have been working to renew and sometimes redefine their identities and missions. Within the past few years almost all Christian colleges and ...
The narrow way of Orthodoxy: a message from Orthodoxy in America to Eastern Europe.
Mar 15, 1995; ... THE FIRST CHRISTIAN believers had no earthly identity. They were dead to this world. They belonged to God's kingdom. In their homelands they were aliens. In foreign lands they were at home. They belonged everywhere and nowhere, for they were "fellow citizens with the saints and members of ...
Politics of reconciliation, Namibian style.
Mar 15, 1995; ... ACROSS SOUTHERN AFRICA people constantly refer to something called a politics of reconciliation. Nowhere is this rhetoric more popular than in Namibia, where it has become part of the party platform of the dominant South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO). But what does this mean? The ...
Harry S. Truman: A Life.
Mar 15, 1995; ... By Robert H. Ferrell. University of Missouri Press, 501 pp., $29.95.Was Harry S. Truman a great president? Few were so reviled in office. Rough edges in his personal conduct and questionable actions and policies invited criticism. Who could think well of his efforts to seize the ...
Borrowed Light: Hymn Texts, Prayers and Poems.
Mar 15, 1995; ... THOMAS H. TROEGER is a professor of homiletics, formerly at Colgate Rochester Divinity School and now at Iliff. He is also a prolific writer of hymn texts, many of them commissioned by churches, denominations, and organizations such as Duke Divinity School (honoring Waldo Beach's work ...
Jewish Renewal: A Path To Healing and Transformation.(Brief Article)
Mar 15, 1995; ... Reviewed by Dean Snyder, pastor of Arch Street United Methodist Church in Philadelphia.MICHAEL LERNER'S book is an intimate plea for the Jewish community to move beyond the spiritual pain and trauma inflicted on it by the genocidal destruction of one-third of its people in the ...
Body, Sex, and Pleasure: Reconstructing Christian Sexual Ethics.
Mar 15, 1995; ... Reviewed by Jean Porter, associate professor of moral theology at the University of Notre Dame.OUR SOCIETY is in a crisis over sexuality in part because the churches have been paralyzed by fear of stepping away from the confines of the Christian sexual tradition," Christine Gudorf ...
Faithful griots.(storytellers in West Africa)(Column)
Mar 15, 1995; ... At five A.M. I get up and at 5:59--hoping to catch my wife's attention before the 6:00 A.M. bad news over National Public Radio begins to ruin the day--I turn on her light and read from Moravian Daily Texts. This book pairs two "watchwords" from scripture with two hymn verses. Each entry ...
Between a gush and a smirk.(megachurches)(Editorial)
Mar 22, 1995; ... ON CHRIST the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand." The message of Edward Mote's 1834 hymn is clear: if you want a place that will withstand "every high and stormy gale," then the solid rock is your best bet. But how do we know when we are ...
A strange silence.(clergy speaking of spiritual matters)(Column)
Mar 22, 1995; ... I WORK WITH pastors from across the country and from around the world who attend a renewal and growth program. This ecumenical experience offers them the opportunity to leave the busyness of parish ministry and engage in worship, biblical and theological reflection and self-discovery ...
Open and closed.(protestantism in Latin America)(Column)
Mar 22, 1995; ... PROTESTANTISM south of the Rio Grande has experienced unbelievable growth--from about 50,000 adherents in 1890 to 40,000,000 today. Meanwhile, Roman Catholic membership is declining precipitously--one source has claimed that in Brazil alone 10,000 Catholics abandon their church each day. In ...
Hong Kong countdown.(religious freedom and the coming takeover by the People's Republic of China)(Column)
Mar 22, 1995; ... IN LATE 1994 the Chinese government constructed public clock towers in Beijing and Shenzhen, a city of over 1 million located on the border between China and Hong Kong. The face of each clock displays the number of days left until June 30, 1997--the day the People's Republic of China takes ...
Hurdle for religious-liberty law.
Mar 22, 1995 ... SETTING the stage for a potential U.S. Supreme Court showdown, a federal judge in Texas has ruled unconstitutional a two-year-old law widely promoted by religious leaders seeking to preclude government intervention in religious practices. Judge Lucius Bunton of the U.S. District Court for ...
Don't abandon the UN, say religious leaders.(United Nations)
Mar 22, 1995 ... House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R., Ga.) dismisses the United Nations as "a totally incompetent instrument." Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R., Kan.) says it is "out of control" and needs to be "reined in." The GOP "Contract with America" would slash its funding. But amid the assaults on the ...
Christian leaders oppose settlements.(Israeli settlements)
Mar 22, 1995 ... Eight prominent church leaders have asked the Clinton administration to use its influence to halt Israeli construction in East Jerusalem and expansion in Palestinian areas. In a letter headed "Jerusalem: City of Peace," released March 6 in anticipation of a meeting with President Clinton, ...
Standing with the victims.(Philippians 2:5-11, Luke 23:1-49)(Living by the Word)(Column)
Mar 22, 1995; ... THE IMPRESSION created by the Gospel text is that Jesus is the victim of conflicting purposes that are exacerbated by the personalities and fears of the main actors. The person whose life is at stake seems to be ignored. He "falls through the cracks," while others press their own advantage ....
Action and insight: an interview with Parker Palmer.(Parker J. Palmer, director of the Teacher Formation Program at the Fetzer Institute, senior associate of the American Association of Higher Education, author and teacher)(Interview)(Cover Story)
Mar 22, 1995 ... PARKER J. PALMER is a writer and teacher best known for his books The Company of Strangers, To Know As We Are Known and The Active Life. A senior associate of the American Association of Higher Education and director of the Fetzer Institute's Teacher Formation Program, Palmer has focused on ...
Rosemary Ruether and Thomas Merton: letters on creation and salvation.(excerpt from the book 'At Home in the World')(Cover Story)
Mar 22, 1995; ... IN 1966 Rosemary Radford Ruether initiated a correspondence with Tho as Merton, the widely published spiritual writer and Trappist monk. Radford was 29 and teaching at Howard University in Washington, D. C. She recalls that she was looking for "a genuine Catholic intellectual peer- with whom ...
On the Eve of the Millennium.
Mar 22, 1995; ... By Conor Cruise O'Brien. Anansi, 166 pp., $12.95.CONOR CRUISE O'BRIEN, well known as a statesman, a writer and a contributing editor to the Atlantic Monthly, has also been a member of the Irish delegation to the United Nations and a special assistant to UN Secretary General Dag ...
They Cried to the Lord: The Form and Theology of Biblical Prayer.(Brief Article)
Mar 22, 1995; ... By Patrick Miller. Fortress, 464 pp., $24.00.THE PUBLISHING world's response to our culture's growing fascination with the spiritual life has been shaped by at least two realities: many who know most about the breadth and depth of the Christian tradition either avoid or belittle ...
Imaging the Word: An Arts and Lectionary Resource, vol 1.
Mar 22, 1995; ... Edited by Kenneth T Lawrence, Jann Cather Weaver and Roger Wedell. United Church Press, 2 72 pp., $39.95; paperback, $29.95.THIS SUMPTUOUS book captures the drama of the church year, the annual faith journey through the seasons of Advent, Lent, Pentecost and Ordinary Time. It ...
The Lost Promise of Progressivism.
Mar 22, 1995; ... By Eldon J. Eisenach. University Press of Kansas, 291 pp., $29.95.The progressive era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries signified an intellectual and institutional revolution in American culture that is still felt today. This argument forms the basis of Eldon Eisenach's ...
Art that offends(Column)
Mar 22, 1995; ... Being a Baroque sort, not a Renaissance person but a Renaissance buff, and having a cloistered mind, I am sometimes asked to comment on art, music or literature that expresses Baroque, Renaissance or medieval Christian themes. Would I comment on catalogs or programs about Christian works ...