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Thursday,
July 9, 2009
Come
to this page first...
it is
the quick and easy way to miss nothing
of
All the National PC(USA) news
Something we may have overlooked? Please, tell
us |
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Task
force seeks to delineate news, public relations
functions
By Leslie Scanlon / The Presbyterian Outlook |
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What
exactly does it mean for the Presbyterian News
Service to have “editorial freedom?”
Who is responsible
for public relations for the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.), and how well is that being done? When
controversy burbles up – as it inevitably
will from time to time – how can the institutional
church get its message out effectively to the
secular media and to the world at large?
And the questions
don’t stop there. Where should the funding
for the Presbyterian News Service come from –
the mission budget or per capita? It’s currently
funded by undesignated mission giving, already
a stressed source of funding. When budget cuts
have to be made, how should funding for the news
service be weighed against other ministries and
needs of the church?
Increasingly, ministry
divisions of the General Assembly Mission Council
or the Office of the General Assembly have hired
their own communications representatives to get
their message out. |
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Musical
midwives
Story of Exodus 1 takes the stage for Presbyterian
Women Gathering
By Bethany Furkin / PNS |
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LOUISVILLE
– Puah’s Midwife Crisis, a musical
expanding on the story of Exodus 1, will have
its regional premiere at this year’s Churchwide
Gathering of Presbyterian Women July 11-15 here.
The musical tells
the story of Puah and Shiphrah, two midwives who
defied Pharoah’s order to kill Hebrew baby
boys. The author, the Rev. Goodman-Morris, became
intrigued by this tale of “civil disobedience”
and female strength when she was pregnant with
her daughter and was ordered to go on bed rest. |
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Covenant
Network announces:
Conference
2009: The Church We Can See from Here |
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To
be held November 5-7 in the Church of the Covenant,
Cleveland, Ohio.
"...We will think together about what is
changing, why it is changing, how it is changing
– and how it is not..." |
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| Scripture
lessons for today
– from
the Lectionary |
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"I
love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my
supplications.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will
call on him as long as I live..."
"...And the Philistine said, "Today
I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man, that
we may fight together." When Saul and all
Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they
were dismayed and greatly afraid..."
"...while Peter was greatly puzzled about
what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly
the men sent by Cornelius appeared..."
"While they were talking about this, Jesus
himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace
be with you." They were startled
and terrified, and thought that they were seeing
a ghost. He said to them, "Why
are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in
your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see
that it is I myself..." |
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Today
in the Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study
The
Presbytery of Coastal Carolina |
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"Over
the past few years, the churches of the Presbytery
of Coastal Carolina have aided their neighbors
in need in many helpful, generous ways. After
responding to hurricanes and tornadoes on the
Gulf Coast and at home, the presbytery is working
toward responding with more coordination to future
disasters. A major goal is to pool the resources
of volunteer workers to help with rebuilding efforts..." |
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News of all other churches.
in the USA and worldwide.
and their interaction with
the world around them.
Included: opinions, resources
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Voices
from the entire spectrum
Therefore:
Always something to like,
always something to dislike,
always something to ponder...
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| Egypt
mourns 'headscarf martyr' / BBC |
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The
body of a Muslim woman, killed in a German courtroom
by a man convicted of insulting her religion,
has been taken back to her native Egypt for burial.
Marwa Sherbini,
31, was stabbed 18 times by Alex W, who is now
under arrest in Dresden for suspected murder.
Husband Elwi Okaz
is also in a critical condition in hospital, after
being injured as he tried to save his wife.
Ms Sherbini had
sued her killer after he called her a "terrorist"
because of her headscarf. |
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Group
of 8 agrees on a ceiling for temperature rise
Broader carbon proposal is rejected –
activists "very disappointed"
By Craig Whitlock and Michael A. Fletcher / The
Washington Post |
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L'AQUILA,
Italy – The world's leading industrial nations
tentatively agreed Wednesday to try to prevent
global temperatures from rising above a fixed
level, after a more far-reaching proposal to slash
production of greenhouse gases fizzled, according
to U.S. and European negotiators.
Leaders meeting
here for the Group of Eight summit said they would
pledge to keep temperatures from rising more than
3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above average levels of
more than a century ago, before large-scale industrial
pollution occurred.
Temperatures have
already risen by nearly half that amount, leaving
little wiggle room. It was unclear what mechanisms,
if any, would be adopted to enforce the target.
"We are very
disappointed that the result is so limited,"
said a Greenpeace spokesman.
Earlier, negotiators
from 17 countries rejected a draft agreement to
halve the global production of greenhouse gases
by 2050. Under that plan, the United States, Japan
and many European countries would have been required
to cut gases even more, by 80 percent. |
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Democracy
is the real victim in Honduras’ coup
By Ashley Morse / blog.sojo.net |
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On
the morning of June 28, Honduran President Manuel
“Mel” Zelaya was awoken suddenly as
masked soldiers burst into his home. As the media
has been rave to point out, still in his pajamas,
the elected head of state was forced onto a plane
and shipped out of the country. Later that day,
the Honduran congress overwhelmingly elected its
speaker Roberto Michiletti, a member of Zelaya’s
own Liberal Party, as the country’s new president.
The event was a chilling reminder that the days
of military coups in Latin America are not quite
over.
In the wake of
Sunday’s events there has ensued a battle
of interpretation both within Honduras and in
the international community, in which the greatest
point of contention is the basis of legality for
the removal of President Zelaya and whether or
not it was in fact a coup. |
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Marxist
Mel's martyrs – The
Religious Left turns Honduras' self-defense against
a would-be strongman into a U.S.-backed military
coup
By Mark Tooley / IRD |
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During
the 1970s and 1980s, the Washington Office on
Latin America (WOLA), then based in the United
Methodist Building on Capitol Hill, vigorously
lobbied for Nicaragua's Sandinista regime, the
Cuban-style Marxist regime that shot its way to
power in 1979. Today, WOLA pretends it is concerned
about the rule of law in Honduras after the Honduran
Congress and Supreme Court supported removing
the leftist president for defying its constitution.
WOLA and Jim Wallis' publication Sojourners
have teamed up to spin Honduras' defense of its
democracy as another example of a U.S.-supported,
imperialist military coup.
The constitutional
coup in Honduras was actually precipitated when
President Mel Zelaya organized a mob of supporters
to storm a military base and seize ballots for
a national referendum that the Supreme Court had
already ruled illegal. That Zelaya was an aspiring
president for life who had aligned with Venezualan
demagogue Hugo Chavez and communist Cuba did not
disturb WOLA, which insisted after Zelaya's exile
that such "affronts to democracy will not
be tolerated." |
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| Pope
removes officials seen as responsible for Holocaust-denying
bishop row – by
John L Allen Jr / National Catholic Reporter |
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Rome
– In what could be seen as another piece
of fallout from Benedict XVI’s January decision
to lift the excommunications of four traditionalist
bishops, including one who is a Holocaust denier,
the pope today restructured the Vatican office
that handles relations with the traditionalist
world – and, in effect, gently fired the
officials who presided over the earlier fiasco. |
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Theologians
to gather for ‘landmark’ ecumenical
event
Ecclesiology, authority, moral discernment on
docket for WCC’s Faith and Order Commission
By Juan Michel / WCC |
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GENEVA
– An upcoming meeting of 120 theologians
from nearly all Christian traditions will be looking
at what churches consider to be their mission
in the world and how they come to decisions on
theological, ecumenical or moral questions.
The Faith and Order
Plenary Commission of the World Council of Churches
(WCC) will meet at the Orthodox Academy in Kolympari,
Crete, Greece from Oct. 7-14.
One goal: to begin
the process of developing an ecumenically recognized
set of steps for the churches’ moral discernment. |
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Pharmacies
must sell Plan B pill
By Americans United |
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The
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a
lower court was wrong when it blocked a Washington
state regulation requiring pharmacies to sell
“Plan B” morning-after pills.
“The appeals
court has done the right thing,” said the
Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans
United. “States have every right to set policies
that guarantee patients’ access to medical
care. |
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Massachusetts
sues feds over definition of marriage
By Denise Lavoie / AP |
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BOSTON
— Massachusetts is suing the federal government
over a law that defines marriage as a union between
a man and a woman.
The 1996 federal
Defense of Marriage Act denies federal recognition
of gay marriage. |
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Episcopal
Church is in crisis, says Jefferts Schori
By Eric Young / Christian Post |
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In
her first opening address to the General Convention
of The Episcopal Church in the US, the Most Rev
Katharine Jefferts Schori made it very clear that
the denomination she presides over is in the middle
of a crisis.
“The crisis
of this moment has several parts,” the US
Episcopal leader remarked at the opening of her
denomination’s primary governing and legislative
body on Tuesday.
"And the overarching
connection in all of these crises, she continued,
has to do with “the great Western heresy
– that we can be saved as individuals, that
any of us alone can be in right relationship with
God”. |
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50
Methodist bishops agree to cut their pay
By Ken Kusmer / AP |
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INDIANAPOLIS
– One of the nation's largest Christian denominations
is addressing the nation's financial crisis with
what it hopes will be a spiritual teaching moment
as well as a cost-saver.
Fifty United Methodist
Church bishops in the United States will roll
back their salaries by 4 percent next year in
what Bishop Gregory Palmer of Springfield, Ill.,
president of the Council of Bishops, says is a
gesture of solidarity with others hurt by the
global economic downturn. |
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| Teen
sex linked to children's TV viewing, study says
/ BP |
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Researchers
at Children's Hospital Boston found that early
teen sex may be linked to viewing adult content
on television as children. The study tracked children
from ages 6 to 18 and found that the sooner children
began to view adult content on television programs
and movies, the earlier they became sexually active
during adolescence.
"Television
and movies are among the leading sources of information
about sex and relationships for adolescents,"
said Hernan Delgado, a specialist in adolescent
and young adult medicine at Children's Hospital
Boston and the study's lead author, in a news
release on the study. "Our research shows
that their sexual attitudes and expectations are
influenced much earlier in life." |
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Obama
promised skyrocketing electric bills back in January
2008
By: Foundation for Moral Law |
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A prominent Democratic Senator is quoted as saying
that, under Barack Obama’s “cap-and-trade”
energy plan, “electricity rates would necessarily
skyrocket.” Because the plan would require
“capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants,
you know, natural gas, you name it – whatever
the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh,
they would have to retrofit their operations.
That will cost money. They will pass that money
on to consumers.”
Who was that Democrat?
Some rogue politician from a red state bucking
the party line?
Hardly. It was
Senator Barack Obama himself. |
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Obama
picks Francis Collins as NIH director
By David Brown / The Washington Post |
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President
Obama yesterday nominated Francis S. Collins,
a physician and scientist who helped guide the
Human Genome Project to completion, to be the
next director of the National Institutes of Health.
Collins, 59, developed
an important technique for identifying genes and
went on to identify those involved in cystic fibrosis
and neurofibromatosis, among other conditions.
He was the first director of NIH's National Human
Genome Research Institute.
In recent years,
he has been a champion of "personalized medicine,"
which hopes to harvest the fruits of the genomics
revolution in the form of better and safer clinical
care.
Rare among world-class
scientists, Collins is also a born-again Christian,
which may help him build bridges with those who
view some gene-based research as a potential threat
to religious values. |
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On
all things religious, Obama turns to DuBois
By Adelle M. Banks / RNS |
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WASHINGTON
– From a sparsely adorned office building
a stone's throw from the White House, Joshua DuBois
carefully navigates the delicate line between
church and state.
Each morning, he
sends a devotional message to President Obama's
BlackBerry. He appears before religious and community
groups to explain his role as director of the
White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood
Partnerships and, in turn, relays their concerns
to administration officials. In the course of
any given day, he'll receive as many as 750 e-mails
from religious leaders, reporters and government
officials. |
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Learning
to discuss faith at Harvard
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald / The Presbyterian Layman |
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CAMBRIDGE,
Mass. – Straus Hall’s oak-paneled common
room in Harvard Yard used to be empty on Thursday
nights, but no more. It began filling up as nine
male, first-year Harvard students arrived to discuss
their homework: the New Testament’s Book
of Acts.
The students got
no academic credit for being present, but most
came prepared nonetheless. At the very least,
they hoped the course will help them discuss their
Christian faith intelligently on this campus where
religion can be a hot and sometimes controversial
topic.
The semester-long
course, taught by two seminary-trained evangelicals,
marked the fruit of a growing initiative to strengthen
Christianity in the Ivy League.
Last fall, the
six-year-old Christian Union began expanding its
courses beyond Princeton University, where 185
undergraduates study the Bible in structured settings
with trained instructors. The Union now offers
three courses for first-year Harvard students
– two for men, one for women. Yale could
have similar courses taught on its campus as soon
as 2010.
The Christian Union
hopes to raise ministry participation levels on
all Ivy campuses to 20 percent by 2020. To get
there, the organization aims to plug what its
leaders see as a critical weak spot among these
colleges’ many campus ministries. The criticism:
Students may get fellowship, worship and service
opportunities through existing ministries, but
they don’t get much of the rigorous Biblical
education they need in order to claim a Christian
faith in an intellectual, skeptical environment. |
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God
and the recession
How will Prosperity Gospel ride out the hard economic
times?
By Clint Rainey / Slate |
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In
times of record-high foreclosures and Treasury
Department scrambling to shore up loan-refinancing
initiatives, the Prosperity Gospel can sound as
if it comes from preachers who live under rocks,
not in mansions: "God wants to give you your
own house," big-cheese pitchman Joel Osteen
announced in 2007's Your Best Life Now, which
he penned in an economic Indian summer of a bull
market and excited homebuyers. " 'How could
that ever happen to me?' you ask. 'I don't make
enough money.' Perhaps not, but our God is well
able."...
In many ways, it
is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, Christianity's
face-lift, whisking away specters of hellfire
and brimstone with a message of self-empowerment.
Preachers don't belabor sin if they mention it
at all.
Inside the vast,
gilded auditoriums, it's Prosperity business as
usual. "Where are these preachers as parishioners'
mortgages continue to default?" University
of California-Riverside religion professor Jonathan
Walton asked last September as the government
took over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. "One
need look no further than the same congregations
and networks where they have always resided. Same
theology, same sermons, and same results." |
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Does
global Christianity equal American Christianity?
Historian Mark Noll talks about how U.S. missionaries
have – and have not – shaped the faith
in other nations.
Interview by David Neff / Christianity Today |
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No
one doubts that American Christianity has had
a profound effect on the shape of world Christianity.
It's figuring out the exact nature of that influence
that still requires investigation and fresh thinking.
University of Notre Dame historian Mark Noll has
brought his usual careful research and wisdom
to bear on this theme in his most recent work,
The
New Shape of World Christianity (IVP).
Christianity Today Media Group editor in chief
David Neff talked with Noll about the myths and
realities of American influence overseas.
"....When
I was quite young, I heard the statement an awful
lot that we had "lost China." The loss
of China meant, at that time, the expulsion of
the Western missionaries. That was an understandable
reaction. There had been a hundred-plus years
of sacrificial labor that had led to about three
million Chinese Christians by 1950. When missionaries
were expelled, the only thing people could think
was that we had lost China.
"But from
the perspective of 2009, it's clear that forcing
the missionaries to leave was the birth of Christian
China..." |
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| Roundup:
Reactions to Caritas in Veritate /
Catholic Culture |
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"In
the most interesting of the early comments on
Caritas in Veritate, George Weigel observes
that the new papal encyclical seems to reflect
the result of a long struggle between the leftist
sympathies of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace and the Holy Father's own preference
for a non-partisan, theological approach...
"As if to
confirm Weigel's thesis, several American journalists
rushed to the conclusion that Pope Benedict had
given his support to leftist political and economic
theories. The encyclical was a "boost for
Catholic progressives," wrote Dan Gilgoff
of US News. David Gibson, who might be accurately
described as one of those Catholic progressives,
offered an analysis that carried the self-explanatory
title: "The Pope is a Liberal. Who Knew?"
And as usual, Father Tom Reese went over the top
with his Newsweek piece...
"More conservative
analysts hastened to balance such interpretations
with their own..." |
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| Evangelicalism's
terminal generation? – by
Albert Mohler |
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"...The
cardinal doctrine of justification by faith is,
as Martin Luther warned, "the article by
which the church stands or falls."
"If so, the
church is falling in many quarters. Much of what
is presented in many pulpits--and marketed by
flashy television preachers--bears little resemblance
to this simple message. Instead, sinners are told
to seek after riches, material blessings, vibrant
health, and earthly rewards. Salvation is packaged
as a product to be hawked on the airwaves and
sold at a discount. The notion of salvation from
sin and judgment is entirely missing from this
scenario. Instead, salvation is presented as a
gift of self-enhancement.
"On the theological
left, the Gospel had long ago been transformed
into a social and political message of liberation
from oppression. Now, among some who consider
themselves evangelicals, the Gospel of Christ
has been reduced to a form of self-expression
or therapy. Salvation is promised as the answer
to low self-esteem and emptiness. Gone is any
notion of a holy God who offers salvation from
sin and its eternal penalty..." |
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News
analysis: Houston, we have a Baptist problem
By Bob Allen / ABP |
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This
summer marked the 30th anniversary of the beginning
of the Southern Baptist Convention's "conservative
resurgence" – a movement by strident
fundamentalists to rescue a denomination they
viewed as going astray.
Eighteen years
ago many of the old denominational loyalists,
theological moderates and social liberals surrendered
in the SBC holy war and re-convened in a quasi-denominational
small-"s" southern Baptist network called
the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. |
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Missional
and Formational: Interim Summary
Part 11 of series: Missional and Formational?
By Mark D. Roberts |
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"So
far, I’ve looked at the biblical connections
between the missional and formational dimensions
of the Christian life. After some initial definitions,
I’ve examined these connections in the Old
Testament, the life of Jesus, and the ministry
of Jesus. I had thought I might go on and look
at several New Testament passages that show how
missional and formational go together in early
Christianity. But I think it’s time to end
this series, at least for now. So I’ll move
on to an interim summary..." |
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| Best
of It: Conclusion (Part 3) – Blog
series by Michael Kruse |
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The
second section in the Conclusion in Making the
Best of It is called “Behaving in Public.”
John Stackhouse
acknowledges the fears of many that Western Civilization
is drifting away from Christianity. In truth,
we are moving away from some Christian values
and towards others. History doesn’t move
in a straight line. Drawing on Philip Jenkins,
he notes that 1798 has to be a low ebb in the
influence of the church… with the persecution
of the Catholics, and skeptical deists and Unitarians
in ascendency around the Atlantic. (I also remember
that only 17% of Americans belonged to a church
during the Revolution.) Jenkins writes that, “Resurrection
is not just a fundamental doctrine of Christianity,
it is a historical model that explains the religion’s
structure and development.” (322) In short,
we should not despair about long-term outcomes
because of short-term trends (and by short I’m
not necessarily suggesting less than a lifetime.)
Secularization and de-Christianization is not
irreversible and we should not panic. |
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| Kopp
Disclosure |
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"...Alma
was about my age now when I first met her.
"She was on
the pastor search committee that called me to
Clark, New Jersey's Osceola Presbyterian Church
and served as an elder without interruption or
indigestion during my tenure.
"I was about
27 when she said, "Bob, I will be your mother
while you're away from your mother. I will tell
you the truth about how things are going and how
you're doing; but no matter how things are going
and how you're doing, you will always be able
to count on me to trust the best in you for Jesus
and the church. I know you love Jesus and love
us; so, like your mother, I can handle you not
being perfect."
"That was
about 30 years ago.
"We never
lost touch over the years..." |
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The
pinnacle of success? Michael Jackson's legacy
By Chuck Colson |
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"...
Michael Jackson was, by any standard, a musical
genius. His albums and his videos thrilled successive
generations of pop fans. In fact, I was enthralled
myself when I first watched his video presentation
at an Epcot exhibit some 20 years ago.
"There was,
indeed, no one quite like Michael Jackson. And
now there will be no new albums, no comeback concert
tour, no new dance moves. That’s why they’re
mourning.
"But here’s
why they – and all of us – should mourn
the real tragedy that Michael Jackson’s story
is. Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic Monthly
blog said it well: Michael Jackson “was everything
our culture worships; and yet he was obviously
desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.”
He was, as Sullivan noted, nothing but a creature
of our culture, which puts “fame and celebrity”
at its core, with money as its driving force,
without regard for the person caught up in it
or the character he exhibits..." |
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| Letters
from readers – email
us |
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•
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Craig
Tenke "I have to admit, your presbyweb
tag line got my attention: "New scientific
research refutes unsubstantiated claims regarding
homosexuality / NARTH Encino, CA – A
new report in this month's edition of the peer-reviewed
Journal of Human Sexuality..." |
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•
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Bob
Snelling "Recently these pages have
been energetically dealing with the subject of
climate change. Questions have been offered
about the validity of scientific research concerning
man-made global warming... In the view of this
writer the debate has been healthy. Some believe
that the science is conclusive enough that the
debate is over. Some seem to feel strongly otherwise...
"It sure seems
to me that the jury is still out. When the worldwide
jury is more sure and unanimous in their conclusions,
and when it is clearly determined without doubt
that humans are causing destructive climate change,
then we people of Faith must act. In the meantime
we people of Faith must continue to think responsibly." |
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•
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Kevin
Germer "I would invite Rev. Neubert
and any others who find his line of thought compelling
seriously to consider Richard Hays' work, The
Moral Vision of the New Testament..." |
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•
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Earl
Tilford "I have been following exchanges
between Neil Cowling, Colonel Landstrom,
and Reverend Neubert. I do not own a gun,
but am considering buying both a shotgun and a
9mm pistol for home defense. Given the deteriorating
economic condition, we can expect an increase
in crime, and I plan to defend my home, my wife,
and cat. Right now, I keep a machete and a small
baseball bat under the bed. A gun is a better
deterrent..." |
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