News
The hottest video out there in YouTube land is the amazing performance by one Susan Boyle on the Britain’s Got Talent show, which is kind of American Idol with a wider spectrum of amateurs attempting to show off their alleged talents.As you know, some of the most popular moments in these "reality" talent shows are provided by ordinary people who are allowed to display their lack of talent, thus earning the snarky wrath of superstar judge Simon Cowell.So when dowdy, spinster Susan walks out on stage, you can see people reacting out in the audience (and the judges too, of…
Africa is the world’s fastest-growing continent, and Daniel Ajayi-Adeniran belongs to one of its most vigorously expansionary religious movements, a homegrown Pentecostal denomination that is crusading to become a global faith. In the course of just a few decades, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, founded in a Lagos shantytown, has won millions of adherents in Nigeria while building a vast missionary network that stretches into more than 100 nations.Read more of this story.
2008 was another year of significant expansion for The River Food Pantry. Pantry usage almost doubled from 2007. Several sizeable donations allowed an expansion of pantry hours. The River continues to be a very significant resource for the north side of Madison and for all of Dane County. The pantry has established itself as one of the largest in the county. The River Food Pantry is still almost 100% volunteer driven, unusual for an organization of our size.
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.