The novelist says she still believes in God, but she couldn’t find a basis in Scripture for some positions taken by churches. And she rejects the persecution of gays and women. The author Anne Rice, best known for her vampire novels, made waves last week when she declared on her Facebook page that she had “quit being a Christian.” Twelve years after her return to Catholicism, Rice said she still believed in God, but that, “In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay.
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Anne Rice discusses her decision to quit Christianity
I would like to discuss “Rome’s Challenge.” No doubt you’ve heard of it. Back in September 1893, one James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, Maryland, approved a four-piece article for his personal newsletter, the Catholic Mirror. The title was ” the Christian Sabbath.
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Rome’s Challenge
Randall Stephens Check out an article by Krista Tippett, of Speaking of Faith fame, on her conservative, Southern Baptist grandfather. The Christian Century essay powerfully deals with her changing views about her Oklahoma family’s faith. Many who have migrated from the South or Midwest–geographically and/or ideologically–have undergone similar changes in outlook
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A Pilgrimage of Faith for a Midwesterner
Matt Rediger tries to explain how legalized equality for gay people, affirmed in yesterday’s ruling [pdf] against California’s Proposition 8, violates freedom of religion. Rediger: [P]eople of faith cannot be expected to go against their beliefs, even if they view opposing beliefs and arguments as holding some kind of legitimacy. Two ethical systems can be legitimate, but they cannot necessarily exist in the same place at the same time
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Proposition 8 – It’s All Over but the Overheated Assertions and Poor Arguments
The Egyptian Muslim scholar and popular TV preacher angers some fundamentalists with statements such as, ‘The West is the victim of the Arabs, not the other way around.’ The mellifluous man in the sleek gray suit can make an Islamic radical wince in a nanosecond.
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A provocative voice of moderate Islam
Yesterday I wrote about how narratives do engage us through identification and disassociation. We can’t avoid that reality – it drives the popularity of movies, of bedtime stories, of Sunday School stories, of family fireside reminiscences, etc. But biblical narrative always offers something more. Our challenge as preachers is to be sure to always go there. What if the passage is easy to understand and ready to be preached. You’ve built a message based on the natural connection with a central character, or a minor character, or the original recipients. Your time is filled, the message will preach, that bird will fly. You aren’t done. You’re not ready. Biblical narratives either overtly or implicitly urge us to engage with the central characer in the canon – with God himself. Was it really David’s courage, or was it something about his faith in God and his instruction? Was it really about Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi, or was there something going on in terms of her loyalty to a God who had so far not seemed very “effective”? Was it really about Joseph’s moral convictions, or was there something deeper going on in respect to his living by faith in a God who was with him when every circumstance screamed that he’d been long forgotten by such a God
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Beyond Identification
One of the secrets of the success of narrative writing and storytelling (whether that is historical narrative, fiction, fantasy, film or whatever) is the power of identification. When you read, hear or see a story, you naturally find yourself either identifying with or disassociating from characters in the story. If you are left cold, it is usually a sign that the story isn’t being told well, or you are in some sort of disconnected state. So, if this is a central function of narratives, then it is a factor to consider in preaching biblical narratives. Some might try to make a hard and fast rule here, but again I would urge wisdom and consideration of the options. Identifying with the Central Character
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The Identification Situation
Oh, fellow Americans, you crack me up : When presented with the statement “human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals,” just 45 percent of respondents indicated “true.” Compare this figure with the affirmative percentages in Japan (78), Europe (70), China (69) and South Korea (64).
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It Takes Practice
In July I made the following new squidoo lenses relating to spirituality: Susan Seddon Boulet Goddess Paintings An artist whose art is still popular in the pagan scene, Susan Seddon Boulet will mostly be remembered for her goddess art. The mystical style of her paintings (mostly, but not exclusively, water color) strikes a core in many.
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New spiritual ‘lenses’ – pages on squidoo
I bet you have never heard of this Proverbs 31 lady. I cannot not find one word about her on the Internet, so let me introduce you to this awe-inspiring woman with the words from one of my favorite authors, Phillip Keller : “She was brave, she was beautiful! Beautiful not only in bodily form, but also in serenity of soul, in shining of spirit. My earliest recollections of her were of a wondrous woman of warmth, vitality, and overflowing good cheer.
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A Proverbs 31 Woman
Fifteen bishops of the Church of England have penned a letter regarding the actions of the Church of England which has begun the legislative process that will lead, barring new twists and turns, to the ordination of women to the episcopate in England by 2014. The letter is rather convoluted, since it does not express a single mind regarding actions to be taken.
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Fifteen English Bishops in an anti-democratic snit.
A Fractal is a unique form of nondenominational fellowship that has stripped every modern convention away from Christian worship. Based solely on individual connections, it’s essentially “church without church.” FaithInSA.com
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Worshippers strong on faith, but not church
Paul Harvey Randall beat me to the punch with his post on religion in the colonial South, and its relative importance as portrayed in recent scholarship as compared with its conventional role in older works as a foil for Yankee Puritanism.
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Religion in the Early South, Redux
WASHINGTON — Fifteen young American religious scholars and 14 teaching assistants from Al Azhar University, one of the oldest and most influential Islamic institutions in the world, spent two weeks together this month at Georgetown University in an attempt to bridge the divide between the Muslim world and the United States.
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Visit seeks to bridge the gap
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — They gather blocks from Harvard Square to greet the Sabbath with communal prayer, their eyes winced closed, hands clapping as they sing in fervent Hebrew. The group worships in the Jewish Orthodox tradition, but it's not traditional.
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Unaffiliated groups influence Judaism
Randall Stephens Rebecca Goetz and Lauren Winner have convinced me that historians have long had some ahistorical assumptions about the role of religion in colonial Virginia. (And, when many are teaching on a subject that is well out of their field–me included–they tend to dust off the old fables and retell them as fact.) Of course, there are glaring differences between the Mass Bay Colony and Virginia.
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Religion and the Founding of Virginia
Acclaimed vampire author and official nocturnal lady, Anne Rice, has denounced her relationship with Christianity via CNN.
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Anne Rice leaves Christianity… but was she ever there initially?
Ludhiana, Punjab: The Gutkas of Japji Sahib and Rehraas Sahib, which are revered in Sikh faith, are being disrespected by some people. They are making paper-bags for carrying groceries from paper of these Gutkas
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Gutkas published by Sikh Missionary College Ludhiana end up as paper bags
A radio discussion (it also can be heard online) of the dharmic faiths of Jainism , Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism will air from 7 pm to 8 pm tonight on AM 1440 radio during Hindu University Hour. The panel discussion will be moderated …
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Radio show on Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism airs in Orlando …
Gerardo Marti This week afforded me a bit of reading and reflection through Heidegger’s Being and Time as part of my ongoing attempt to grow in my scholarship. As an ethnographer, I regularly immerse myself in religious communities both short and long term — see a recent post at Duke Divinity blog about a recent church visit — and as such am regularly confronted with what was introduced to me as “ the insider/outsider problem of religion .” The dilemma centers around a core question: Who is best able to understand religion, the committed or the agnostic? More important, what are the challenges and solutions for achieving a satisfactory understanding of religion (not just for scholars, but for everyone) considering one’s stance
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Heidegger and the Quandary of Insider/Outsider Roles in Religious Research: A Methodological Note
Randall Stephens Over at the Washington Post ‘s On Faith blog Anthony Stevens-Arroyo offers an interesting historical take on Catholicism and contemporary politics. For those faithful who are ready to pitch their tent with the Tea Party, he points to a 16th-century counter example: Jesuit priest Juan de Mariana (1536-1624). Stevens-Arroyo contrasts the radicalism of Mariana with Tea Party anti-statism
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Anthony Stevens-Arroyo on Catholics and the Tea Party
When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building
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The Upper Room is becoming the Living Room
The Greater Los Angeles Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations cites the organizers’ call for protesters to bring their dogs — considered an insult to Muslims. A loosely organized protest planned this week over a proposed new mosque in Temecula whose organizers urged demonstrators to bring their dogs was sharply denounced by a Southern California Islamic organization Tuesday.
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Islamic group denounces planned Temecula mosque protest
According to the Anti-Defamation League, reports of anti-Semitic acts, ranging from taunts and threats to violence, in the state rose 20% for the second straight year. The Anti-Defamation League said Tuesday that it had tallied a sharp uptick in anti-Semitic incidents in California last year, many of them involving taunts, threats and insults by adolescents and teenagers.
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Report finds increase in anti-Semitic incidents in California
Isaiah – Orthodox Church of America icon Opening thought : The purpose of chemotherapy is to kill, but to kill in order to preserve life. If you have ever undergone chemotherapy, you might feel for a while like you are going to die or that you are under some kind of judgment, but the purpose of that chemo is to keep you alive. If left to grow, the cancerous areas will kill you
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Isaiah 24-25: Judgment saves!
Chelsea Clinton, raised Methodist, and Marc Mezvinsky, Jewish, will wed this weekend. Statistics show that 37 percent of Americans have a spouse of a different faith. Statistics also show that couples in interfaith marriages are “three times more likely to be divorced or separated than those who were in same-religion marriages.” Is interfaith marriage good for American society
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Should religions intermarry?
Google + Infoaxe : “- Sent using Google Toolbar” To Hang Or Not To Hang?* By Bal Patil* Opinion is divided in the world over the abolition of the death penalty. In some countries this extreme punishment has been done away with, in others it exists only in the statute book, while in many it is still imposed. The author highlights the pros and cons of this controversial subject.
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Google + Infoaxe