MC News
Mark Kushner pulled up to the Watson family’s suburban Philadelphia home a week after the birth of their first son, Colin. In the dining room, he unpacked the tools of his trade: sterilized surgical instruments, topical anesthetic, prayer shawls and a small bottle of kosher wine.The shawls went back into his black bag. But to Megan and Christopher Watson’s happy surprise, the mohel — pronounced "moyle," the title for a Jewish ritual circumciser — had copies of several prayers appropriate for the Presbyterian parents to read for the occasion.Read more of this story.
WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of evangelical Christians converged on the National Mall here Saturday to highlight moral issues before the fall presidential election with a day of fasting, prayer and music.Read more of this story.Website for The Call
Membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the country’s largest Lutheran denomination, has fallen for the 16th consecutive year, the ELCA announced last Thursday.While the ELCA grows worldwide — particularly in sub-Saharan Africa — baptized membership in U.S. declined by more than 64,000 in 2007, a 1.34% drop.Read more of this story.
BEIJING — As the piano strikes a chord, the choir launches into a hymn, members’ red and white robes bright against the beige walls of the room crammed with more than 100 worshipers. This is City Revival Church, one of the larger unofficial, or "house," churches in Beijing.Read more of this story. Eric Liddell’s story to set Chinese hearts racing
LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS) — On the heels of the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency the night before, Dr. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, preached a Sunday morning sermon to his congregation and uplinked to the nation entitled, “The Type of Leader America Needs.”“I am not an expert on politics, but I know a lot about leadership,” Warren said. “The guidelines for choosing a leader our nation needs and that God blesses are based on biblical qualities found in Proverbs.” Read more of this story.Los Angeles Times version of this story.The New Evangelical Politics by E.J. Dionne, The…
A 2,000-year-old inscription, written in ink on a stone, is being called "a Dead Sea Scroll on stone." But New Testament scholars scoff at the idea that the inscription "should shake our basic view of Christianity," as one scholar told The New York Times.Read more of this story.
Historically, the evangelical colleges that comprise the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities have not been magnets for many black students. A new analysis from The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education suggests that’s changing, with some Protestant colleges recording staggering increases in black student enrollments over the last decade.Read more of this story.
Bob Sanford wanted to create a Bible that would bring order and clarity to the text. Instead, he’s waded right into one of the great debates of biblical scholarship.The Chronological Study Bible will be released this fall in the midst of a Bible-publishing boom in the United States. In an industry that now as much to do with profits as with prophets, Sanford expects his new edition to have wide appeal.Read more of this story.
Rick Warren has Rick Warren syndrome. That’s not a joke. He has a brain disorder. "I was born with it," he says. "I went to the Mayo Clinic, and the doctors said, ‘We have found a dozen or so other people with this. There’s no name, so maybe we’ll just call it the Warren syndrome." He describes the ailment’s chemistry as an inability to process his body’s own adrenaline. Its symptoms are tremors, disorientation and pain, and, as he says, "it makes my brain move very fast." I ask — since a colleague of his has asserted it — whether…
BEIJING, Aug. 13 — The Olympic Village’s religious center has become the target of a quiet protest by athletes, coaches and other delegates who say its staffing and services fall woefully short of the promises made by Chinese organizers.Read more of this story.