Southern Baptist blogger Jonathan Merritt has a pretty good article about his denomination as it deals with a decline that is not unfamiliar to mainline Protestants. He offers a few ideas on how to stem the decline and the one that gets the most attention is where the he faults the SBC for mixing religion... Continue Reading →
On Holy Friendships
My thoughts these days are drifting towards relationships, or the lack thereof in churches. I've been thinking about this in light of a recent blog post on CivilPolitics.org on the dearth of cross-party friendships. The post linked to a longer article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the issue. The author, Neil Gross notes... Continue Reading →
QMTD*
This summer the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will gather for its biennial General Assembly in Orlando. One of the items to be considered is a resolution proclaiming the denomination Open and Affirming to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. A resolution is for the most part a sense of the Assembly and carries no... Continue Reading →
Birth Control And The Sham of Theological Diversity
One of the things that Progressive Christians like to say about themselves is how welcoming and tolerant they are. Compared to their more conservative cousins, progressives can pride themselves in being able to think for themselves and to have a place where all ideas and beliefs can be shared without fear. Why, your progressive church... Continue Reading →
On Getting With the Program
Since I work for the Presbyterians, I spent some time this summer watching the live feed from the 220th General Assembly in Pittsburgh. On the penultimate day of the Assembly there was discussion on allowing ministers to be able to marry same-sex couples. It was not a surprise to see conservatives quoting scripture. In fact,... Continue Reading →
Our Hope Is Built on Nothing Less…
A few thoughts on the election... -My candidate for President didn't win, but the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota was defeated. Three other states, Maine, Maryland and Washington all voted in favor of legalizing same sex marriage. Personally, I think it's a great move forward in gay rights. That said, I think... Continue Reading →
The Clockwork Pastor 