As I’ve often written, many clergy within the institutional Church preach and teach the false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, and exclusion and thereby do immeasurable harm to the emotional and spiritual lives of those who allow themselves to be exposed to that kind of toxic
The 12 July edition of USA Today ran competing op-eds on this topic: “If Gays(sic) Serve Openly, Will Chaplains Suffer?” The topic was prompted by threats the US Armed Forces are getting from religious Conservatives. If the Department of Defense’s Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell policy is
A study completed a few ago back by Auburn Theological Seminary in New York study suggests that churches in America may be facing a dramatic shortage of ministers in the coming years. According to the study, less than a third of students now attending seminary
“And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” (Mark 3:25) In the last few decades we have seen the Church increasingly fractured by polarization attendant upon such variables as differences in biblical interpretation, degree of inclusivity allowed
It’s been haunting the church for decades. It’s an issue the Roman Catholic Church is currently dealing with in the way any international corporation would. What we’re seeing in the current discussions of priestly abuse of their positions sexually and the standard institutional cover-up, is
When I first read the Manhattan Declaration and its list of supporters, I announced on Facebook that it broke my heart for the church and I’d soon be making my own comments on the document. Indeed, the authors of the declaration state [they] call upon
Thirteen months ago Sightings commented on a report by the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing, and its unsurprising finding that most theological seminaries do nothing to prepare future ministers to deal with sexual issues. They do almost as little on economic issues.
There is an excellent essay titled, “The Fundamentalist Agenda,” by Davidson Loehr. Although there are parts within it with which I don’t agree, it deserves to be read in its entirety, as it gets at the root of the exclusion of all those who don’t
Compared to twentieth-first-century believers, early Christians wrote surprisingly little about homosexuality. While some Christian writers of the first three centuries appear to condemn all forms of homosexual behavior, most commented on only specific aspects of it, such as intercourse with minors. No author of this
Most of us remember the Pepsi commercial showing a scene from the 1960 movie, “Spartacus.” One by one the slaves revolt, standing up and declaring “I’m Spartacus!” Kirk Douglas looks on with a tear in his eye, drinking his Pepsi in inspiration. It worked for