CT News Feed
Home > News Feed
The Latest
U.S. government's faith-based initiative moves ahead while dodging controversy
Broadening the definition of doing business with government beyond granting money has effectively deflected much of the controversy that dogged the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in its early years. (Deseret Morning News)
Sometimes, Second Careers Are a Leap of Faith
Growing numbers of people see retirement as a chance to "do good" and are turning to divinity schools and a more spiritual life. (WSJ)
Seminary graduates not always ministering from the pulpit
About 41 percent of master’s of divinity graduates expect to pursue full-time church ministry, down from 52 percent in 2001 and from 90-something percent a few decades ago. (WaPo)
Top Stories
Abortion doctor trial has national implications
The Gosnell murder case has reverberated far beyond the courtroom, changing — at least for the moment — the tone of the national debate on abortion. (AP)
At desert monastery, Egypt’s monks join new Christian assertiveness in face of Islamist power
Monks normally immersed in spirituality are joining the increasingly assertive tone of many in the minority community, vowing Christian voices won’t be silenced. (AP)
Mayan calendar aside, end times theology has meaning for many Americans
But Americans haven't entirely dismissed the idea that the world will come to end someday — possibly someday soon. A survey by Public Religion Research Institute showed 36 percent believe that the severity of recent natural disasters is evidence that we are in the biblically prophesied end times. (Deseret News)
2012 Election
The Role of Faith in the 2012 Election
(Barna Group)
Opinion: Round Up the Usual Social Conservative Suspects
Republicans must resist the temptation to form a circular firing squad, especially one with evangelicals and their social-conservative allies in the middle. (Ralph Reed, The Wall Street Journal)
A Mormon Reporter On The Romney Bus
How America got used to his religion, and mine. (McKay Coppins, Buzzfeed)
People
Baptist historian Leon McBeth dies
LifeWay Christian Resources contracted with him to write an interpretive history for the publishing house’s 100th anniversary, but after seeing the final version the agency’s board of trustees halted publication. (ABP)
Pat Boone family: Faith sustained us through tragedy
Prayer and, at times, medical marijuana have proved essential for Lindy Boone Michaelis as she cares for her son, who was severely injured in a three-story fall through a skylight a dozen years ago (Today, NBC)
Father Emil Kapaun to get Medal of Honor on April 11
His fellow POWs have lobbied for since the Korean War ended in 1953 (Wichita Eagle)
Politics
Irish Government Proposes Allowing Abortion in Emergencies
The Irish government has proposed legislation to allow abortion in cases where a threat exists to a woman’s life, including from suicide. (The New York Times)
Obama backs Planned Parenthood in political fight
States want to turn women's health back to the 1950s, he said (Associated Press)
Turn to Religion Split Bomb Suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Home
Over the past five years, the personal lives of the Tsarnaev family members slipped into turmoil, driven, at least in part, by a growing interest in religion by both Tamerlan and his mother. (The WallmStreet Journal)
Church Life
The Chios Rocket War, Where Two Greek Churches Fight With Rockets
Since the 19th century, a pair of rival parishes on the Greek island of Chios have celebrated Easter not with bunnies or eggs, but by launching thousands of flaming projectiles at each other's churches while congregants celebrate Mass inside. (Slate)
Breaking up is hard to do, especially if it's with your church
Whether you’re talking to someone who’s searching for a church, committing to a church or leaving one, the conversation sounds a lot like a love story. In many ways, it is. (AL.com)
Click 'Pray' to Pray: How Evangelical Megapastor Joel Osteen Is Saving Souls With Facebook
Increasingly, the road to Damascus is a hyperlink and the Epistle is a tweet. (HuffPo)
Church & State / Religious Freedom
Governor Orders Bibles Back To Georgia State Park Lodging In Church State Battle
Nathan Deal argued that if the state didn't pay for them, it can't be seen as endorsing them. (AP)
'Act of faith' costs track team a win, trip to state championships
As he was crossing the finish line, Derrick Hayes pointed up to the sky (KHOU)
In Atlanta, Two Churches Lie in New Stadium’s Path
The mayor is championing a new stadium as an engine for construction jobs and a way to transform an impoverished section of downtown. (The New York Times)
Theology & Bible
Morocco actor amused by Satan-Obama comparisons
With gray hair pulled back in a ponytail, an expressive face and a slim Errol Flynn-style pencil mustache, Mehdi Ouazzani doesn't look a great deal like America's 44th president — but then he doesn't resemble a stereotypical Satan very much either (Associated Press)
A Book Doctor in Dallas Patches Up Well-Loved Bibles
The Bibles that Candice McKay repairs can be the marked-up ones of regular churchgoers or ones old enough to have palm leaves stuck in them from when Grover Cleveland was president (The New York Times)
Why It’s Not Always Good to Forgive
How difficult is it, or should it be, to achieve redemption after a breach of trust? (The New York Times)
Money & Business
Zondervan Launches New YA Imprint
Blink is designed for the general trade, not the Christian market (Publishers Weekly)
God and the Profits: Religious Liberty for Money-Makers
The Bible says “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” The Constitution doesn’t. (Public Discourse)
Cult Beer Westvleteren 12 Gives Belgian Town a Lift
Westvleteren 12, brewed for more than a century by Trappist monks in Vleteren, Belgium, is suddenly all the rage. (The New York Times)
Evangelism & Missions
Why Jehovah's Witnesses Must Be Allowed Into Puerto Rico's Gated Communities
Federal Court Issues Opinion Explaining Its Prior Order On Proselytizers' Access To Gated Communities (ReligionClause)
Dearborn ordered to apologize for arrests of Christian missionaries at Arab Fest
The city of Dearborn accepted a settlement agreement that includes a public apology to three Christian missionaries who claim their Constitutional rights were violated during the annual 2012 Dearborn Arab Festival. (MLive.com)
Inside the Alpha Course - British Christianity's biggest success story
What makes an Alpha male? They may not all clap happily and speak in tongues, but they are all part of an evangelical tide; a global Anglican phenomenon. (The Independent)
Education
'Act of faith' costs track team a win, trip to state championships
As he was crossing the finish line, Derrick Hayes pointed up to the sky (KHOU)
Is evolution missing link in Pennsylvania high schools?
Some 20 percent of science teachers in survey say they believe in creationism. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Louisiana College's Aguillard accused of misleading board
Investigation, internal LC panel reach conflicting conclusions (The Town Talk, Alexandria, La.)
Arts, Entertainment, & Pop Culture
The Sale of Britain's Churches Should Cause an International Outcry
Churches are national art in a way that Titian's magnificent Diana and Actaeon never was. (HuffPo)
Danish philosopher's tough ideas adapted for kids
As Denmark celebrates the philosopher's 200th birthday on Sunday, Marie Moeller has found her version of "Either/Or" — featuring strobe lights, rave music and child-size puppets — being performed in schools across the country (Associated Press)
Pat Boone family: Faith sustained us through tragedy
Prayer and, at times, medical marijuana have proved essential for Lindy Boone Michaelis as she cares for her son, who was severely injured in a three-story fall through a skylight a dozen years ago (Today, NBC)
Subscribe now for a year (10 issues) at $24.95 for print, iPad, and instant web access.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Newsletters
Google
