People here in Capital Beltway land love, love, love to talk about the unique creatures who live in the happy land of Georgetown.
Powerful portrait of persecuted Pakistani
That’s my first and prevailing statement concerning a Houston Chronicle profile this week of a Pakistani woman who suffered extreme persecution because of her Christian faith.
The scandal of Catholic professions of faith
Last night I read a Washington Post story that gave me reason to revisit my Lutheran confirmation rite. After a reading from the Gospel of Matthew, the catechumen is then directed to answer some very serious questions about what he or she believes. The structure of the rite is that as the pastor asks the questions “Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty” and “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord?” and so and so forth, the response is to quote from the Apostles’ Creed, one of the earliest confessions of Christian faith. The final five questions are:
Cure vs. change: Is there a difference?
If you believe The Associated Press and The New York Times, Exodus International has backed away from the idea that people with same-sex attractions can be “cured.”
Brangelina! Obama! God! Exclamation points!
I know, I know. I know that it’s absolutely crazy to look for hard, factual material in stories about celebrities — especially when it has anything to do with politics and religion. And in this case, we are talking about the brightest of all possible gossip stars.
Three cheers for the Church of England!
Covering warfare in a Byzantine maze -- literally
It goes without saying that I have received quite a bit of email from GetReligion readers, and others, wanting to know my take on last Friday’s resignation, and now the ongoing humiliation, of Metropolitan JONAH of the Orthodox Church in America. In a way, this news was rather shocking, yet not all that shocking because the bitter infighting between the OCA’s old guard and its idealistic young leader has been building for more than a year.
Lutheran, Baptist, whatever
Last week I highlighted an excellent local story about how one North Dakota congregation was helping people who are looking for work in their town. Apparently I wasn’t the only person who loved the story, as the congregation was also highlighted by CBS Morning News on July 3. I can’t find that broadcast, but I did appreciate that they put some additional footage from that bit on the web.
Denver Post goes back to Orthodox future (sort of)
Every now and then, someone — sometimes on the right, sometimes on the left — decides to do a very free-church Protestant thing and start their own new and improved version of one of the ancient Christian churches. Sometimes, these innovators decide to submit themselves to the existing hierarchies, making the decision to officially join either the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox folds (Memory eternal, Father Peter Gillquist). But often, they do not.
