MC News
Pilate’s wife remains an enigma. She’s consigned to an off-stage role in the Bible, neither described nor named. But early Christians dubbed her Claudia Procula, called her the first gentile follower of Jesus, and canonized her for trying to save him. Read more of this story.
COMMENTARYI inhaled as I stepped behind the pulpit, ready for a fight. It was a sermon series on the end times, and I knew there’d be controversy. I looked out at the elderly man in the fourth pew with his ScofieldReference Bible in tow, the woman in the back with her John Hagee book on the Middle East crisis, the teenager in the front with the Left Behind video game on his computer at home.I expected an onrush of feedback after the service. "I can’t believe you don’t believe in a pre-tribulation Rapture!" "You mean you don’t think the land…
Easter and Passover are the "story" holy days upon which believers retell their faith’s central narrative of deliverance and hope. But words are not the only way to experience the stories of Passover, which began for Jews Wednesday night, or Easter, which Catholics and Protestants will celebrate Sunday morning. The creative arts also express and foster faith, say artists and religious leaders who serve them.Read more of this story.
Medieval knights hid and secretly venerated The Holy Shroud of Turin for more than 100 years after the Crusades, the Vatican said yesterday in an announcement that appeared to solve the mystery of the relic’s missing years. Read more of this story.
America was famously founded by companies and churches. The woes of American capitalism are well known: Wall Street is a synonym for excess and greed around the world, and Detroit is tottering on the edge of bankruptcy. But just as its temples to Mammon are under fire, so suddenly are its churches to God. Read more of this story.
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA (ANS) — In his first TV interview since giving the invocation at Barack Obama’s Presidential inauguration, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Southern California, the number one "New York Times" best-selling author of "The Purpose-Driven Life," told CNN’s Larry King how he handled the controversy that resulted about the President selecting him for that task.Read more of this story.
LAKELAND, Fla.—As many congregations grapple with declining contributions, some faith communities are following the lead of cash-strapped corporations by laying off employees. But the stakes are higher, congregational leaders say, when you’re putting someone’s spiritual leader out on the street. Churches have never been good at this. “Terminal niceness” keeps congregations from dealing honestly with unneeded or ineffective staff members, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch told ministers recently. Read more of this story.
JUPITER, Fla. — Albert Pujols, a two-time National League MVP, is the only baseball player in history to hit 30-plus home runs in each of his first eight seasons. He goes to church, repeatedly mentions his devotion to God and raises money for children with Down syndrome in the USA and mission trips to help the poor in his native Dominican Republic.Read more of this story.
OMAHA — As they enter the church, they yip, they lick and they sniff the tail ends of their fellow parishioners. An occasional woof interrupts the piano notes wafting through the sanctuary. But this is a forgiving audience.It is full of dog lovers, mostly, who gather every Thursday to worship at Underwood Hills Presbyterian Church.Read more of this story.
Same-sex marriage has been legalized in Iowa. In a unanimous ruling Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court decided that the 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, which limited marriage to a man and a woman, was unconstitutional. Read more of this story.Additional coverage from Baptist Press