The Christian Century back issues from September 2000:
Preaching etc.(from preaching sermons to writing for this magazine: the editor speaks)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
Sep 13, 2000; ... FORTY YEARS AGO this month, I took a job as a student pastor in a small nondenominational church in a blue-collar community south of Chicago. I was a middler at the University of Chicago Divinity School-Chicago Theological Seminary, married with an infant daughter, and broke. The church ...
Prayer wise.(challenging the laws against prayer in Texas schools)(Brief Article)(Critical Essay)
Sep 13, 2000 ... CHRISTIAN FOOTBALL FANS in Texas and elsewhere are getting back at the Supreme Court. Provoked by the ruling in June that outlawed school-sponsored prayer at high school football games, some fans in Texas and North Carolina have staged prayer rallies and protests. They have organized ...
Tapering off.(an author's reason for writing)(Brief Article)(Critical Essay)
Sep 13, 2000; ... THE CHILD IS sitting up in bed, propped against pillows. She is six years old. Her homebound teacher, Mrs. Williams, is due any minute. She is fond of Mrs. Williams--a white-haired lady with a pleasant quavery voice. What will Mrs. Williams bring with her today? Last time she ...
Mother Rome.(Catholic-Protestant relations damaged by Cardinal's statement)(Critical Essay)
Sep 13, 2000 ... THE VATICAN has dealt a blow to Catholic-Protestant relations by reaffirming its doubts about the validity of Protestant churches and by officially ordering Catholic bishops not to use the term "sister churches" in reference to them. Released September 5, an official "note" by Cardinal ...
Summit shows religions at best and worst.(Millennium World Peace Summit)(Brief Article)(Critical Essay)
Sep 13, 2000 ... Rich in color and pageantry, long on good intentions but often falling short of a clear purpose and outcome, the Millennium World Peace Summit provided a revealing glimpse of religious groups--and the conference itself--sometimes at their best and sometimes at their worst. On paper, the ...
Episcopal group start `parallel' movement.(American Anglican Council and others plan orthodox structure along side Episcopal Church)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000 ... A group of Episcopalians has launched an informal network of pastors and parishes "parallel" to the national church structure because of a "pastoral emergency" in what they view as the liberal-leaning church. Meeting recently in Nassau in the Bahamas, several organizations said ...
Charges dismissed against UMC bishop.(United Methodist Church bishop cleared)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000 ... A retiring United Methodist Church bishop has been cleared of charges that he mishandled the case of 67 pastors who officiated at a same-sex union ceremony last year. Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, who retired from the California-Nevada Annual Conference on September 1, was cleared by a ...
PCUSA clergy, laity, differ on gambling.(Presbyterian Church and gambling)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000 ... Presbyterian ministers and members have sharp disagreements on the morality of gambling, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) survey shows. And whether they consider it moral or not, many Presbyterians take part in legal gambling, the Presbyterian Panel survey found. Of ministers ...
Churches say no to gene patenting.(Conference of European Churches protests European law)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000 ... A leading European church body has called for the reopening of debate on a key piece of European legislation that could allow the patenting of human genes. The church and society commission of the Conference of European Churches, which brings together almost all mainstream Protestant, ...
`Crisis junkies' said to hinder disaster aid.(World Health Organization says some humanitarian aid groups do more harm than good)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000 ... Small disaster relief agencies are more often harmful than helpful to international aid efforts, according to a World Health Organization representative, who called such agencies "crisis junkies." "You see hundreds of small agencies turning up at the scenes of disasters," said ...
Russian church opts to stay in WCC.(World Council of Churches)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000 ... The Russian Orthodox Church has decided to remain a member of the World Council of Churches, the world's main ecumenical organization, despite vehement criticism from some highly conservative sections of the Russian church. However, one leading Orthodox bishop has suggested that the WCC ...
U.S. priest killed in Kenya.(John Kaiser)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000 ... Thousands of Kenyan mourners paid their respects to a Minnesota priest when he was buried August 31 after what human rights activists have called a political assassination. The body of John Kaiser, 67, was found August 24 along a highway near Naivasha, northwest of Nairobi. He had been ...
People.(includes multiple articles)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000 ... * The United Methodist Church has tapped a Virginia lay leader to head the church's social policy division and hopefully improve communications between the progressive agency and rank-and-file church members. James E. Winkler, who currently serves as assistant general secretary for the ...
The millstone.(Bible)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000; ... Sunday, October 1 Mark 9:38-50 ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. Like it or not, it is a biblical concept, albeit a late-blooming one. In the Old Testament, the afterlife is rarely spoken of, and when it is, it is usually pictured as a shadowy, wraithlike existence. For the ...
Remembering who we are.(Bible, Psalm 8)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000; ... Sunday, October 8 Psalm 8 WE HAVE FORGOTTEN who we are. We have sought only our own security, we have exploited simply for our own ends, we have distorted our knowledge, we have abused our power." So reads the proclamation of the U.N. Environmental Sabbath Program. ...
A matter of taste?(church and music)
Sep 13, 2000; ... THE COVER OF the August 1996 Atlantic Monthly announced a Christian cultural revolution: "Giant `full-service' churches are winning millions of `customers' with [their] pop-culture packaging. They may also be building an important new form of community." Author Charles Trueheart described ...
Waltzing the spheres.(Poem)
Sep 13, 2000; ... <Pre>We pulled each other closer in the turnaround a center that we could not see--This holding on was what I had to learn. The sun can hold the planets, earth the moon,but we had to create our gravityby always pulling closer in the turn. Each ...
Compassionate Conservatism: What It Is, What It Does, and How It Can Transform America.
Sep 13, 2000; ... ACCORDING TO George W. Bush, Marvin Olasky is "compassionate conservatism's leading thinker. A professor of journalism at the University of Texas, Olasky has been a Bush adviser since 1993 and for the past decade a fixture in the network of well-endowed foundations, policy institutes, and ...
Short rules to perfection.(religious life)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000; ... ANDY, FIVE YEARS OLD, is standing on his chair at the dinner table and using his fork to make the sign of the cross. Having coated his spaghetti with grated cheese until it is a lovely paste, he is now draping a strand over his ear. From where I sit, I can see piles of junk mail on the ...
The Human Stain.(Review)
Sep 13, 2000; ... The Human Stain. By Philip Roth. Houghton Mifflin, 361 pp., $26.00. PHILIP ROTH'S powerful new novel takes place during the time when news of Bill Clinton's misconduct with White House intern Monica Lewinsky dominated dinner parties and casual conversations. Roth tells the story ...
The Day After: A Retrospective on Religious Dissent in the Presidential Crisis.(Review)
Sep 13, 2000; ... The Day After: A Restrospective on Religous Dissent in the Presidential Crisis. By Gabriel J. Fackre. Eerdmans, 78 pp., $10.00. PHILIP ROTH'S powerful new novel takes place during the time when news of Bill Clinton's misconduct with White House intern Monica Lewinsky ...
Faith Beyond Reason: A Kierkegaardian Account.(Review)
Sep 13, 2000; ... Faith Beyond Reason: A Kierkegaardian Account. By C. Stephen Evans. Eerdmans, 167 pp., $26.00. THE MALL food court tables are close together. You can't help but overhear the two teens at the next table. She says gently but firmly, "Thanks, but I don't think so, I'm ...
letters.
Sep 13, 2000 ... A simple solution? WE WERE appalled by James M. Wall's rash and inflammatory column, "A simple solution" (July 19-26). First, Wall alleges that the United Methodist Church has made a "sharp turn to the political and theological right" and that this turn is the result of a ...
Probing the depths.(Review)
Sep 13, 2000; ... MY JOURNEY TO the Montreal World Film Festival has become an annual spiritual retreat. Here citizens stand in long lines to pick up tickets to a sold-out Chinese film at 10 on a Saturday morning. Critics, flashing their media passes, know to arrive early and head for the balcony at the ...
Baptismal terrors.(author shares his thoughts on subject of baptism)(Brief Article)
Sep 13, 2000; ... M.E.M.O ADMIRAL, THE GREAT navy of the State of Nebraska," my 1991 citation from Governor Ben Nelson of Nebraska declares. It continues, "I do strictly charge and require all officers, seamen, tadpoles and goldfish under your command to be obedient to your orders as ...
Ready or not.(defense policy)(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000 ... PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE George W. Bush has fueled a debate on U.S. military readiness by charging, among other things, that the military has been neglected and underfunded during the Clinton years. He has specifically charged that two of ten active army divisions are unprepared for combat ....
Provocative reconciliation.(Dabru Emet)
Sep 27, 2000; ... SAYING THAT it was time "for Jews to learn about the efforts of Christians to honor Judaism," over 170 Jewish leaders from all branches of Judaism have signed a statement outlining eight points of common ground and shared purpose between Christians and Jews. The statement, titled Dabru ...
The widow's hand.(Elijah and the widow of Zaephath)
Sep 27, 2000; ... MANNY, THE TREASURER of our church, is often the bearer of grim tidings. When he brings me bad news it makes me think I should become a more aggressive fund raiser. But if I spend more time raising money, how can I be a pastor? And if I don't, how will we remain a church? How much longer ...
Imago Dei.(Poem)
Sep 27, 2000; ... <Pre>Mary's armenfolds,handgentlyimpressinghis sturdythigh terra cottaglazedcreamy smooth,fleshed ...
India's billionth.(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000; ... THIS PAST MAY, India's population crossed the 1 billion mark, according to the country's registrar general and census commissioner. The billionth citizen of this ancient land entered a country with 40 political parties and 24 official languages, each spoken by more than a million people. ...
End embryo research?(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000 ... ACTORS Michael J. Fox and Mary Tyler Moore supported federal funding for stem cell research in their September 14 testimony before a Senate subcommittee. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, said, "The ... inescapable conclusion is that this research offers the potential to eliminate ...
Clinton talks debt relief at prayer breakfast.(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000 ... President Clinton focused attention on international debt relief September 14 as more than 100 clergy and other religious leaders from a variety of faiths gathered at the White House for the last annual prayer breakfast in his term of office. During his remarks, Clinton called alleviating ...
Pope encourages organ donation.(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000 ... Pope John Paul II has voiced his support of organ donation, calling it "a genuine act of love" before a gathering of transplant specialists. "There is a need to instill in people's hearts, especially in the hearts of the young generation, a genuine and deep appreciation of the need for ...
Strengthening families a priority for Americans.(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000 ... A new poll finds that most Americans believe that strengthening families is a greater priority than having a cleaner environment or increasing job opportunities. The poll, released August 30 by the year-old Alliance for Marriage, found that 59 percent of Americans view the state of the ...
China criticized on religious freedom.(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000 ... A new State Department report critical of religious freedom violations in China is a "fabrication," according to Beijing officials, who have demanded that Washington correct the "mistaken" findings. "Through fabrication and twisting facts, this report attacks China's religious policy and ...
Protestant pastors support death penalty.(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000 ... An overwhelming majority of Protestant pastors support the use of capital punishment and an even larger majority oppose the practice of physician-assisted suicide, according to a new poll of Protestant pastors. The survey of 518 Protestant pastors, conducted by Phoenix-based Ellison ...
Debate in Britain over conjoined twins.(surgery to separate conjoined twins raises moral issues)(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000 ... Conjoined one-month-old twins are at the center of an ethical and moral debate in Britain after a judge ordered the twins to be separated so that one might live, even though the parents object to the procedure. A court of appeal on September 22 upheld the ruling, though the case may still ...
Lawsuits force cuts for Canadian Anglicans.(claims by sexual abuse victims lead to financial cutbacks)(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000 ... In the face of hundreds of lawsuits seeking damages for the church's role in administering residential schools where there is evidence of cultural and sexual abuse of children, the Anglican Church in Canada has begun to cut its staff and program, according to the Episcopal News Service. ...
People.(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000 ... * John L. McCullough of Montclair, New Jersey, is the new executive Director for Church World Service, Inc. McCullough's appointment was approved September 13 by a unanimous vote of the CWS board of directors. He has served since June 1 as interim director of CWS, the ecumenical relief, ...
Living by the Word.(sermon)(Brief Article)(Transcript)
Sep 27, 2000; ... Who can be saved? Sunday, October 15 Mark 10:17-31 HERE COMES that man again, running up to Jesus with a question about eternal life. We can hear those dreaded words on Jesus' lips even before the man approaches: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a ...
Ethics in our time.(discussion of the social gospel)(Panel Discussion)
Sep 27, 2000 ... THIS MAGAZINE TOOK its name 100 years ago when the field of Christian social ethics was just being born. At the time, many Protestants were urgently seeking to address the dislocations of the industrial age and to learn from the emerging fields of social science. In this anniversary year, ...
Rewinding Othello.(Poem)
Sep 27, 2000; ... <Pre>He jumps off the white body,jerks the knife from his black chest,and in seconds snatchesthe pillow off, seesher face and fleesthe bedroom backwardsand so on through the levitatinghandkerchief that shootsinto the lady's hand ...
The Dialectical Development of Doctrine A Methodological Proposal.(Review)(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000; ... $25.00 Hardcover to order call 313.624.9784 Dove Booksellers 13904 Michigan Avenue Dearborn, Michigan 48126 www.dovebook.com If Christianity--including Christian faith and theology--is to avoid becoming totally out of touch with the world--a museum piece at ...
Deep mysteries.(christian liberalism in the works of P.D. James)
Sep 27, 2000; ... THOUGH OFTEN compared with Agatha Christie, P. D. James is a different kind of detective writer. She is not chiefly concerned with escapist delight. While fulfilling the page-turning requirements of the mystery novel, she also creates characters who have moral complexity and depth. She ...
Reasons for writing.(detective novelists P.D. James)(Interview)
Sep 27, 2000; ... ONE OF contemporary England's celebrated writers, P. D. James has published 14 novels and three works of nonfiction. Adam Dalgliesh, the main character of her detective fictions, has become a favorite of readers of mysteries and many TV watchers as well. Original Sin (1995) and A Certain ...
Faith matters.(proselytizing)(public broadcasting)(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000; ... A manner of speaking I AM A longtime fan of public radio. It began years ago with Garrison Keillor, whose weekly monologues on Lake Wobegon became a regular feature of my Saturday evenings. With my transistor radio perched on my kitchen windowsill, I would put supper together ...
Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit.(Review)
Sep 27, 2000; ... Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit. By Garry Wills. Doubleday, 326 pp., $25.00. GARRY WILLS identifies the foundational sin of the papacy not as pride, but as the deceit that cloaks sinful deeds in silence, denies error, or presents new theological justifications for no longer ...
The Battle of God.(Review)
Sep 27, 2000; ... The Battle for God. By Karen Armstrong. Knopf 442 pp., $27.50. THE GOD of Abraham is the God of vengeance and wrath who will consume the world because it has neglected him. The world has become modern and secular, material and political, pluralist and multicultural. It has ...
Episcopalians and Race: Civil War to Civil Rights.(Review)(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000; ... Episcopalians and Race: Civil War to Civil Rights. By Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr. University Press of Kentucky, 322 pp., $32.50. SEVEN YEARS in the writing, this is a significant and comprehensive history of African-Americans and their quest for recognition in the Episcopal Church ....
The Boesak story.
Sep 27, 2000 ... SARAH RUDEN'S article "What happened to Allan Boesak?" is a sad exception to the quality of journalism most of us have come to expect from the CENTURY (June 21-28). Ruden does little to answer the title question of her article, Instead, she refers to myths about Elna Boesak's shopping ...
M.E.M.O.(ritual killing)(Brief Article)
Sep 27, 2000; ... Aztecs and us IN A Journal of the American Academy of Religion article titled "Capital Punishment and Human Sacrifice" (March 2000), Brian K. Smith explores "whether, in the practice and the ideology surrounding capital punishment, modern executions in the United States are ...