The Christian Century back issues from March 2005:
Beginnings.(From the editor/publisher)(flow of the church year)(Editorial)
Mar 08, 2005; ... THOSE OF US who spend a major portion of life in church keep track of time by the sequence of the liturgical or church year as well as by the calendar year. The calendar year begins on January 1, the church year begins with Advent at the end of November or the beginning of December. One is ...
Unlisted.(Time's list of influential evangelicals)
Mar 08, 2005 ... LIST-MAKING IS a peculiarly modern obsession. The top 20 basketball teams. The top tell best sellers. Ten ways to trim your thighs. Time magazine recently listed its choices for the 25 most influential evangelicals. The article seemed designed partly to let readers know about some of the ...
Acting out.(Century marks)(Obituary)
Mar 08, 2005 ... ACTING OUT: Playwright Arthur Miller, who died last month, likened politics to acting. Especially in the era of television, political leaders understand that "to govern they must learn to act" (On Politics and the Art of Acting, Viking). Presidents Reagan and Clinton were especially good ...
The real divide.(Century marks)(religious spirit of liberalism)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... THE REAL DIVIDE: Perhaps it is too late to reclaim the word "liberal," says Episcopal priest Fleming Rutledge. Too bad, for the spirit of liberalism surely belongs to the gospel, which is generous, open-handed, "freeing and bountiful. Conversely, "conservative" can suggest being narrow, ...
If you must.(Century marks)(results of Evangelical Lutheran task force on same-sex marriage)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... IF YOU MUST: According to humorist Garrison Keillor the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America task force charged with examining the question of same-sex relationships came up with a document that "took 40 pages to avoid answering it, affirming a policy of Don't ask, don't tell, never ...
Model Muslims.(Century marks)(experience of American woman teaching in Pakistan)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... MODEL MUSLIMS: When Cara Anna went to teach in a Pakistani school and live with a Pakistani family, she was never harassed, nor did she ever feel threatened. Her host family would not allow the American to do chores, nor would they accept payment from her. She found that life is not easy ...
Time out.(Century marks)(time management using Biblical principles)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... TIME OUT: Many people in Western societies have more "free time" than ever, yet they feel "pressed for time." But better time management isn't the solution, according to Robert Sherman. Rather, we need to order our "lives in such as way that the Lord's time [becomes] sovereign," which ...
Media bias.(Century marks)(warning for Christians to seek truth in journalism)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... MEDIA BIAS: Christians, by reason of their commitment to a higher authority, should be wary of official versions of the truth--not just those from governments, but those from the media as well. The range of news stories is often limited, and the point of view inevitably carries bias. Here ...
Consistent conservatism.(Century marks)(ultraconservative Alan Keyes)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... CONSISTENT CONSERVATISM: During his flailed bid to be U.S. senator from Illinois, the ultraconservative Alan Keyes called homosexual activity "selfish hedonism." It turns out that Keyes's own daughter, Maya Marcel-Keyes, 19, is a lesbian, and she gave a speech recently in which she ...
Endangered liberties.(Century marks)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... ENDANGERED LIBERTIES: The Unemployed Philosophers Guild markets intellectual gift items like the "Disappearing Civil Liberties" mug, which features the Bill of Rights. "Pour in a hot beverage," its ad claims, "and ...
Parochial politics: the religious divide in the Ukraine.(political divide between the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchat )
Mar 08, 2005; ... VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO'S 52-to-42 percent victory over Viktor Yanukovych in the December 26 election in Ukraine reflected not only the centuries-old schism between western and eastern Ukraine, but also the split between the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox ...
My mother in Venice.(Poem)
Mar 08, 2005; ... <Pre> My mother in Venice She had another life,not only the vast expanseof prairie, but this islandadrift and shimmering. here she is, in the Frari Churchholding the Child.Centuries ago Bellinisaw her at the fish market shivering in the ...
Star-spangled hoops: not all schools salute the flag.(Mennonite schools censured for not flying flag at sports tournaments)
Mar 08, 2005; ... AT THIS TIME of the winter countless high school basketball teams are trying to dribble, pass and shoot their way to a state championship. Glamorized in small-town lore and big-budget movies, reaching the state tournament is a dream shared by most any student athlete who has put on a ...
Wetlands nocturne.(Poem)
Mar 08, 2005; ... <Pre> Wetlands nocturne (Rhodoms Point, Big Colington Island) You gave me time. And givingthat, like a master, a miser, gave away nothing.You knew this all along. Forthough you move in cycles and seasons,you dwell beyond, outside of time and measure, beyond...
God willing: Lincoln on the divine mystery.(Abraham Lincoln's "Meditation on the Divine Will")
Mar 08, 2005; ... IN SEPTEMBER 1862, Union troops were soundly defeated by Confederate forces led by Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee at Manassas Junction, Virginia. The North called it the Second Battle of Bull Run. President Abraham Lincoln's somber mood afterward was recorded in a diary entry by ...
Vanitas still life.(Poem)
Mar 08, 2005; ... <Pre> Vanitas still life When petals from a lavenderlarkspur drop onto the grayrock on the mantel, I let themstay where they fall, ...
House calls: a vanishing form of ministry.
Mar 08, 2005; ... A CHURCH I pastored in Portland, Oregon, ran an after-school children's program. One afternoon someone came to tell me that twin brothers, aged six, had pushed a little girl during a play period. Although she recovered quickly, we had some anxious moments. She had hit her head hard on a ...
New Bible woos young adults, skirts critics.(News)(Today's New International Version)
Mar 08, 2005; ... WHEN ZONDERVAN published in 2002 an inclusive-language version of the New Testament by the translators of the older, best-selling New International Version (NIV) Bible, vociferous criticism poured in from conservative Protestants. Some Bibles from competing evangelical ...
Former White House aide says Bush failed on 'poor people stuff'.(News)(David Kuo of White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives)
Mar 08, 2005 ... A former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives says President Bush has failed to support the program as he had promised. David Kuo, who left the position in December 2003, said the White House didn't push hard enough for Congress to ...
Bible verses compared.(News)(TNIV translation updates language)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... The recently published TNIV, now with an Old Testament translation that continues the shift toward gender-inclusive language, also strives to improve clarity in contemporary English, judging by a comparison of the new version with the wording in the NIV of the early 1980s. The ...
U.S. Jesuit forbidden by Vatican to teach as Catholic theologian.(News)(Weston Jesuit School of Theology professor Roger Haight)
Mar 08, 2005 ... Following a five-year inquiry, the Vatican has forbidden an American Jesuit priest from teaching as a Catholic theologian because of what were called "serious doctrinal errors" in his work. The investigation by the Vatican's doctrinal agency centered on a 1999 book by Roger ...
Abusive priest sentenced to prison.(News)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... Former Boston priest Paul Shanley has been sentenced to 12 to 15 years behind bars for raping a minor in a Catholic church. Shanley's was one of the more high-profile cases of offenders in the abuse and cover-up scandal in 2002. Shanley, 74, faced a possible life sentence for ...
Episcopal officials hopeful despite downturn in giving.
Mar 08, 2005 ... The Episcopal Church is hoping the financial fallout from a gay bishop's election will level off this year after a conservative-led financial boycott helped create a 12 percent drop in giving in 2004. Church treasurer Kurt Barnes said giving from the church's 112 dioceses fell ...
Methodists plan another ad campaign.(News)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... Hoping to capitalize on an earlier $20 million ad campaign that raised name recognition of the United Methodist Church, the denomination will spend an additional $25 million on advertising to fill the pews with new members. This second phase of the "Igniting Ministries" ...
Seminary president ousted over gay daughter's wedding.(News)(New Brunswick Theological Seminary's Norman Kansfield)
Mar 08, 2005 ... The New Brunswick Theological Seminary, one of the nation's oldest schools for training mainline Protestant clergy, has retired its president and reprimanded him for officiating at his gay daughter's wedding. The board of trustees of the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based school ...
Insiders steal big from unsuspecting churches.(News)(embezzlement cases )
Mar 08, 2005; ... When their priest, Brian Lisowski, was caught with an alleged prostitute last summer, parishioners at St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church began to suspect their pastor had been keeping secrets from them. They were right--he had a million of them. About the time the priest ...
Vatican official talks about papal retirement.(News)
Mar 08, 2005 ... In a startling break with Vatican protocol, a high Vatican official has addressed the issue of whether the ailing Pope John Paul II should retire. Even before the frail pontiff ended his nine-day hospital stay while fighting respiratory problems, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the ...
Grammy winner.(News)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... GRAMMY WINNER: Rapper Kayne West performs during the gospel segment of the 47th annual Grammy ...
Presbyterians differ on divestment.(News)(pretest over Israeli occupation of Palestine)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... Some five months after its General Assembly decided to "begin a process of phased, selective divestment" of companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas, a recently released survey found that Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) laity and clergy differed on whether the ...
El Salvador Lutherans report intimidation.(News)(Lutheran Church in El Salvador and Salvadoran Lutheran University)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... The Lutheran Church in El Salvador and officials at the Salvadoran Lutheran University contend that a robbery and brutal murder on their campus in late January was an act of intimidation aimed at the church for being outspoken in politics. Though computers, stereo equipment, ...
Swedish preacher who called gays 'cancerous' is acquitted on appeal.(News)(Ake Green)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... A Swedish preacher sentenced to a month in prison for referring to homosexuals as a "cancerous tumor" in society has been acquitted by an appeals court. The court in Jonkoping, in southern Sweden, ruled that a sermon by Ake Green, 63, was not an attack on gays and lesbians because it was a ...
U.S. jails some seekers of asylum, says report.(News)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... A commission set up by Congress has found some foreigners seeking a haven from persecution or torture are being unfairly held by the U.S. government in jails and jail-like facilities. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report last month on ...
Slain in Brazil.(News)
Mar 08, 2005 ... ILLUSTRATION OMITTED Caption: SLAIN IN BRAZIL: Brazilians mourn at the coffin of U.S. missionary Dorothy Stang (inset) two days after she was assassinated by two gunmen, during the public wake inside Maria Gorete Church in Belem, near the mouth of the Amazon River, February 14 ....
The Fox television network has aired a public service announcement during its popular drama 24, urging Americans not to stereotype Muslims.(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... The Fox television network has aired a public service announcement during its popular drama 24, urging Americans not to stereotype Muslims. The disclaimer aired during the show in early February about a counterterrorism unit in Los Angeles, which stars Kiefer Sutherland. In the show an ...
The World Council of Churches' top leader has called for a return to "constitutional sobriety" in Togo, saying the African nation's churches and churches around the world are concerned about the crisis.(Briefly noted)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... The World Council of Churches' top leader has called for a return to "constitutional sobriety" in Togo, saying the African nation's churches and churches around the world are concerned about the crisis. "It is a gospel imperative for the churches in Togo to stand for what is just, noble, ...
Neo-Nazis mar remembrance.(News)(anniversary of Dresden destruction)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... NEO-NAZIS MAR REMEMBRANCE: Anti-Nazi protesters shout slogans denouncing a German far-right demonstration in Dresden February 13, on the 60th anniversary of the city's destruction in World War II. A march by neo-Nazis cast a shadow over official ...
The announcement that Prince Charles is at last going to marry Camilla Parker Bowles, his mistress, has prompted Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Scotland to renew an attack on the early 18th-century law that bars Catholics from the British throne.(People)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... The announcement that Prince Charles is at last going to marry Camilla Parker Bowles, his mistress, has prompted Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Scotland to renew an attack on the early 18th-century law that bars Catholics from the British throne. O'Brien did, however, congratulate Charles and ...
Fundamentalist Jerry Falwell has announced that the new dean for his Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia, will be Ergun Caner, 38, a Turkish-born Muslim who converted to Christianity in 1982.(People)(Brief Article)
Mar 08, 2005 ... Fundamentalist Jerry Falwell has announced that the new dean for his Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia, will be Ergun Caner, 38, a Turkish-born Muslim who converted to Christianity in 1982. Caner wrote a book that year in which he claimed that the prophet Muhammad ...
J Richard Butler.(obituary)(Obituary)
Mar 08, 2005 ... J Richard Butler, a United Church of Christ clergyman who served his denomination and Church World Service for decades, especially in the Middle East, died in ...
Robert Stevens Baker.(obituary)(Obituary)
Mar 08, 2005 ... Robert Stevens Baker, the dean of American organists and a towering figure in church music, died January 24 after a long illness at his home in Hamden, Connecticut. He was 88 ....
Back to life.(Living by the Word)(Lazarus and the resurrection)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Sunday, March 13 John 11:1-45 I DIDN'T WANT to come back. My consciousness hovered somewhere above the body lying on the gurney. It was all over, I thought. The last sensation I remembered had been incomprehensible pain, then a tunnel, and a grinding noise as described in other ...
Ready or not.(Living by the Word)(Holy Saturday)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Sunday, March 20 Matthew 27:55-61 I ONCE LIVED in a village in Germany that lay at the foot of a mountain covered in deep forest. A narrow farm separated the houses from the forest, and a cemetery occupied a piece of land part way up the mountain. Sometimes on my ...
Soul food: why fasting makes sense.(the concept of Christian fasting)
Mar 08, 2005; ... MY FIRST ENCOUNTER with Christian fasting was in a Russian kitchen in the provincial city of Krasnodar in 1991. It was November and my host, a university professor, was preparing the evening meal at the beginning of the Orthodox fast called Little Lent, which is a bit like what Catholics ...
Good work: learning about ministry from Wendell Berry.
Mar 08, 2005; ... RECENTLY I CELEBRATED 15 years as pastor of a congregation in East Texas of under 200 members with about half of them present for Sunday worship. At denominational meetings and around town I'm asked, "When are you going to a bigger church? Why do you stay?" Sometimes I give a long, ...
Sometimes I wish the rain.(Poem)
Mar 08, 2005; ... <Pre> Sometimes I wish the rain could wash my impatience away,my hardness-of-heart rinsed like gritfrom the blackberry bush by the road, the rain-soaked boughs of the sassafrasbobbing in the ...
Life together: a passion for reconciliation.(Christian social activist Chris Rice)(Interview)
Mar 08, 2005; ... RACIAL RECONCILIATION has been the central theme of Chris Rice's life and ministry. It is also the subject of his two books. More Than Equals (Inter-Varsity, 1993) was coauthored by his friend Spencer Perkins, a fellow member of Voice of Calvary Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and the son ...
There's always room.(Faith matters)(Hotel Rwanda)(Movie Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... THE CHRISTIANS gathered at Duke for the weekend had come from places marked by destructive ethnic and tribal violence and conflict: South Africa, Sudan, the United States, India and Rwanda. They posed challenging questions: How Can we find paths forward in the wake of destructive violence ...
Fear factor.(book)(Book Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. By Thomas Frank. Henry Holt, 336 pp., $14.00 paperback. WRITING MONTHS before the 2004 presidential election, Thomas Frank predicted that many members of the working and middle classes would vote on ...
Testimony: Talking Ourselves into Being Christian.(book)(Book Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Testimony: Talking Ourselves Into Being Christian By Thomas G. Long. Jossey-Bass, 208 pp., $21.95. EVANGELICAL Christianity is generally loquacious; Minnesota Swedes seldom are. My Swedish evangelical paternal grandparents talked little about their deeply held faith, and then ...
Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation.(book)(Book Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation. George E. Tinker. Fortress, 160 pp., $17.00 GEORGE TINKER brings a distinctive voice to the conversation on American Indians and Christianity and specifically the debate over whether one can be ...
Juliette Foster.(album)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Juliette Foster, by Phil Angotti (Jam Records). Acoustic pop. Angotti has composed a soundtrack for an imaginary movie. Its billowy acoustic textures are reminiscent of Eric Carmen, Zombies, Left Banke and other Classic pop artists. The record is sublime and thoroughly engaging, ...
Voices from Heaven.(album)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Voices from Heaven, by the Soweto Gospel Choir (Shanachie Records). World/gospel. Graft Ladysmith Black Mambazo onto African-American gospel music and you begin to approach the transcendent energy of South Africa's Soweto Gospel Choir. On this CD, its American debut, the group ...
The Bookhouse Recordings.(album)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... The Bookhouse Recordings, by PFR (Fuseic Music). Pop rock. What if a band could revisit the gems of its catalog many years later and rerecord them on a new studio album that bears one continuous stylistic imprint? That's what PFR attempts here, throwing in three new songs along ...
I See Things Upside Down.(album)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... I See Things Upside Down, by Derek Webb (INO Records). Rock. Webb's solo music has consistently been more adventurous than that of his acoustic-rock band Caedmon's Call, though this CD does recall the brash spirit of Caedmon's Long Line of Leavers. "The Strong, the Tempted & the ...
Un Respiro por El Mundo.(album)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Un Respiro pot El Mundo, by Las Guitarras de Espafia (Sweet Pickle Music). World music. Flamenco is only one type of musical form evident here. "Mejor Me Voy Manana" suggests a rhumba spiked with vibraphone cascades and rolling percussion, while "Recuerdos" bathes the listener ...
Brethren We Have Met to Worship.(album)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Brethren We Have Met to Worship, by various musicians (self-released). Acoustic worship. The musicians of the Chicago band Darwin's Dilemma, working with other local artists, have recorded a collection that puts a special spin on some time-honored hymns. While titles such as ...
The Milk-Eyed Mender.(album)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... The Milk-Eyed Mender, by Joanna Newsom (Drag City Records). New folk. Joanna Newsom's sound has no reference point in singer-songwriter folk; she plays a Celtic harp and her songs shine with psychedelic, fairytale imagery. Then there is her voice, an otherworldly instrument ...
The Only Doo-Wop Collection You'll Ever Need.(album)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... The Only Doo-Wop Collection You'll Ever Need, by various artists (Shout Factory Records). Doo-wop. Expect great things from Shout Factory, a new label started by former Rhino Records executives. This double disc offers 37 songs presenting doo-wop in all its harmonizing, ...
Face Your Fund.(album)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Face Your Fund, by the Lassie Foundation (Northern Records). Modern rock. From the dreamy, distorted guitars that drive "Blow It (Away)" to the synthesizer swirl floating through "Sunset," this is an album brimming with textures that recall the early efforts of U2, The Cure and ...
Weed.(album)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Weed, by Chris Whitley (Messenger Records). Delta blues/rock. A decade ago, Chris Whitley was a critic's darling on Columbia Records, but since then he's left for a more productive, creative career as a small-label artist. Like PFR, Whitley mines songs from his back catalog ...
Passing Through.(album)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Passing Through, by Randy Travis (Word/Curb/Warner Bros.). Country. Travis's latest wins points for its hickory-smoked textures. He isn't beyond a gentle sermon or two. On "Pick Up the Oars and Row," he sings nudging encouragement over a key-of-C backdrop of fiddle, acoustic ...
Hot Club of 52d Street.(Sound Recording Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... Hot Club of 52d Street, by Howard Alden, Johnny Frigo, Bucky Pizzarelli, Michael Moore (Chesky Records). Jazz. Conceived as a tribute to guitarist Django Reinhardt, this "unplugged" live recording--made in 2003--crackles with jump-jazz energy that is infectious from the opening ...
Free spirit.(The Sea Inside )(Movie Review)
Mar 08, 2005; ... SPANISH DIRECTOR Alejandro Amenabar's The Sea Inside is a triumph-of-the-spirit picture with an unconventional premise: the hero, Ramon Sampedro (played by Javier Bardem), a quadriplegic for two decades as the result of a diving accident, is seeking the fight to end his life. The Sea ...
Israel defended.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
Mar 08, 2005; ... WHILE I appreciate James Wall's perspective on the future of Palestinian statehood, I find his take on the historical facts of the Middle East a bit one-sided ("After Arafat," Dec. 28). I wouldn't doubt that Israel came into the Madrid talks with hopes that its relationship with the United ...
Painful documentary ...(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
Mar 08, 2005; ... JASON BYASSEE was properly objective in his review of the PBS documentary The Congregation ("Behind church doors," Dec. 28). I had a more subjective reaction. I felt deeply for both ministers of the congregation as well as for a congregation that seemed capable of working things ...