Randall Stephens In fall 2010 PBS will broadcast what looks to be an epic 6-part historical documentary on the American religious experience. Called God in America the program will feature religious studies scholars and historians alongside dramatizations and loads of prints, photographs, and illustrations. Subjects include: Franciscan Friars and the Pueblo leader Po’pay, Puritan leader John Winthrop and dissident Anne Hutchinson, Catholic Bishop John Hughes, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, reform Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise, Scopes trial combatants William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, evangelist Billy Graham, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Moral Majority’s Jerry Falwell
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PBS’s God in America Series
The Bible often distinguishes humanity in stark alternatives. There are those being saved and those perishing. There are those who trust God and those who don’t. There is love and hate. Heaven and hell. Faith and fear. The righteous and the wicked. The wise and the foolish. Often the stark alternatives provide for very strong opportunities to preach the Word boldly and with great clarity.
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Shaded Differences Not Poles Apart
Scriptures: Psalm 80:18-19; 85:6; 119:59; Lamentations 3:40; Habakkuk 3:2; Hosea 6:1-2; 14:4-5 We only pray for revival when we see the need for it. “All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart” (Proverbs 21:2). What would the Lord see if he weighed our hearts?
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Repentance: Considering my ways
Today’s post comes from our newest contributor to the blog, Michael J. Altman ! Michael is a Ph.D. student in American Religious Culture at Emory University, where he researches the American encounter with Hinduism, and more broadly constructions of the category of the sacred in American religious history.
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The New American Ganges: Hinduism and Health in American Religious History
Click the title if you don’t see a video box. Thanks and a shout out to Bette Strickland.
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Some fast talk about Jesus
In life, there are certain signs that are visible; yet silent that scream “Danger Will Robinson” as your brain begins to go into screen saver mode much more frequently. Things such as: Folk calling you at 7 p.m
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Apocalypse Watch: The Pope gets a lawyer
When you speak on a subject, rather than preaching an assigned text, you have the choice of which text to preach. In many cases there are obvious texts to preach. Asked to preach on the church, you might be drawn to Ephesians, or Matthew 16. Preaching on marriage? Ephesians 5 or Colossians 3. Preaching on missions? Matthew 28 or Acts 1. There are advantages to preaching the more obvious texts. First, they are obvious because they address the issue clearly. Second, people will often feel a sense of an expectation being satisfied, like watching a good movie for a second or third time
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Obvious Texts and Not So Obvious Texts
The 4th Global South Encounter is meeting in Singapore beginning Monday morning the 19th. There will be some important matters that will come from that meeting, notably concerning the Anglican Covenant and the call by some Primates for a special meeting of Primates sans TEC or the Anglican Church of Canada. A short notice was posted on the Global South website concerning delays in arrivals because of the volcanic ash problem in Europe and publicising a message from the Archbishop of Canterbury
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Canterbury’s Video Message to The Global South Encounter 4
Yesterday, April 17th, was a day to make us Episcopalians proud. Ian Douglas was ordained bishop in the Church of God, as bishop of Connecticut. It was a grand service with about a bazillion people present, Archbishop Desmond Tutu as Preacher, The Presiding Bishop in the Chair, a wide variety of bishops participating and good friends in the congregation.
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Ian, bishop in the church of God
Pope Benedict XVI met Sunday with a group of clerical sex-abuse victims and promised them with tears in his eyes that the Catholic Church would seek justice for pedophile priests and implement “effective measures” to protect young people from abuse.
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Tearful pope says church will better protect young