Anne Rice Quits Christianity As the days pass since Anne Rice wrote of her decision to “quit being a Christian” I have returned to her words on several occasions. Her words are those of a follower of Christ who cannot fathom why the church she thought she knew and loved has become an institution more focused on being against issues rather than for Christ. Rice’s pain and frustration have led her to walk away and to distance herself from the body of Christ. Today I quit being a Read More …
A UCC Response to Anne Rice (#0126)
Anne Rice, the best-selling American author whose books have sold more than 100 million copies, announced on Wednesday that she has quit being a Christian. According to the AP, Rice was "raised as a Catholic, she had rejected the church early in her life but renewed her faith in recent years and in 2008 released the memoir Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession." Other sources suggest that her progressive views have been at odds with the Roman Catholic Read More …
Review of The Christian Atheist (#0125)
Groeschel, Craig. The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living as if He Doesn't Exist. Zondervan, 2010. ISBN: 9780310327899. Meet the Author Craig Groeschel is the founding pastor of LifeChurch.tv, which has grown from a single campus in 1996 to a multi-campus church with over eighty weekly worship experiences in fourteen locations including an online campus. Groeschel has written five books: Confessions of a Pastor: Adventures in Dropping the Pose and Read More …
Progressive Christian Worship Music (#0124)
Bryan Sirchio is uniquely qualified to write about progressive Christian worship music. After graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary, he was ordained in the United Church of Christ and served as a pastor. Since 1987 he has traveled extensively doing concerts and leading worship services and retreats through his own Crosswind Music. Sirchio has released 12 CDs, 3 study guides, and 4 songbooks. He is currently writing his first book: Progressive Christian Read More …
The Future of the UCC (#0123)
Over the last few years, the assumption that denominations will continue "as is" for many years to come has been dying. Increasingly, mainline pastors and even denominational leaders have been advocating for a variety of possibilities for reform that will help give shape to a new type of national organization that will be for their respective tradition what denomination served as in modernity. A week ago, Stephen Sterner wrote an article about what he sees as likely for the future of the Read More …
Review of Radical (#0122)
Platt, David. Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream. Multnomah, 2010. ISBN: 9781601422217. Meet the Author At age 28, David Platt became the youngest American megachurch pastor when he accepted the call to be the pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. Now 31, he continues to serve as pastor of this 4000 member congregation affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and recently published his first book. Read More …
A New Day in the PCUSA (#0121)
The Presbyterian Church (USA) is one of several mainline denominations reconsidering what it means to be a denomination in the twenty-first century and how best to organize church governance in an increasingly postmodern world. In recent years two thirty-somethings have been elected to the denomination's top two posts: Moderator and Vice-Moderator. The thirty-nine year old Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, currently the founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church in San Read More …
HIV/AIDS – A Justice Issue (#0120)
Currently, the 18th International Aids Conference is meeting in Vienna, Austria. This year's conference attendees number around 20,000 and represent 185 countries. Among the main topics is the promotion of widespread testing and access to treatment. According to the latest statistics from the United Nations there were 33.4 million people living with HIV at the end of 2008. So What? The day before the conference began, a multi-faith meeting was held to discuss the Read More …
Being Religious in China (#0119)
On July 18 Louisa Lim wrote an article for NPR about the growth of religious practice in China. Lim writes: In the country's first major survey on religious beliefs, conducted in 2006, 31.4 percent of about 4,500 people questioned described themselves as religious. That amounts to more than 300 million religious believers, an astonishing number in an officially atheist country, and three times higher than the last official estimate, which had largely remained unchanged for years. The Read More …
Becoming an Economic Justice Church (#0118)
Economic Justice Churches The United Church of Christ passed a resolution at its most recent General Synod that encourages churches to engage in a discernment process of study, witness and action to decide whether to become an economic justice church. To help facilitate that consideration, the UCC's Justice and Witness Ministries has created a task force to develop an Economic Justice Church Covenant Program. According to a UCC release dated July 15, the Task Force recently Read More …