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Christian clubs at University of North Carolina still face problems
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is apparently working hard not to be too harsh toward student groups that do not comply with the school's anti-discrimination policy. It has extended its January 31 deadline for groups to turn in their revised charters and bylaws. And, as noted earlier in Weblog, UNC Chancellor James Moeser allowed the campus's InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapter to require its officers abide by Christian doctrine (though the campus's Queer Network for Change is attempting to get Moeser's decision overturned.)

But while InterVarsity has special dispensation from the school's chancellor, other groups do not.

"For most (groups) they had to change the word 'sex' to 'gender' or things like that [in their charters]," Jon Curtis, assistant director for student activities and organizations, told The Daily Tar Heel, the campus's student newspaper. "But all the groups have to be uniform with the University. We can't make exceptions."

For the group Brotherhood in Christ, it was a pretty easy change—the all-male Christian group had to allow women. "If someone would have wanted to join regardless of sex, we probably would have let them in anyway," Jamaal Edwards said.

But as  result of the edict, the Tar Heel reports, the Episcopal Campus Ministry has removed the word Christian from its purpose statement.

"I am more or less indifferent about the entire change," said the group's Matt Curtis. "The argument recently has been motivated more by politics and legal scare than by a true 'moralistic' and heartfelt cause." Yep, he's an Episcopalian, all right.

Columbia astronauts' faith

• Commander with the righteous stuff | Wearing his Texas roots and spirituality proudly, Rick Husband was antithesis of NASA's space cowboys (The Washington Post)
  
  
• "He marveled at creation and worshipped the creator" | Christian singer Steve Green talks about his friendship with Columbia commander Rick Husband and his family (Connie Chung Tonight, CNN)
  
  
• Seven heroes, seven faiths | Columbia crew represented wide variety of spiritual paths (ABCNews.com / Beliefnet)

Gen X and youth churches:

• Ministry in the extreme | Churches spend big to draw youth but say it takes more than that to keep them there (The Dallas Morning News)

• Christ and a cup of Joe | Welcome to Summit Salt Lake, a Generation X-style church based in the prototypical Generation X hangout: a coffeehouse (The Salt Lake Tribune)
  
  
• The Gen X church | Isle churches take lessons from a California preacher who takes examples of the Gospel from TV and films (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
  
  
• Stretch limo takes teens to church | Young people in Tonyrefail were driven by limousine to Cymmer Apostolic Church on Sunday night for an evening featuring the lights, beats, smoke machines, computer-generated projections and volume normally associated with the most exciting nightclubs (The Western Mail, Wales)
  
  
• Lo there came a trendy vicar | Rock music, magic tricks, nose studs … Jamie Allen is causing a stir in Wiltshire (The Times, London)

Church life:

• Gaps between pulpits and pews | What fewer people seem to realize is that there is an even bigger gap between pastors and the people who are leading their national churches (Terry Mattingly)
  
  
• Church fact book put in new hands | Churches of Christ researcher shifting focus to education (The Tennessean, Nashville)
  
  
• Church provides health care for those without coverage | A new health-care center at St. Luke's Lutheran Church is the latest to join a handful of privately managed facilities designed to provide free health care for the growing number of lower-income, uninsured individuals in Central Florida (The Orlando Sentinel)
  
  

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February (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47