It’s time for another roundup of religion news from the mainstream press and beyond. Please click lots of links and pass this along to others.
Among last week’s late-developing headlines: Influential pastor Tim Keller, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2020, was placed on hospice care, as Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana reported. Keller then passed away a short time later. Click here for the obituary that ran deep inside The New York Times: “The Rev. Timothy Keller, Pioneering Manhattan Evangelist, Dies at 72.” Click here to follow the #TimKeller threads on Twitter.
On a happier note, “The Chosen” — the popular TV show about Jesus and his disciples — seems to be influencing baby names, as the Deseret News’ Mya Jaradat explains.
The major story this week — the material for this post was collected before Keller’s death — concerns doctrinal battles by the Southern Baptists, not all of them in the South, and the United Methodists, who are not so united these days.
What To Know: The Big Story
Back in the saddle?: Last year, the Southern Baptist Convention kicked out Saddleback Church, founded by Rick Warren, for appointing women as pastors.
Now Saddleback is appealing that decision, asking messengers to the SBC’s annual meeting in New Orleans next month to reverse it.
“The appeal extends the standoff between the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and one of its largest, most successful churches,” the Associated Press’ Peter Smith writes.
Read related coverage by Christianity Today’s Kate Shellnutt, Religion News Service’s Adelle M. Banks, The Tennessean’s Liam Adams and the Washington Times’ Mark A. Kellner.
Affiliation and disaffiliation: Don’t be surprised if those terms end up as the Methodists’ words of the year.
Amid the denomination’s growing schism, check out this news in Oklahoma, via The Oklahoman’s Carla Hinton:
Two brothers were ordained as elders in a new Methodist denomination while the retired United Methodist minister who raised them sat watching in the pews recently in the Oklahoma City metro area.
The family's new reality of dual denominational affiliations reflected just how much the landscape of Methodism is changing across Oklahoma.
Elsewhere, 67 Arkansas congregations got permission to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church.
In all, more than 100 churches in that state have left over "issues related to human sexuality," according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Frank Lockwood.
Rural vs. suburban: “Most churches leaving the United Methodist Church amid a splintering are in rural areas and the membership overwhelmingly supports disaffiliation. So what happens at a suburban church?”
That’s the question tackled by Adams — The Tennessean’s religion writer — noting that “the debate over whether to leave can be more intense among suburban UMC churches.”
Georgia on my mind: Finally, Religion News Service’s Emily McFarlan Miller provides an update from a court ruling down South:
The North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church can’t just press “pause” on disaffiliations from the denomination by churches in its area, according to a ruling Tuesday (May 16) by a Georgia judge.
Cobb County Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Schuster ruled from the bench that the North Georgia Conference “has an affirmative duty” to assist any church wishing to disaffiliate with holding a vote or taking any other steps necessary to do so, according to a report by United Methodist News.
The conference also has the right to make sure those steps are followed in accordance with the denomination’s governing Book of Discipline, the judge said.
Who’s in the Southern Baptist Convention? Who’s out of the United Methodist Church?
Stay tuned.
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. Saving the farm: Heartland clergy are training to prevent agricultural workers’ suicides.
That’s the compelling story by The Associated Press’ Giovanna Dell’Orto, reporting from Minnesota, with exceptional videos and photos — as always — by Jessie Wardarski.
2. Growth of Eastern Orthodoxy: In the U.S., the ancient faith is drawing converts with no ties to its historic lands.
That’s the peg of a newsy report by the Wall Street Journal’s Francis X. Rocca with strong photos by Alyssa Pointer.
CONTINUE READING: “Who’s In? Who’s Out? The Latest On The Baptist And Methodist Doctrinal Divides“ by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.