The Christian Century back issues from January 2007:
Grand parenting.(Wendell Berry on grandparent child relation)
Jan 09, 2007; ... THE EXCERPT from Wendell Berry's latest book (p. 20) was for me a Christmas gift to savor. It stirred memories and reflections about grandfathers. As Berry suggests, the grandparents of people my age lived in a different world from ours. They never boarded an airplane or booted up a ...
Critical and faithful.(evangelicals in mainline churches)
Jan 09, 2007 ... WHEN ASKED WHERE the new members of liberal churches will come from, David Jenkins, former Anglican bishop of Durham, replied: "Where they have always come from--the evangelicals." This is only partly true, of course. Most members of liberal churches were born or married into a mainline ...
Required course?(religious education is a must)(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... REQUIRED COURSE? Last fall, a task force redesigning general education at Harvard proposed requiring a course on religion. The proposal noted that students often have difficulty making sense of their own religious beliefs in relation to their intellectual world, and that religion is ...
Top Americans.(celebrities)(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... TOP AMERICANS: Atlantic magazine compiled a list the 100 most influential persons in American history by asking 10 historians to create their own list. Predictably, the top five in the list were Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Alexander ...
What about the cross?(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s 'Selling Left Behind: Eternal Forces')(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... WHAT ARE ABOUT THE CROSS? Some religious groups are urging Wal-Mart to discontinue Selling Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a violent video game based on the Left Behind novels. The game takes place after most Christians are raptured; those left behind must decide whether to join or combat the ...
What's wrong with this picture?(religious programs in demand)
Jan 09, 2007 ... WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? A November poll conducted by Zogby and the American Bible Society found that 85 percent of Americans want more religious values and references to the Bible and less sex and violence on ...
Nun other.(Andrea Jaeger )(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... NUN OTHER: Andrea Jaeger came a professional tennis player when she was only 14. Two years later she was the second-best women's player in the world. But she quit tennis at 21, after seven shoulder surgeries. Subsequently, she started the Little Star Foundation, ...
Wages of war.(to help war victims)(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... WAGES OF WAR: No one can predict the long-term consequences of the Iraq War, but we note that only last summer did the U.S. stop collecting a 3 percent tax on ...
War divides.(Aaron Asher on Lyndon Johnson's stand on war)(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... WAR DIVIDES: Aaron Asher, who edited President Lyndon Johnson's memoirs, said that on his last visit to the Johnsons' Texas ranch the former president scoffed at President Nixon's plans to turn the war over to the South Vietnamese. He said they'd lose Vietnam to the communists, who would ...
Don't bring your gun to church.(pastor arrested for taking pistol)(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... DON'T BRING YOUR GUN TO CHURCH: The pastor of a Baptist church in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, was arrested for taking a pistol into his pulpit. He had a previous conviction involving cocaine and possession of a firearm ....
Pastoral plagiarism.(pastors)(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... PASTORAL PLAGIARISM: Pastors using the sermons of other preachers without attribution isn't new. What is new is the widespread availability of sermons on the Internet--some for free, others for sale. One Web site posted an essay by Steve Sjogren in which he argued that pastors don't need ...
In print.(Jill Pelaez Baumgaertner's 'My Father's Bones')(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... IN PRINT: Jill Pelaez Baumgaertner, the CENTURY'S poetry editor, has just published a chapbook of her poetry, My Father's Bones (Finishing Line Press). Poet Sydney Lea says Baumgaertner's poetry "shows us that our ...
Correction.(Century marks)(Correction notice)
Jan 09, 2007 ... In "CC recommends" (December 12) Harold Bloom was mistakenly referred to as the "late ...
God's covenant.
Jan 09, 2007; ... THE IDEA OF "covenant" comes up frequently in proposed solutions to mainline crises. Before writing its final report, the PCUSA Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church drew up a covenant of prayer, worship and careful listening. Likewise, the archbishop of ...
Bearing witness.
Jan 09, 2007; ... WHILE VISITING friends in east Texas my wife saw a message on the sign of the Assemblies of God church in which she had grown up. It declared, "The Bible Says the Land Belongs to Israel." This was during the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in August 2005. I had recently returned ...
Religious newcomers on Capitol Hill.(News)
Jan 09, 2007; ... WHEN IT reconvenes, Congress will for the first time include a Muslim, two Buddhists, more Jews than Episcopalians, and the highest-ranking Mormon in congressional history. Roman Catholics remain the largest single faith group in Congress, accounting for 29 percent of all ...
Episcopal division widens in Virginia.
Jan 09, 2007; ... Conservative Episcopalians' steady exodus from the Episcopal Church accelerated before Christmas as eight Virginia congregations--including two large, historic parishes--voted to leave the national body. The Diocese of Virginia has lost 12 congregations and about 15 percent of ...
Graham family in dispute over burial site.(News)(Billy Gaham and Ruth Graham)
Jan 09, 2007 ... Evangelist Franklin Graham said last month that the decision about where his parents will be buried is "personal" and he does not intend to enter a public debate about it. The word was out, however, that not all is settled. Graham's comments came after the Washington Post ...
Christmas wars enrich some advocacy groups.
Jan 09, 2007; ... For conservative Christan groups, the hot gift last month was a weapon for fighting back in the "War on Christmas"--be it a button, a bumper sticker or a legal memo with information on the topic. The Mississippi-based American Family Association said shortly before Christmas ...
Is bottled water a moral issue?
Jan 09, 2007; ... Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. Thou shalt not ... drink bottled water? Rooted in the notion that clean drinking water, like air, is a God-given resource that shouldn't be packaged and sold, a fledgling campaign against the bottling of water has ...
New Jersey lawmakers OK gay civil unions.(same sex marriage laws)
Jan 09, 2007 ... State lawmakers voted in mid-December to make New Jersey the third state in the nation to 'allow gay couples to form civil unions with all the rights and responsibilities of married couples. The historic votes by both houses of the state legislature can-le just 50 days after the ...
United Nations court jails Rwandan priest, frees Adventist pastor.(News)(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... The United Nations war-crimes court for Rwanda has convicted a Roman Catholic priest of genocide and sentenced him to 15 years for his role in the 1994 mass killings in the central African country. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), meeting in Arusha, ...
The Amish community, which inspired the world with acts of forgiveness after a Pennsylvania schoolhouse shooting, has been named the newsmaker of the year by the Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) and Beliefnet.(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... The Amish community, which inspired the world with acts of forgiveness after a Pennsylvania schoolhouse shooting, has been named the newsmaker of the year by the Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) and Beliefnet. The multifaith spirituality Web site Beliefnet.com said December 14 that ...
Following a trend of Democrats becoming more faith-friendly, Senator Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.) has hired a Baptist "faith guru," who is expected to work on her 2008 presidential campaign.(Bums Strider to go on campaigns)(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... Following a trend of Democrats becoming more faith-friendly, Senator Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.) has hired a Baptist "faith guru," who is expected to work on her 2008 presidential campaign. Bums Strider, who has been the head of religious outreach for the House Democratic Caucus since 2005, ...
Australia's religious communities have united to call for action on climate change at a time when the country is facing its worst drought on record.
Jan 09, 2007 ... Australia's religious communities have united to call for action on climate change at a time when the country is facing its worst drought on record. The individual statements collected by Climate Institute Australia and were published in December in a document titled "'Common Belief." ...
High court to hear faith-based case.(Brief article)
Jan 09, 2007 ... For the first time, the Supreme Court will hear a case directly related to President Bush's faith-based initiative, his attempt to expand the government's ability to fund social services through churches and other religious charities. However, the case does not deal directly with whether ...
Living by the word: wedding gifts.
Jan 09, 2007; ... Sunday, January 14 John 2:1-11 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 WHAT DO YOU GET for the bride who has everything? It's unusual these days for a couple not to have all they need before they marry. They don't need dishes or kitchenware--unless they hope to upgrade. Their grandparents may ...
Living by the word: acceptable words.
Jan 09, 2007; ... Sunday, January 21 Psalm 19; Luke 4:14-21 HE WAS NOT the young man they had known before. They were sizing him up, as people in small towns will do, when he stood up in the synagogue to read from the prophet Isaiah. He read a fantastic and otherworldly passage, plainly not about ...
Living by the word: expect a call.
Jan 09, 2007; ... Sunday, January 28 Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30 WHEN I RUN across texts like these from Jeremiah and Luke, I'm always asking, "What kind of community does it take to raise prophets like Jeremiah and even Jesus?" Being a Baptist, I have few doubts about God calling prophets, ...
Return to Port William.(Andy Catlett: Early Travels)(Cover story)(Excerpt)(Fictional work)
Jan 09, 2007; ... Wendell Berry's latest book, Andy Catlett: Early Travels, follows nine-year-old Andy as he sets off alone on a bus trip to visit his grandparents. It is Christmas 1943. THE BUS STOPPED with a great hiss, the door clapped open, I stepped down and out, and the door clapped shut ...
Ordinary time.(Poem)
Jan 09, 2007; ... <Pre> Ordinary time These midwinter days that bridgeEpiphany to Lentcan seem anything but ordinaryas the steady waxing light reflectsacross old December's glaze of ice,a biting wind hisses acrossthe stark bones of the bracken,and treetops signal ...
Squeezed out: the plight of the middle class.(Book review)
Jan 09, 2007; ... The American Dream vs. the Gospel of Wealth: The Fight for a Productive MiddleClass Economy. By Norton Garfinkle. Yale University Press, 240 pp., $22.00. Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class. By Thom Hartmann. Berrett-Kohler, 220 pp., $22.95. MOST ...
What if? The missed opportunity of 9/11.(George W. Bush)
Jan 09, 2007; ... AFTER THE SEPTEMBER 11 attacks it took President Bush only six days to authorize the U.S. military to prepare for war against the al-Qaeda network and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Influenced by Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Bush also issued the order ...
Secret passage.(Faith matters)(Short story)
Jan 09, 2007; ... IN THE MINUTES before the wedding ceremony, I wait downstairs in Pilgrim Hall with the groom and the groomsmen. Upstairs the sanctuary is lovely, with freshly vacuumed carpeting and wedding flowers that are a cut above the usual Sunday morning carnation extravaganza. But down where I wait ...
Religion and rights.(God's Joust, God's Justice: Law and Religion in the Western Tradition)(Book review)
Jan 09, 2007; ... God's Joust, God's Justice: Law and Religion in the Western Tradition. By John Witte Jr. Eerdmans, 464 pp., $30.00 paperback. JOHN WITTE HAS written a book that is profoundly in touch with the intractable issues in U.S. public life and in that of the West generally. Professor ...
Faith and Politics: How the "Moral Values" Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together.(Book review)
Jan 09, 2007; ... Faith and Politics: How the 'Moral Values' Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together. By John Danforth. Viking, 224 pp., $24.95. THIS IS NOT a ghostwritten book signed by yet another famous politician hoping to cash in after years of public service. Nor is it a ...
A Precarious Peace: Yoderian Explorations on Theology, Knowledge, and Identity.(Book Marks)(Book review)
Jan 09, 2007 ... A Precarious Peace: Yoderian Explorations on Theology, Knowledge, and Identity. By Chris K Huebner. Herald Press, 249 pp., 818.99 paperback. Huebner's book is a challenge to both his fellow Mennonites and the broader church. He asserts that Mennonites can just as easily become ...
Barely making it.(The Pursuit of Happyness)(Movie review)
Jan 09, 2007; ... SOULFUL AND TOUGH in equal measure, The Pursuit of Happyness is the ideal movie for the Christmas season. It's a triumph-of-the-spirit film in which the protagonist's journey from poverty and occasional homelessness to solvency and the promise of a future is so thorny and obstacle-laden ...
Episcopal authority.(Letter to the editor)
Jan 09, 2007; ... DANIEL BURKE'S news article on Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori ("Woman bishop takes the Episcopal helm," Nov. 28) is the first article I've read in which the Episcopal presiding bishop's name is used correctly. I thank him for that. There is, however, no such thing as ...
Barton's issues ...(letters)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 09, 2007; ... AS A traditional small-town pastor I teach the basic Protestant work ethic to both my adult congregation and catechism classes. I try to promote education and hard work for a better future. What undermines such efforts are the way well-paying jobs are outsourced overseas, the ...
The church and immigration ...(letters)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 09, 2007; ... To INCREASE market share in the burgeoning Latino population, it seems that some United Methodist churches will even place an image of the Mexican national saint on their altars (see "Sanctuary," by Jason Byassee, Oct. 31). The Latino congregation that meets in our church consists of ...
Resisting Girard ...(letters)(Letter to the editor)
Jan 09, 2007; ... I AM GRATEFUL for William Placher's review of Saved from Sacrifice, by Mark Helm, and his assessment of the work of Rene Girard (Dec. 12). The influence of Girard's work is curious across the board and enormous in Old Testament/Hebrew scripture study. I do not understand its attraction and ...
Hymn sing.
Jan 09, 2007; ... NEW HYMNALS, a.k.a. "Worship Books," are forthcoming from numerous church bodies, including two Lutheran groups (among them my own ELCA). Having studied none of these books, I write with vincible ignorance about the details. Having studied church history, however, I write with invincible ...
True patriot.(Bill Moyers)
Jan 23, 2007; ... DURING THE HEIGHT of the Vietnam War, Bill Moyers was President Lyndon Johnson's press secretary. It was his responsibility to explain to the press and the world what was happening and why the U.S. was doing what it was doing. He was also present as the Johnson administration declared war ...
Life on the outside.(Second Chance Act, employment for ex-offenders )
Jan 23, 2007 ... MELVIN BAILEY spent five years in prison for selling drugs. After he got out of prison, he did what most ex-offenders do: he returned to his neighborhood and looked for work. But there weren't many jobs on Chicago's West Side, and even fewer open to former prisoners. Eventually he found ...
Let your yea be yea.(Century marks)(Muslim politician Keith Ellison)(Brief article)
Jan 23, 2007 ... LET YOUR YEA BE YEA: Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, intends to use the Qur'an during a private swearing-in ceremony. This triggered a hostile reaction from Virgil Goode, a Republican representative from Virginia: "If American citizens don't wake up ...
A Mormon for president?(Mitt Romney)(Brief article)
Jan 23, 2007 ... A MORMON FOR PRESIDENT? If Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts runs for the Republican nomination for president as expected, he won't be the first Mormon to have done so. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah ran briefly in 2000, and Romney's own father, George, was a Republican hopeful in 1967 ....
High calling.(Century marks)(Survey)(Brief article)
Jan 23, 2007 ... HIGH CALLING: When Harris Interactive took its annual poll in 2006 measuring the prestige granted different professions, the top three were firefighters, doctors and nurses. Clergy came in eighth, behind scientists, ...
In retreat.(Century marks)(iraqi demography)(Brief article)
Jan 23, 2007 ... IN RETREAT: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that by the end of 2006, 1.6 million Iraqis had fled within the country and another 1.8 million had gone abroad. At one point it was estimated that 1,000 people were going to Jordan each day and another ...
Prophecy fulfilled.(Century marks)(James Baker)(Brief article)
Jan 23, 2007 ... PROPHECY FULFILLED: James Baker, former secretary of state and cochair of the Iraq Study Group, says he used to be asked often why the first Bush administration didn't topple Saddam Hussein at the end of the 1991 Gulf War. Among other reasons, he would explain, was that "if Saddam were ...
Prophecy proclaimed.(Century marks)(Pat Robertson )(Brief article)
Jan 23, 2007 ... PROPHECY PROCLAIMED: Pat Robertson reported on The 700 Club that God has told him that a major terrorist attack on the United States will happen in late 2007, resulting in "mass killing." "I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," he said on his religious broadcast ....
Bearing the cross.(Century marks)(Gene R. Nichol of William and Mary College)(Brief article)
Jan 23, 2007 ... BEARING THE CROSS: When Gene R. Nichol, president of William and Mary College, ordered the cross removed from Wren Chapel, he brought on the wrath of numerous alumni and others. He now admits he acted hastily, and he has clarified that on Sundays the cross will remain on display all day, ...
Quack science.(age of Grand Canyon)(Brief article)
Jan 23, 2007 ... QUACK SCIENCE: Employees at Grand Canyon National Park are not permitted to give an official estimate of the age of the canyon, due to pressure from the Bush administration. "In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its ...
Compulsory credo.(Century marks)(Thomas Nelson Publishers, and its religious conditions)(Brief article)
Jan 23, 2007 ... COMPULSORY CREDO: Thomas Nelson Publishers, a conservative religious publisher in Nashville, Tennessee, has announced that from now on it will work only with writers who adhere to the fourth-century Nicene Creed. While this would include most Protestant and Catholic writers, it ...
Long fast.(Ram Bahadur Bomjan meditating for 10 months without food, water)(Brief article)
Jan 23, 2007 ... LONG FAST: A teenage Nepalese boy, believed by some to be a reincarnation of Gautama Buddha, has reappeared in eastern Nepal after vanishing for nine months. Sixteen-year-old Ram Bahadur Bomjan was spotted in late December by villagers in a remote and densely forested area 95 miles east of ...
Presidential prospects.(Century marks)(Survey)(Brief article)
Jan 23, 2007 ... 55% say Americans are ready to elect a woman 56% say Americans are ready to elect an African American 86% of registered voters say they would vote for ...
Barnyard dance.(FARMING THAT HONORS ANIMALS)
Jan 23, 2007; ... A SERIES OF recent books, like Erich Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and Andrew Kimbrell's Fatal Harvest, have exposed the deadly side of America's highly industrialized food production system. The system relies on monocultural crop production, ...
Jacob's Ladder.(Sonnet)
Jan 23, 2007; ... <Pre> Jacob's Ladder At first, I saw their faces, close together,And in their distance they were like the weather,The satisfaction found in abstract thought,The feeling of the sunlight when it's caught. Then they moved closer, barefoot on the ladder,And ...
Michelangelo and the angels.(Poem)
Jan 23, 2007; ... <Pre> Michelangelo and the angels The trouble is the halo. He's never dissected one,prying it open with a blade under cover of nightto determine its component parts: seeking with hisfingertips for the thin band of cartilage that holdsit erect, or the branched ...
A healing president and devoted Episcopalian.(Gerald R. Ford)(Obituary)
Jan 23, 2007; ... FORMER PRESIDENT Gerald R. Ford, praised in death as a low-key healer for the nation in the troubled aftermath of the White House Watergate scandals and the Vietnam War, was eulogized in a succession of Episcopal services at the turn of the new year. The Episcopal connection was ...
Gift church.(News)
Jan 23, 2007 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: GIFT CHURCH: Midfield First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, whose congregation had dwindled to about 40 mostly elderly, white worshipers, recently held its last service in the building it had called home for nearly 50 years. A week later it ...
Gay marriage setback in Massachusetts.(News)(Legislation)
Jan 23, 2007 ... In a surprise move, Massachusetts legislators took a first step toward banning same-sex marriages in the first and only state to make them legal. If the state legislature approves a ban in another vote during the 2007-2008 session, the initiative will be placed on the November 2008 ballot ....
Latinos moving away from Catholicism.
Jan 23, 2007; ... The bongo drums and keyboard at Iglesia El Shaddai, a Pentecostal church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, are being played so briskly that they could support a conga line. The Salvadoran-born pastor shakes a tambourine, some women rock their hips and everyone sings praise to Jesus in Spanish. ...
Reuniting reformed churches would stir discord, study says.(Christian Reformed Church, Christian Reformed Church)
Jan 23, 2007; ... The two sisters grew up worshiping in the same church. Today, they feel like they still are--despite being in different denominations. So, Patricia Rock and Lynda Barendse-Witte ask, why not reunite the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) with the Reformed Church in America (RCA), ...
Church growth keys: multiracial, happy, more males active.(Hartford Institute for Religion Research)
Jan 23, 2007 ... Congregations interested in increasing their weekly attendance would do well to make a plan for recruiting new members, become multiracial and make sure that serious conflict doesn't take root. That's the message of an analysis recently released by the Hartford Institute for ...