The Christian Century back issues from March 2002:
Mysterious power.(power of Jesus Christ)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
Mar 13, 2002; ... I LOVE Eugene Peterson's remark that "if you are called to it, being a pastor is the best life there is" (see David Wood's interview on page 19). Like every pastor I have days and seasons when I'm not sure of that. And then Lent comes and Holy Week and Easter, and I can't imagine doing ...
Dying young.(youth suicide)(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002 ... ABOUT EVERY TWO HOURS a young person in the U.S. between the ages of 15 and 24 dies of suicide. It wasn't always this way. The suicide rate for young white males tripled between 1950 and 1994, and it doubled in that period for white females. Though the figures have dropped slightly since ...
Bodies in limbo. (Crematory Scandal).(Tri-State Crematory)(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002; ... THE SCANDAL unfolding at the Tri-State Crematory in Noble, Georgia, has often been compared to events in a Stephen King novel, complete with decaying corpses and an upstanding citizen unmasked as a monster. Over 300 corpses thought to have been cremated have been discovered scattered ...
Homeward bound. (Stories Of A Kentucky Priest).(Nolan Puckett)(Excerpt)
Mar 13, 2002; ... Give us grace to heed [the prophets'] warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. (The Book of Common Prayer) ONE DAY, when I was about ten, a boy my age came riding up on his bike and stopped to talk. From that day until we ...
From the Godhra station. (Hindu-Muslim Conflicts).(Ayodhya, India)
Mar 13, 2002; ... ON FEBRUARY 27, an express train carrying more than 2,500 passengers and running four hours late drew up at the Godhra railway station on the Gujarat-Madhya Pradesh border in Central India. It was a little after seven in the morning. Among the passengers were hundreds of Hindu pilgrims and ...
Graham and Nixon: anti-Jewish words on tape. (CC News).(Billy Graham, Richard Nixon)(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002; ... IN HIS 1997 autobiography Just As I Am, Billy Graham expressed fears that his Oval Office conversations with President Richard Nixon might have been taped, and wrote that he wished it were not so. Graham was perturbed at least in part because of an unrequited promise of ...
Evangelical thinkers decry narrow theology. (CC News).(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002; ... Disturbed by a trend "to define the boundaries of evangelical faith and life too narrowly," at least 80 evangelical scholars have signed a statement urging theological, openness to "reverent exploration of new ideas and reconsideration of old ones" without fear of fundamentalist fireworks ....
PCUSA conservatives vow to seek reform.(Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.))(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002 ... Conservatives in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), boosted by a defeat of an amendment that would have opened doors to gay clergy, say they will not leave the denomination that they still see as morally adrift and a bureaucracy not to their liking. The fledgling Confessing Church Movement, ...
Episcopalians denounce breakaway movement.(Anglican Mission in America)(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002 ... The Episcopal Church has called a breakaway conservative group "schismatic" and said bishops who participate are breaking their ordination vows, which require them to protect the church. The church's Executive Council, which functions as a board of directors, strongly criticized the ...
High court takes pass on decalogue case.(displaying of Ten Commandments)(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002 ... The U.S. Supreme Court refused to enter the debate over whether the Ten Commandments should be displayed on government grounds when it declined to hear an appeal from Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon. Without comment, the high court did not consider the appeal to erect a seven-foot stone ...
Alternative to Bush environment plan urged.(George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002; ... More than 1,200 religious leaders have taken issue with key environmental policies announced by the Bush administration and have signed a declaration opposing a new U.S. global-warming proposal. The statement was mailed to all U.S. senators prior to their debate on the issues. ...
Warehouse 242 pastor faces legal charges.(Todd Hahn; spousal abuse)(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002 ... The 33-year-old pastoral leader of an informal and unconventional congregation in Charlotte, North Carolina, was facing charges connected with an assault on his wife and a co-worker in December, according to the Charlotte Observer. Arrested and jailed briefly was Todd Hahn, who had led ...
Israel halts plans for mosque in Nazareth.(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002 ... An Israeli ministerial committee has decided to withdraw its approval for a new mosque in a sensitive site alongside Nazareth's Basilica of the Annunciation, reversing the stance of two previous governments. A Vatican representative in Israel lauded the decision as "bold and wise," while ...
Israeli Reform Jews ask court ruling be enforced.(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002 ... Israel's Progressive (Reform) Movement has filed a new Supreme Court appeal stating that the government's Interior Ministry has failed to register non-Orthodox converts as Jews, contrary to a precedent-setting Supreme Court decision issued in February. Attorney Nicole Maor filed the appeal ...
Quote, unquote.(George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002; ... "Freedom of religion is not something to be feared but to be welcomed, because faith gives us a moral core and teaches us to hold ourselves to high standards, to love and serve others and to live responsible lives." --President George W. Bush, talking ...
Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian school known for its past policy banning interracial dating, is now recruiting minorities.(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002 ... * Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian school known for its past policy banning interracial dating, is now recruiting minorities. The school in Greenville, South Carolina, dropped the controversial ban two years ago, and officials said the university wants to rid itself of its ...
Leaders of the 100,000 Catholics in men's and women's religious orders have warned that expanding the war on terrorism threatens human rights and displaces precious resources for the "poor and marginalized in our own country.".(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002 ... * Leaders of the 100,000 Catholics in men's and women's religious orders have warned that expanding the war on terrorism threatens human rights and displaces precious resources for the "poor and marginalized in our own country." In a joint February 20 statement, the boards of the ...
Embryonic stem cell research in Britain moved ahead in late February as regulators in London granted the first licenses permitting scientists to extract the cells from donated spare embryos created through in-vitro fertilization and experiments with them.(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002 ... * Embryonic stem cell research in Britain moved ahead in late February as regulators in London granted the first licenses permitting scientists to extract the cells from donated spare embryos created through in-vitro fertilization and experiments with them ....
Deaths.(brief obits)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
Mar 13, 2002 ... * Samuel J. Roth, 74, a former president of a moderate Missouri Synod Lutheran group that provided financial support for a breakaway seminary during the 1970s struggles of the denomination, died February 20 following complications from bypass heart surgery. In 1973, Roth became president ...
Savior at large. (Living by the Word).(message of Easter)(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002; ... Easter Sunday, March 31 John 20:1-18 JOHN BEGINS the Easter story with the words, "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark ..." This is always how our discovery of the risen Christ begins--in darkness. While it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to a tomb ...
The show-me disciple. (Living by the Word).(Thomas)(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002; ... Sunday, April 7 John 20:19-31 SO WHERE WAS THOMAS anyway that first Easter evening? In my childhood Sunday school classes, Thomas was a "bad guy." When the other ten disciples told him that Jesus was alive after his crucifixion, Thomas refused to believe it. He separated himself ...
`The best life'; Eugene Peterson on pastoral ministry.(Interview)(Bibliography)
Mar 13, 2002; ... IN THE EARLY 1960s, Eugene Peterson was planning to finish a Ph.D. in Semitic studies while he worked as an associate pastor at a Presbyterian church in White Plains, New York. He already had degrees in the field from the Biblical Theological Seminary in New York (now New York Theological ...
Gethsemane.(Poem)
Mar 13, 2002; ... <Pre> Gethsemane In a bare room, shed of all complication--alone, at last--I find my brother's face.Complication as tiresome as laundry,beguiling as earned success, as sweet as child--all these he said to leave, for him, behind.I thought I understood, but ...
Pieta.(Poem)
Mar 13, 2002; ... <Pre> Pieta (Venice, Italy) Carvedfrom wood,Mary restsbeneatha crossrecessedin a darkbasilica. HandsupportingSon's headas ...
If I Should Die. (Stairways to heaven: imagining the afterlife).
Mar 13, 2002; ... Edited by Leroy S. Rouner. University of Notre Dame Press, 216 pp., $20.00 paperback. THE ESSAYS in this anthology are loosely linked around the topic of death and afterlife, but there is no dialogue between the various points of view presented. The editor notes that there is a ...
Spiritual, But Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America. (Table for one: spirituality without community).
Mar 13, 2002; ... By Robert C. Fuller. Oxford University Press, 212 pp., $25.00. THAT A BOOK like this would eventually be published became clear to me years ago, when I opened an "Introduction to Christian Thought" class by inviting students to reflect on the nature of religion. Before I could ...
Intimate creation. (God's body, our home).
Mar 13, 2002; ... "We wake, if we wake at all, to mystery, rumors of death, beauty, violence .... `Seem like we're just set down here,' a woman said to me recently, `and don't nobody know why.' ... Some unwonted, taught pride diverts us from our original intent, which is to explore the neighborhood, view the ...
Jesus with a cowlick; what meanings can we find in pondering Jesus' hidden childhood? (Faith matters).(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002; ... WHEN ANDY turned six, an extraordinary thing happened. At the crown of his head there suddenly appeared that mystic sign by which all spirited six-year-old boys are instantly recognized: the cowlick. It looks exactly like Calvin's cowlick in Calvin and Hobbes. Six is a wonderful ...
We Were Soldiers.
Mar 13, 2002; ... IT HAS BEEN over a quarter century since the last American body bag was airlifted out of Vietnam, and after a series of disturbing, castigating and sometimes surreal movies about that reviled war, Hollywood clearly feels that the coast is clear to present a Vietnam combat film that adheres ...
Iris. (Quick takes).
Mar 13, 2002; ... BASED ON John Bayley's two memoirs about his marriage to novelist Iris Murdoch, Iris is in almost all respects expertly done. But the movie, directed by Richard Eyre, from a screenplay by Eyre and Bayley, is so saturated with details from Bayley's books that the story can't breathe. It's ...
Amelie. (Quick takes).
Mar 13, 2002; ... Films that delight some viewers can render others choleric. The French film Amelie is a case in point: its heroine is likely to make half the audience feel better about the human race while the other half gropes for a sick bag. Amelie is 20-something, a waitress in a Paris cafe ....
The Son's Room. (Quick takes).
Mar 13, 2002; ... Italian director-writer-actor Nanni Moretti plays Giovanni, a psychiatrist--perhaps not a very good one, since much of the advice he offers is conventional, complacent stuff. The same adjectives apply to his private life. When his son, Andrea, gets into trouble at school he is rescued not ...
Storytelling. (Quick takes).
Mar 13, 2002; ... Todd Solondz is demonstrating an increasingly limited palette with regard to tone and content. His first two films are regarded as dark satires. Welcome to the Dollhouse explores the loneliness of life in junior high, and Happiness creates an unrelentingly bleak portrait of the depravity ...
Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday.
Mar 13, 2002; ... By Alan E. Lewis. Eerdmans, 477 pp., $30.00. DID GOD DIE on a hill outside Jerusalem? Was it not only Jesus of Nazareth but somehow God himself who was hung on the cross and laid in the tomb? Christian theology has answered yes to these questions, and then struggled to ...
Youth Ministry in Modern America: 1930 to the Present.
Mar 13, 2002; ... By Jon Pahl. Hendrickson, 248 pp., $16. 95 paperback. IF WE PAY ATTENTION solely to popular media's portrayals of youth, we might be tempted to believe that adolescents are more free and powerful today than ever before. But some have detected a cultural hostility toward young ...
Growing Pains: Learning to Love My Father's Faith.
Mar 13, 2002; ... By Randall Balmer. Brazos, 142 pp., $15.99. WE HAVE FRIENDS who decided to release their children from all obligations to attend Sunday worship when those children turned 18. Their reasoning is self-evident: What's required of each and every believing soul is willed commitment, ...
Sustaining rituals. (letters).
Mar 13, 2002; ... THOMAS G. LONG'S thoughtful review, "Why cremation?" (Jan. 30-Feb. 6) struck a chord with me. Several times this past year, I have walked to the cemetery behind the coffin of a loved one. On each occasion, I have reflected on the mystery that we live in this ritual. In the city where I ...
Faith and commitment ... (letters).
Mar 13, 2002; ... I CAN'T QUITE agree with L. Gregory Jones's "Mundane excellence" (Jan. 2-9), which implies that if we only try harder with more discipline and practice all of us can--and should--improve our relationship to God in a commendable way. I am reminded of a childhood friend who was ...
Frontiers of food. (M.E.M.O.).(Brief Article)
Mar 13, 2002; ... THE MARMITE centennial in Britain prompts me to develop a thesis: National or creedal groups tend to keep their boundaries strong by pretending to like foods that others find distasteful. Through long conditioning, members find it possible to tolerate the taste of their chosen food. But ...
The tide of Easter. (From the editor/publisher).(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002; ... THIS ISSUE contains an important article on a region unfamiliar to many of us--the turbulent Muslim countries of central Asia that border Afghanistan--and two thoughtful essays on topics theological types often avoid--market economics and the practices of American corporations. All of the ...
The Saudi gambit.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... WHATEVER THE MOTIVES behind it, the land-for-peace initiative floated by Saudi Arabia strikes a note of reason in the ever-escalating violence of the Middle East. Since September 2000 over 1,074 Palestinians and 375 Jews have been killed in rounds of provocation and counterprovocation ....
Sharing losses: New York and Afghan survivors.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002; ... WHEN SHE WAS ten years old, Deora Bodley was in a play called Compukids in which she sang a song written by her father: "My daddy always said / when he'd put me down to bed: / Rest easy, little one, and don't you cry. / For there's nothing there, you see, / that can harm you, trust in me." ...
Hitching a ride: stories of a Kentucky priest.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002; ... IN 25 YEARS of priesthood I have served for shorter or longer periods in eight churches of the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, from the biggest to the almost smallest. I have learned from all of them, but there is something special, a depth of association, in my memories of the ...
Adam and Eve's journey: an original look at original sin.(The Genesis of Perfection: Adam and Eve in Jewish and Christian Imagination)
Mar 27, 2002; ... IN A NEW BOOK on Genesis, Gary A. Anderson focuses not on the textual origin of the story--the customary focus of historical-critical study--but on how the story has been received and retold, imaginatively and liturgically, in Jewish and Christian traditions. Anderson said his goal in The ...
No comment.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... PLAQUE FLAK: Folks in Lauderhill, Florida, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, planned a celebration of the life of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. for Saturday January 19. As part of the event, the townspeople decided to honor the actor James Earl Jones by presenting him with a ...
Easter sonnet: poetry reading.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002; ... NOT MANY POETS write sonnets these days. Strict verse forms are unpopular, as are strict forms of any kind in a society wary of rules that impinge on our "freedom." But form doesn't always inhibit freedom. As Wendell Berry observes, a set form is "an invocation to unknown possibility" ...
Epilogue to Unholy Sonnets.(Poem)
Mar 27, 2002; ... <Pre> Epilogue to Unholy Sonnets Today is fresh, and yesterday is stale.Today is fast, and yesterday is slow.Today is yes, and yesterday is no.Today is news, and yesterday's a tale.The grave is empty. Last night it was full.The glorious means of death was ...
Credibility crisis hits Catholic clergy. (News).
Mar 27, 2002; ... IN A CRISIS of credibility hard to overstate, bishops and priests are facing mounting outrage over cases and cover-ups of pedophilia in a winter of discontent for American Catholicism. One bishop has resigned, a cardinal continues to hear calls for his resignation, and the thin cadre of ...
Survey: Protestant pastors happy, content.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002; ... Despite perceptions of low morale, a national survey of pastors, mostly Protestants, finds them satisfied, loved by congregations, generally content with salary and benefits, and enjoying family life. In the last five years, "six in ten clergy say that they have never doubted their call to ...
New magazine out soon for Disciples of Christ.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... An ex-editor and a former publisher of the Disciple magazine, which folded this year, are launching an independent magazine in late April called DisciplesWorld even as an official communication task force of the Indianapolis-based Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) explores its ...
Episcopalians OK plan akin to `flying bishops'.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... Hoping to bridge a deepening theological chasm, bishops of the Episcopal Church have endorsed a plan to allow conservative parishes to seek oversight from like-minded bishops outside their diocese. The proposal, approved during the March 7-12 meeting of the church's House of Bishops in ...
Scientist-priest wins Templeton prize.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... John C. Polkinghorne, a mathematical physicist who amazed his scientific colleagues more than 20 years ago by becoming an Anglican priest, has won the 2002 Templeton Prize, one of the world's most prestigious awards in the field of religion. Long associated with the University of ...
Quote, unquote.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002; ... "I pray the UN action will lead both Israelis and Palestinians to a cessation of violence and an immediate return to negotiations within the framework of international law. Unless the occupation ends, no one can expect a cease-fire to last." --Drew ...
Colombia prelate assassinated.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... Colombian officials are offering a $434,000 reward for information in the killing of Archbishop Isaias Duarte Cancino, who was gunned down March 16 outside a church in Cali after officiating at a group wedding. The two men who shot Duarte, 63, escaped, but suspicion immediately fell on ...
Church violence in Pakistan.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... An injured diplomat is wheeled into a local hospital in Islamabad after a grenade attack inside a church in the diplomatic enclave of the Pakistani capital on March 17. Two Americans--U. S. Embassy employee Barbara Green and her ...
Church teams question Zimbabwe election.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... Leaders of the Commonwealth, a 54-nation group composed mostly of former British colonies, have suspended Zimbabwe as a member following the disputed presidential election in March of Robert Mugabe. The election was marked by violence, leading church-related observers to say the incidents ...
The United Methodist Church's mandatory retirement age of 70 discriminates against gifted and qualified pastors and should be repealed, says the church's Committee on Older Adult Ministries.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... * The United Methodist Church's mandatory retirement age of 70 discriminates against gifted and qualified pastors and should be repealed, says the church's Committee on Older Adult Ministries. The 24-member committee plans to ask the church's highest legislative body, the 2004 General ...
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ended its most recent fiscal year with a $3.3 million surplus.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... * The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ended its most recent fiscal year with a $3.3 million surplus. As of January 31, revenues totaled $86.5 million, while expenses totaled $83.2 million, according to a church news release. Church treasurer Christina Jackson-Skelton told the ...
Anti-Defamation League.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... * The Anti-Defamation League has accepted the apology of Billy Graham, who was recorded 30 years ago telling President Nixon that Jews had a "stranglehold" on American media. In a second apology issued March 16, the 83-year-old evangelist repudiated his comments and rejected anti-Semitism ...
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... * Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary will inaugurate Ted A. Campbell as president April 5 following his first nine months in the post at the United Methodist-related seminary on the Northwestern ...
Episcopal Theological Seminary.(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002 ... * Titus Presler has been named dean and president of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, starting this summer. He will succeed the retiring Durstan McDonald, dean since ...
Road trip. (Living by the Word).(Emmaus)(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002; ... Sunday, April 14 Luke 24:13-35 THE STORYTELLER weaves it all together--an unknown traveler named Cleopas and his companion; the resurrected Jesus, who is present but in an unrecognized, mysterious fashion; the travelers' sudden recognition of Jesus; and his sudden disappearance ....
Enter here. (Living by the Word).(1 Peter)(Brief Article)
Mar 27, 2002; ... Sunday, April 21 Acts 2:42-47, 1 Peter 2: 19-25, John 10:1-10 I HAD ALREADY attended two colleges when one day I wandered into a third. The sign above the door of an old mansion in Fort Vancouver, Washington, read "Evergreen State College." "What seminars are you ...
Border lands: unrest north of Afghanistan.
Mar 27, 2002; ... ONE OF THE OBJECTIVES of Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent pro-Western diplomacy is to reduce instability along Russia's southern borders. In the troubled area to the north of Afghanistan are five predominantly Muslim countries--Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and ...
Divine Economy: Theology and the Market.
Mar 27, 2002; ... By D. Stephen Long. Routledge, 321 pp., $25.99 paperback. STEPHEN LONG has written an engaging and frustrating book on the relation of theology and economics. Baptized by Anabaptists, educated by evangelicals and ordained in the United Methodist Church, Long teaches at ...