by Fredrick Nzwili NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) Christian clergy fear that a new marriage law signed by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday (April 29) will tear families apart and weaken the church and the nation. The law legalizes polygamy, allowing men to marry multiple wives in a country where they previously were permitted to have one. Parliament passed the measure in March, after an amendment was added that allows a man to take another wife without informing his existing wife. Christian leaders said the law would dilute the principle of holy matrimony. They had united to urge Kenyatta to reject the law, but with the signing this week, the clerics expressed their frustration. “We are very unhappy,” said the Rev. David Gathanju, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. “Having met the president over the bill, we didn’t expect him to sign it. “If polygamy is allowed, it will open the floodgates for all sorts of separations and divorces. That will surely hurt the … [Read more...]

by Cathy Lynn Grossman WASHINGTON (RNS) Believers don’t buy the Big Bang, God-less evolution or a human responsibility for global warming. Actually, neither do many Americans. But a new survey by The Associated Pressfound that religious identity — particularly evangelical Protestant — was one of the sharpest indicators of skepticism toward key issues in science. The survey presented a series of statements that several prize-winning scientist say are facts. However, the research shows that confidence in their correctness varies sharply among U.S. adults. It found: 51 percent of U.S. adults overall (including 77 percent of people who say they are born-again or evangelical) have little or no confidence that “the universe began 13.8 billion years ago with a big bang.” 42 percent overall (76 percent of evangelicals) doubt that “life on Earth, including human beings, evolved through a process of natural selection.” 37 percent overall (58 percent of evangelicals) doubt that … [Read more...]

(RNS) Same-sex partners can’t marry in a United Methodist Church. But if one of the spouses works at one of the denomination’s 13 general agencies, the couple can get benefits if state laws allow it. The decision, made at last week’s meeting of the UMC’s Judicial Council in Little Rock, Ark., affirms one made in October by the church’s General Council on Finance and Administration, which expanded the definition of “spouse” to include same-sex spouses and partners. Same-sex marriage is roiling the 7.5 million-member U.S. denomination, which in recent years has struggled with a growing rebellion among clergy willing to flout church law and preside over the marriages of same-sex partners. While some welcomed the Judicial Council’s decision, other decried it. The Rev. Tom Lambrecht of Good News — a conservative Methodist ministry — blogged last week about the extension of benefits: “It adopts a policy that contradicts church teaching on the definition of marriage, not only … [Read more...]

by Sarah Pulliam Bailey NEW YORK (RNS) The famed Riverside Church in Manhattan has recommended the Rev. Amy Butler as its seventh senior minister, the first woman to lead the congregation in its 83-year-old history. Butler has been senior minister of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., for 11 years. The church has about 300 members with an estimated 150 people in attendance on Sunday mornings. When she arrived at Calvary, she inherited a church that had dwindled from 5,000 parishioners to about 70 on a Sunday. As pastor, she has pushed the downtown church to be more multicultural and oversaw a massive redevelopment of the church’s downtown property. “Under her leadership the church has become an influential congregation in the nation’s capital and she has become a much sought-after voice for Progressive Christianity,” Riverside’s search committee said in a letter to the congregation. A call to a Riverside spokesperson was not returned, and Butler said she was … [Read more...]

by Kathleen O'Brien, The Star-Ledger (RNS) Nestled in the fine print of the Affordable Care Act is a clause that allows people of certain religions to seek an exemption from the requirement to carry health insurance or pay a fine. The clause applies only to denominations that run their own “mutual aid’ system of spreading the cost of health care across the community. That’s how the Amish, and to a lesser extent Mennonites, traditionally handled health expenses. Mennonites are not opposed to the concept of either health care or health insurance. In fact, the central governing body, the Mennonite Church USA, has been operating its Corinthian Plan since 2010. It’s a conventional health insurance plan, operated under contract by Blue Cross Blue Shield, that allows employees of the denomination’s churches to get health insurance. In one way it was a precursor of Obamacare, in that it did not exclude people with pre-existing conditions. Instead, it flows from the … [Read more...]

by Lauren Markoe (RNS) Prominent mainline Protestant and Jewish leaders are trying to revive an interfaith group that dissolved 18 months ago over a letter the Protestants wrote to Congress about Israel. The Christian-Jewish Roundtable was founded about a decade ago to deepen understanding between the two groups, particularly on the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, over which Jewish groups and more liberal Protestant churches have frequently disagreed. After a private meeting in New York before Holy Week and Passover, both sides announced they want to work together again. “It was not a ‘kumbaya, everybody loves each other’ meeting,” said Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, where the March 27 meeting was held. But the 15 participants and two facilitators — one a rabbi, the other a minister — showed goodwill, he said. “I don’t want to overstate it, but I’m hopeful,” said Gutow, who convened the meeting with the Rev. Mark … [Read more...]