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 …
Trends
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 …
How Did Christians Get Here? (#0116)
How Did Christians Get Here? Have you ever stopped to wonder why most people are Christians? In many churches, especially those in evangelical denominations, there continues to be a great deal of discussion about things like evangelism, conversion, and church growth. The assumption of those conversations is that many people have and will continue to move from no faith or another faith to the Christian faith. In reality, most people are born into the faith. Bradley Wright, a Read More …
A Call to Move Beyond “Common Christianity” (#0115)
Two Competing Views Author, theologian and progressive Christian thinker Marcus Borg suggests that there is often a disconnect between what pastors learn in mainline seminaries and what many Christians believe. In a recent Washington Post article, he explains the two conflicting views. To summarize the beliefs of most Christians, Borg creates a term: "common Christianity," which he explains to mean: . . .what most Christians took-for-granted until a generation or two ago - Read More …
One Pastor’s Plea for Marriage Equality (#0114)
The Presbyterian Decision Like many mainline denominations, the Presbyterian Church USA has been considering changes on the denominational level that would allow for marriage equality. According to the Presbyterian Outlook, the overture made at the 219th General Assembly that would have allowed "Presbyterian pastors to perform marriages for same-gender couples in states where these marriages are legal" was tabled. Effectively this decision means that Presbyterian pastors Read More …
The Changing Faith Practices of American Teens (#0113)
The Barna Group just released the results of its annual YouthPoll, which considers the faith practices of American teenagers. The article characterizes the faith of teenagers as a "picture of contrasts": Teenagers are consistently among the most religiously active Americans, with nearly six out of every 10 teens engaged in some type of group spiritual activity in a typical week. Yet, the spirituality of teenagers is also remarkably diverse and fluid. According to David Read More …
The M&M Church (#0112)
The Sunday Morning Divide I cannot count the number of times I have heard someone say that 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning is the most racially divided hour of the week. I can, however, count the small number of occasions when I have been involved in a group discussion designed to move a given local congregation toward becoming intentionally multiracial and/or multicultural. Silence empowers the separation. Moving Forward or Standing Still? George Barna, author, researcher and Read More …
Happy Social Media Day! (#0110)
Mashable, one of the best known Internet news blogs, has proclaimed June 30 as the first Social Media Day and invites everyone to celebrate “the revolution of media becoming a social dialogue.” One way they suggest to celebrate is by participating in one of over 600 meet ups. According to blogger Vadim Lavrusik: Today we acknowledge and celebrate the revolution of media becoming social. A day that honors the technological and societal advancements that have allowed us to have a Read More …
Denominational Decline, Death, or Reform (#0107)
Denominational Realities I recently wrote a series, One Faith: Many Traditions, outlining how my Christian faith has grown as a result of my experiences in several traditions. By focusing on the positives from seven of these groups, I sought to share part of my journey of faith and to encourage my readers to treasure the contributions of the traditions they have experienced. I struggled to limit my list as there are many other movements that have influenced me. I was also very Read More …