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Church and state

Editor’s Note: This sermon was preached recently at First Church in Dubuque, Iowa. The Scripture references include Psalm 146:1-7, Romans 13:1-7, and John 18:33-38a.

The Great Awakening

The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, by Jim Wallis. HarperOne, 2008. Hb., 352 pp.  $25.95.

Before you read the first word of Jim Wallis’ transformative new book, you know something is different. Lined up like a political and theological renewal of the old television show The Odd Couple are names we know separately as representatives of vastly different worldviews.

Assembly seeks expanded coverage for children with congenital disabilities, Annual ‘relief of conscience’ report also sought from Board of Pensions

SAN JOSE — The 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has urged the denomination’s Board of Pensions [www.pensions.org] to expand its medical coverage for children with congenital developmental disabilities to include occupational, speech, and physical authority.

The expanded benefits would apply to children with such maladies as Down’s syndrome and autism.

Two church growth strategies, new sexuality curriculum approved

SAN JOSE — In two separate but related initiatives designed to address the persistent decline in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) membership as well as the church’s commitment to grow in diversity, the 218th General Assembly wholeheartedly approved June 25 a Strategy for Church Growth for African American Congregations and a resolution to help Christ’s Church Grow Deep and Wide during the report of the Assembly Committee on Church Growth and Christian Education.

Equip future pastors to teach theology, Juengst says

SAN JOSE — Equipping seminary students “to go out to equip others” is critical, the Rev. Sara Covin Juengst told a group of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminary leaders and others gathered for the Committee on Theological Education [www.pcusa.org/seminaries/cote.htm] (COTE) Breakfast on June 26.

Spirit makes evangelism easier, says Hoey

SAN JOSE — Reclaiming the power of the gospel will greatly help with one of the most difficult challenges Presbyterians face— evangelism, according to the Rev. Eric Hoey, director of evangelism and church growth [www.pcusa.org/goodnews], who spoke at the evangelism breakfast June 26 at the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The Incredible Hulk/Mongol/The Happening

All three are stories about irresistible force. One is historical, one is modern fiction, and the other is literally straight out of a comic book.  In all three, there’s lots of random violence.  In all three, the hero prevails, but what varies is whether the hero is himself the monster.

            Genghis Khan didn’t grow up in palaces, even though his father was a local chieftain. They were nomads; they lived in tents and traveled with the herds. His father took him, at age nine, to be betrothed in a political alliance with a neighboring tribe, but Temudjin, even as a child, could do nothing other than be guided by his own lights. He picks a girl from another, less powerful tribe, which was a less honorable choice for his father, and, it turns out, also fatal.

GA NEWS: GA says no to same-sex marriage

SAN JOSE – Just hours after voting to recommend that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) change its rules to make it easier for gays and lesbians to be ordained, the 218th General Assembly turned down a overture that would have changed the definition of marriage in the church’s constitution, to say that marriage is between “two people” rather than a between a man and a woman.

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