The very last Baptist congregation that I called home, on my road to the ancient church of the East, was Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., which hails itself as an “ecumenical church” in the “Baptist tradition.”
Akinola unfiltered
Ruth Gledhill, the U.K. Times‘ religion correspondent, scored a fascinating and fantastic interview with Nigerian Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola. She sat with him at his sparse office in Abuja and discussed the church in Nigeria, relations in the Anglican Communion, Islam, homosexuality and more:
God is in the details
The Washington Post summarized a new Pew Research Center survey that shows there are significant foundational shifts in Americans’ understanding of what constitutes marital happiness and success. In a front-page story on Sunday, reporter Donna St. George looked at the most substantial attitudinal change over previous years:
To flee or not to flee? A church question
Hey, it is the 4th of July, so I think that — other than filing my Scripps Howard News Service column for this week — I am going to take it a bit easy.
Ignoring whispers about that seminary
The other day, the Baltimore Sun ran a perfectly ordinary news profile of Father Robert F. Leavitt, who is leaving his post as president and rector of St. Mary’s University and Seminary after nearly three decades of leadership on that campus.
Rudy, Rome and abortion stories collide
While Rudy Giuliani is heading toward a possible clash with Rome over his support for legal abortion, a second story about the Democratic Party’s moderating abortion stance is getting a decent level of press coverage.
No congregations, no justice
On Pentecost Sunday, my mother’s youngest brother and his family joined a congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. This marked the last of my mother’s siblings to leave the United Church of Christ. She also has a Roman Catholic brother, a brother who I believe is a New Age spiritualist, and a Lutheran sister.
Writing a wrong
My husband is a huge Judd Apatow fan, which means we saw the crassly-named film Knocked Up on the night it came out. The film is not religious, save a few mentions of the protagonist’s Judaism. But coverage of the film has touched quite a bit on religious themes. Knocked Up is a comedy about how a man grows up after he impregnates a beautiful woman during a one-night-stand. Without giving anything away, I think it’s okay for me to share with you that the female in question delivers the baby rather than have an abortion.
Fatwa wars in Egypt
Thanks to reader Jerry for pointing out this tremendous read in The New York Times about the religious pronouncements, or fatwas, being issued in Egypt that govern the daily lives of the millions who live there. Reporter Michael Slackman highlights the scandalous, sensational edicts, but he does not merely highligh fatwas about women breast-feeding grown men and drinking Muhammad’s urine.
