The Christian Century back issues from March 2007:
The 'I' in sermons.
Mar 06, 2007; ... I AM NEVER quite sure what postmodernity is, but I was struck by Pamela Fickenscher's delightful essay on postmodern ministry (p. 20) and especially by her observations about preaching: "While many traditions have taught preachers to leave the 'I' out of their sermons, postmodern audiences ...
Fleeing Iraq.
Mar 06, 2007 ... ONE OF THE lesser-known calamities of the Iraq war is the flood of refugees it has produced. According to United Nations officials, about 2 million Iraqis have fled the country since the start of the war--mostly to Jordan and Syria--and almost as many Iraqis have been displaced inside ...
What would Jesus say?(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... WHAT WOULD JESUS SAY? A Baptist church in Sydney, Australia, created a stir by posting a sign reading "Jesus loves Osama." Prime Minister John Howard, for one, was not pleased. "I understand the Christian motivation of the Baptist church," Howard said. "But I hope they will ...
Conflicting dates.(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... CONFLICTING DATES: Marcus R. Ross wrote his doctoral dissertation at the University of Rhode Island on mosasaurs, marine reptiles that vanished about 65 million years ago. That's not a suprising topic in itself, but it is a surprising topic for a scientist who is also a young-earth ...
Religion on the campaign trail.(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... RELIGION ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL: Mitt Romney, Republican candidate for the presidency, is not the only politician whose religious faith (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is being scrutinized. Democratic candidate Barack Obama has been criticized because his congregation, Trinity ...
You be the judge.(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... YOU BE THE JUDGE: Right-wingers have taken the Democratic National Committee to task for inviting a Shi'ite imam to lead them in prayer at their winter meeting. One critic claims that the imam "prayed for the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam, as well as for the destruction of Israel." ...
Made in Japan.(National Christian Council in Japan leader calls for health minister's resignation)(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... MADE IN JAPAN: A Japanese Christian women's leader has joined opposition political groups in urging the country's health minister to resign from the cabinet and the parliament because of his remark that women are "birth-giving machines." "We ...
God and guns, Russian style.(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... GOD AND GUNS, RUSSIAN STYLE: Russian president Vladimir Putin has said his country's security depends upon two things--its traditional religions and its nuclear forces. "These themes are closely connected because both the traditional faiths of the Russian Federation and Russia's nuclear ...
Vocabulary builder.
Mar 06, 2007 ... VOCABULARY BUILDER: The "word of the year" for 2006, according to the American Dialect Society, is plutoed; to be plutoed is to be demoted of devalued, just as Pluto was downgraded from its status as a planet in the solar system. Runner up was "climate ...
Grey matter.(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... GREY MATTER: A United Methodist pastor has been preaching a series of sermons drawing on the TV show Grey's Anatomy. Richard Hunter's sermons focus on the character foibles of the medical interns in the show. He ...
Let's talk about sex.(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX: A coalition of national religious leaders has issued an "Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Adolescent Sexuality" that calls for a faith-based approach to helping adolescents understand their sexuality and make informed choices about their sexual behavior. Faith ...
Visiting the submergent church.
Mar 06, 2007 ... VISITING THE SUBMERGENT CHURCH: Yes, the article "The submergent church" (February 6) was a spoof of cutting-edge, culturally contextual, postdenominational, nontraditional ministries. We're sorry if that fact was obscured in the presentation. Part of the ...
Religious wrongs.(Islamic Medical Association says vaccinating children for measles, mumps and rubella violates religion)(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... RELIGIOUS WRONGS: The director of Britain's Islamic Medical Association is discouraging Muslims from vaccinating their children ...
Would you vote for a ...?(Survey)(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... <Pre> Would you vote for a ...? Black WomanMormon Percent who would vote comfortably for a 84% 78% 58% Would vote with ...
Family reunion.(Christian Churches Together in the USA)
Mar 06, 2007; ... THE multidenominational Christian Churches Together in the USA has just about got it together--enough at least for a small celebration. From Catholic and Orthodox bishops to Protestant and Pentecostal clergy, representatives of 36 church bodies meeting in California lit candles and one by ...
Longing, Lenten.(Poem)
Mar 06, 2007; ... <Pre> Longing, Lenten The walk back, more loss. When I open the doorit's over, so I set to piddling: tidyend tables, check the mail, draw a bath. The restless energy finally settlesas I pass the mirror. I peer into it.My nose touches glass. Not much left, ...
Unsportsmanlike conduct.
Mar 06, 2007; ... CHAD MASON, Mennonite pastor and self-described "gun-loving pacifist," made a strong and--to some readers--persuasive argument for hunting in "Armed and defenseless" (June 27, 2006). But there is one kind of hunting that Mason would, I suspect, strongly disapprove of: "canned" big-game ...
Stage fright.
Mar 06, 2007; ... WHEN I WAS YOUNG, the youth leader of our church would occasionally ask for someone to give a testimony during the worship service. All the kids would get quiet, shuffle their feet and squirm. For some reason I would feel the responsibility of the group shift slowly to my shoulders. The ...
Presbyterian dissidents find church refuge.
Mar 06, 2007 ... DOZENS OF church representatives of a movement of people unhappy inside the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have voted unanimously to pursue possible refuge within the conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which proposes to establish a temporary, nongeographic presbytery for dissident ...
Ruling to remove gay pastor may rekindle Lutheran debate.
Mar 06, 2007 ... The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America may be asked to change a ban on practicing gay and lesbian clergy after a disciplinary committee voted to remove an openly gay pastor but suggested that the church find a way to reinstate him. The ruling called for Bradley Schmeling, a ...
Bible scholar-translator Bruce Metzger dies.(Obituary)(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... Bruce Metzger, a preeminent New Testament translator and textual critic, died February 13 at his Princeton, New Jersey, home at age 93. The professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he taught for 46 years, was termed the "greatest American scholar" in his field ...
Episcopal Church given deadline to bar gay bishops definitively.
Mar 06, 2007 ... Anglican leaders from around the world have told the Episcopal Church's bishops they must declare unequivocally that they will not authorize same-sex blessings and that no one living in a same-sex union will be made a bishop. Failure to give such assurances by September 30 would ...
Haggard's cure claim greeted by skepticism.(Ted Haggard)
Mar 06, 2007 ... Claims by one of Ted Haggard's spiritual overseers that he is now "100 percent heterosexual" should be taken with a significant grain of salt, according to experts with differing opinions on the value of "ex-gay" or sexual-reorientation therapy. In November Haggard stepped down ...
A latina first.(News)(first woman bishop Nerva Cot)(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A LATINA FIRST: Nerva Cot, the first woman bishop named by the Episcopal Church in a developing nation, distributes Holy Communion at the ...
Bush library, institute for SMU get support.(News)(George W. Bush's library at Southern Methodist University)(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... A regional group of United Methodist bishops has affirmed the process surrounding the possible placement of President George W. Bush's library and policy center on the grounds of Southern Methodist University. The bishops, who represent United Methodists in the south central ...
Antiwar Christians set March 16 protest.(News)(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... A wide array of Christian peace groups will march on the White House--and perhaps get arrested--March 16 to protest the U.S. military escalation in Iraq. The event will include a worship service at the National Cathedral, then a ...
Jerusalem mayor halts ramp renovation, but disputed dig goes on.(News)(Uri Lupolianski suspended renovations at the al-Aqsa Mosque)
Mar 06, 2007 ... The mayor of Jerusalem has suspended renovations near a compound housing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, while the municipality works on submitting new plans for a walkway leading to the holy site. Mayor Uri Lupolianski announced the suspension of work to the damaged ...
Survey: Conservative Jews back gay rabbis.(News)(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... Most of the "key constituents" in centrist Conservative Judaism would support gay and lesbian rabbis, according to an e-mail- and Web-based survey commissioned by the Jewish Theological Seminary. About two-thirds of the 5,583 rabbis, cantors and JTS students responding to the ...
The American Jewish population is 20 percent higher than previously reported, according to a new study released by the Brandeis University Steinhardt Social Research Institute.(Briefly noted)(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... The American Jewish population is 20 percent higher than previously reported, according to a new study released by the Brandeis University Steinhardt Social Research Institute. The institute estimated that there are 6 million to 6.4 million Jews living in the United States, along with ...
A study released by the Geneva-based World Health Organization has noted the key role of faith-based organizations in HIV prevention and care, but says greater collaboration is needed between them and public health agencies.(Briefly noted)(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... A study released by the Geneva-based World Health Organization has noted the key role of faith-based organizations in HIV prevention and care, but says greater collaboration is needed between them and public health agencies. Such cooperation will be necessary, the WHO said, if progress is ...
Polish parliamentarians have voted to allocate money from their country's state pension fund for a new Roman Catholic church in Warsaw that is being built in thanksgiving for the collapse of communism and for the pontificate of Pope John Paul II.(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... Polish parliamentarians have voted to allocate money from their country's state pension fund for a new Roman Catholic church in Warsaw that is being built in thanksgiving for the collapse of communism and for the pontificate of Pope John Paul II. The Polish Press Agency said the donation ...
Swedish churches in Bangkok, Melbourne and Los Angeles will in the future get tsunami warnings by mobile telephone and will therefore be among the first to know when such critical situations occur.(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... Swedish churches in Bangkok, Melbourne and Los Angeles will in the future get tsunami warnings by mobile telephone and will therefore be among the first to know when such critical situations occur. "This is a way of making sure that we are even better prepared to be there for Swedes who ...
North Korea deal.(Brief article)
Mar 06, 2007 ... NORTH KOREA DEAL: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discusses on February 13 an agreement by North Korea to take steps toward nuclear disarmament under a groundbreaking deal struck to bring the impoverished communist nation some $300 million worth of aid. World Council of Churches ...
Living by the word: winning situation.
Mar 06, 2007; ... Sunday, March 18 Joshua 5:9-12; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 AS WE MOVE deeper into Lent and its emphasis on repentance, spiritual introspection, self-examination and self-denial, many of us choose to practice Lenten disciplines. If we have become involved in the season's imagery and ...
Living by the word: heaven scent.
Mar 06, 2007; ... Sunday, March 25 John 12:1-18 WHAT DOES GOD'S LOVE smell like? Like honeysuckle on a warm spring day? Like a salty ocean breeze? Can God's love also smell like a person who hasn't bathed for days? For the people in the story in John 12, God's love smells like their brother ...
Off-road ministry: what I learned from mountain biking.
Mar 06, 2007; ... FOR FIVE YEARS, from 1997 to 2002, I was pastor of a congregation of mostly 20- and 30-somethings, a group some would call postmodern or--though this term appeared later--"emergent." Spirit Garage, the "church with the really big door," was born in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis, ...
Graveside hope: a passion for funeral ministry.
Mar 06, 2007; ... WHEN I TELL OTHER PASTORS that I hate weddings and love funerals, they smile knowingly. Of course, the dark humor rings true with them--every pastor I know can tell a "wedding from hell" story, and all pastors can think of a few funerals at which they'd love to preside. In my colleagues' ...
Alien witness: how God's people challenge empire.
Mar 06, 2007; ... FOR COMPLEX historical and religious reasons, Americans have found it easy to view the U.S. as the "new Israel," the carrier of God's mandates in the world. This view has led to an expansive notion of the nation's "manifest destiny" and to all manner of initiatives under the general rubric ...
A way of seeing.
Mar 06, 2007; ... A FEW WEEKS AGO, oppressed by some worrying news, I stopped into our college art museum. On the floor devoted to American and modern European paintings, I paused to admire Charles Sheeler's Rolling Power, a close-up of train wheels, pistons and steam commissioned by Fortune magazine to ...
Paul's gospel.(Book review)
Mar 06, 2007; ... A PREMIER PUBLIC intellectual and an award-winning author of books on American history, Garry Wills has turned his attention more recently to religious topics and figures, in Papal Sin; The Rosary; Why I Am a Catholic; a wonderful study of Augustine; and an energetic translation of ...
The Road.(Book review)
Mar 06, 2007; ... The Road. By Cormac McCarthy. Knopf, 256 pp., $24.00. THE BOOK OF JOB feels unnecessarily long, but we tolerate the repetition because the final payoff is powerful. Along the way, the arguments against Job form concentric cages of folly, cant, common sense and basic theology, ...
Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression.(Brief article)(Book review)
Mar 06, 2007 ... Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression. By Spencer Overton. Norton, 224 pp., $24.95. Overton's message is in his subtitle. He's not writing about a one-time election theft or even a 2000/2004 double whammy. A professor of law at George Washington ...
Whatever Happened to Delight? Preaching the Gospel in Poetry and Parables.(Brief article)(Book review)
Mar 06, 2007 ... Whatever Happened to Delight? Preaching the Gospel in Poetry and Parables. By J. Barrie Shepherd. Westminster John Knox, 168 pp., $17.95 paperback. Based on the Beecher Lectures delivered at Yale Divinity School in 2002, Shepherd's chapters are sprinkled liberally ...
Spring and Fall: A Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
Mar 06, 2007 ... Spring and Fall: A Novel. By Nicholas Delbanco. Warner Books, 304 pp., $24.99. Lawrence and Hermia first meet in the early 1960s when they are students at Harvard and Radcliffe, but a long-term relationship is not in the cards. Somewhat implausibly, they meet up again ...
Animal friends.(Movie review)
Mar 06, 2007; ... DEVOTEES OF children's literature have received an unexpected lift from the nearly simultaneous release of the new film of Charlotte's Web, based on the story by E. B. White, and Miss Potter, a biography of Peter Rabbit's creator, Beatrix Potter. Each in its way is a charmer. ...
Rise and fall?
Mar 06, 2007; ... GARY DORRIEN'S "Grand illusion" (Dec. 26) presents the costs, present and future, of U.S. military operations. The situation in Iraq and Afghanistan is just one example of the burden of empire and the cost of security, financial and human. I was reminded of the study The Rise ...
Reshelving.
Mar 06, 2007; ... THIS WINTER I had occasion to caress every one of my thousands of books, kiss thousands of them good-bye as I downsized my library, and decide which to save and which to give away. Reflection at such times can turn sentimental, as finding a long-buried book can let loose a flood of ...
Passion narrative.(Palm Sunday)(Editorial)
Mar 20, 2007;
Bones of contention.(The Lost Tomb of Jesus, documentary)
Mar 20, 2007
Of two minds.(Century marks)(individualism)(Brief article)
Mar 20, 2007
The beginning of wisdom.(Century marks)(faith and technology)(Brief article)
Mar 20, 2007
Family town.(Century marks)(Ave Maria being developed by Tom Monaghan)(Brief article)
Mar 20, 2007
Jesus' tomb found?(Cartoon)
Mar 20, 2007
Legitimate elections.(Century marks)(Middle East)(Brief article)
Mar 20, 2007
Bivocational comic.(Century marks)(stand-up comedian Ray Hanania's performances)(Brief article)
Mar 20, 2007
Flight-free bishop.(Century marks)(Anglican bishop Richard Chartres travels to Germany by train)(Brief article)
Mar 20, 2007
Casualties of war.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Mar 20, 2007
Exit strategy.(troop withdrawal)(Brief article)
Mar 20, 2007
Freedom fighters.(ABOLITIONIST DRAMA)(Amazing Grace)(Movie review)
Mar 20, 2007;
At a crossroads?(THE ANGLICAN IMPASSE)
Mar 20, 2007;
Student teachers.(READING AUGUSTINE WITH MUSLIMS)(classroom diversity and religious education)
Mar 20, 2007;
Taps.(Poem)
Mar 20, 2007;
Jefferts Schori urges restraint.(News)(Katharine Jefferts Schori)
Mar 20, 2007
Gonzales's SBC speech irks church-state experts.(News)(Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's speech at Southern Baptist Convention)
Mar 20, 2007
Christians back from Iran urge diplomacy.(News)
Mar 20, 2007