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What exit polls say about faith and the November elections

In the recent mid-term elections, moral issues such as the war in Iraq and concern over poverty and torture played a significant role -- more so than "wedge" issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, according to a new exit poll released Nov. 15.

The exit poll was commissioned by Faith in Public Life https://www.faithinpubliclife.org/ and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, https://thecatholicalliance.org/new/ both groups working to mobilize voters concerned about religious issues.

"Americans voted their values in this election," said Katie Barge, communications director for Faith in Public Life.

What can your denomination do for you?

LOUISVILLE -- In a denomination that is losing members and cutting budgets, what does it mean to be a "connectional church?" Why does being part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) matter?

For Carolyn Crawford, congregational life pastor at Bel Air Church in Los Angeles, that's sometimes hard to answer. Hers is a fast-growing congregation -- with about 100 folks showing up for new-member classes four times a year.

"I can count it on one hand, if that," the number of people who say they've come to Bel Air specifically because it's Presbyterian, Crawford said at the national Moderator's Conference Nov. 17.

"What would you tell me to tell those new members, or people in the pews" about why being Presbyterian matters, she asked.

Southern California Pastor Tom Taylor tapped to lead PC(USA) mission programs

LOUISVILLE -- The Rev. Tom Taylor, a Southern California pastor, touted by colleagues as a bridge-builder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has been named deputy executive director for mission by General Assembly Council (GAC) Executive Director Linda Valentine.

His appointment needed confirmation by the GAC's executive committee at its meeting Dec. 7; his expected date to begin work was Jan. 8.

Taylor, currently pastor of the 1,400-member Glenkirk Church in Glendora, Calif., will oversee all of the GAC's mission activities including supervision of six program directors who were to be named after Taylor to manage the council's six restructured program areas.

Covenant Network celebrates women’s ordination strides, looks to further challenges

COLUMBUS -- It's been 50 years since Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstadt showed up for Margaret Towner's ordination service in Syracuse, N.Y.

Her mother borrowed a pastor's robe and some women hemmed it up so she wouldn't trip over it.

Earlier, some of the male pastors from Cayuga-Syracuse presbytery, believing that it was time for the Presbyterian church to finally ordain a woman, had taken some of their skeptical colleagues out to play golf. They let the skeptics win. Then they started talking about the possibility of ordaining Towner.

She was ordained on October 24, 1956 -- to her amazement, the first woman to become a minister in the Presbyterian church.

Living in a new place: Covenant Network discusses post-GA PC(USA)

COLUMBUS -- Joan Gray, a dedicated gardener and the moderator of the 217^th General Assembly, calls this an "out of season time for the Presbyterian church."

It's not a definite time for sowing, for pruning, for reaping the fruit. It's an "out-of-season season," Gray said -- a time of uncertainty.

And the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, which drew about 350 people to its recent national meeting, reflected that uncertainty -- much of it centering around how the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should respond to the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the PC(USA).

Here's the short version. Many evangelicals in the church are churned up about the task force report -- talking about withholding funds, making lists of essential tenets, possibly leaving the denomination. The task force report emphasizes that decisions about ordination are made at the local level -- and conservatives are pushing measures in many presbyteries to make it clear that sexually active gays and lesbians won't be ordained, at least not there.

Progressives, on the other hand, tend to be happier with the task force report -- but not with the PC(USA)'s constitution, which limits ordination to those who practice fidelity if they're married or chastity if they're single.

So how hard do they push to try to change the constitution?

On roots and fruits

Advent 3: Luke 3:7-18

Commanding stages across the land, and even a few pulpits, including the chapel at our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) headquarters, the National Prayer Breakfast, and the Willow Creek Association, he laments the global wildfire of AIDS consuming 8,000 lives every day. One person every 10 seconds. Describing the horror of seeing African refugees "queuing up to die, three to a bed," he delivers a stinging rebuke: "We can get cold fizzy drinks to the farthest reaches of Africa, but we can't get lifesaving medicines to the people who need it" most? The lead singer of the rock band U2, Bono, confesses: "I don't have any letters after my name ... I don't even have a name after my name ... but I am determined to turn around this supertanker of indifference." 

It has long been the job description of prophets, including John, who came preaching a baptism of repentance. He, too, was intent upon turning around a supertanker of human indifference -- indifference to the Living God.