Jerusalem Road (cover poem)
A journey as long as the way from Eden to Babel and back, as painful as Abraham’s knifebearing sojourn with Isaac,
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Study reveals teens care about faith; Specific tenets, practices more elusive
Teenagers care about religion -- a recent survey, the most comprehensive ever done on teenagers and faith, found that four of five adolescents surveyed described religion as very important to them.
Religion matters to adolescents, the survey found, and for the most part, teenagers are not rebelling against their parents' faith -- most are sticking, at least so far, with the faith tradition in which they've been raised.
Survey: Religious teens tend to be more academic, confident, chaste
The most comprehensive survey ever done on faith and adolescence finds a teen nation where more than four in five youths say religion is important in their lives.
But the new survey of more than 3,000 teenagers and their parents also indicated that many teens know little about their religion.
Many other activities compete for their time, but among religiously active teens -- those who attend services weekly and belong to a youth group -- their faith appears to be making a significant difference in their behavior.
The National Study of Youth and Religion, described as the most comprehensive research ever done on faith and adolescence, revealed that such teens are more likely to:
Religious teens embrace abstinence; critics say it’s an unrealistic ideal
Luvirt Parker was 16 years old when he first pledged at a "True Love Waits" rally to remain a virgin until his wedding day. Seven years later, the Cleveland State University graduate was back to tell several hundred youths at Mount Zion Church of Oakwood, Ohio, that he has remained true to his word, and is looking forward to being married in April to a woman who shares his beliefs. "There's nothing like knowing you're pure before God. Your conscience is clear," Parker said.
New Bible translation targets young market
Even over latte at a coffeehouse, Andrew Apsite keeps God's word close at hand.
At the downtown Urban Mill, the 18-year-old reaches into his backpack and pulls out "The Message Remix," a modern-language paraphrase of the Bible. "When I don't know how to deal with something, I look for comfort and advice on how to deal with my issues," says Apsite.
A Talk with Michael R. Walker
Editor's Note: Michael R. Walker, the new executive director of Presbyterians for Renewal, has definite ideas about the current situation in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the role of PFR within that context. Walker and his wife, Christina, just moved from Princeton Theological Seminary -- where he's been working on a doctorate in history and ecumenics -- to Louisville with their two children, Michaela, who's four, and Christian, two. He responds to the following questions:
Q: Please tell me a little about yourself and where you're from.
A: I'm from Florida. I grew up just outside of Orlando. And I didn't grow up in the church -- not the Presbyterian church or any church actually. I gained a vocabulary for the Christian faith, though, by attending First Presbyterian Church of Orlando on occasion. When I would spend the night with friends on Saturday night, many of my friends went to church at First Pres. Orlando, so it really didn't matter who I spent the night with, often that's where I ended up at church. And Howard Edington was the preacher there. And he spoke with a kind of passion and conviction that I hadn't heard anybody speak about anything with, and so it really captivated me.
A Little Known Hero
The World Alliance Church News recently reported that the Reformed world has lost one of its courageous prophets with the death of antiapartheid activist Beyers Naudé.
From the 1960s, Beyers was among the few whites in southern Africa who was brave enough to speak boldly at great personal risk.
Rediscovering Christian Education
I am grateful that my colleague and friend, Ben Sparks, has broached the sometimes sensitive subject of Christian education, especially what is happening in the local church. I suspect, like so many pastors and educators at this time of the year, Ben has faced another confirmation class unfamiliar with the stories of the faith!
Coming Together
I have been praying (and looking) for signs of a wider unity in the PC (USA) than the division our sharp, destructive conflicts over sexuality and abortion reveal. Of course, a wider unity must be grounded biblically, theologically, and confessionally. We Presbyterians never saw a theological debate we didn't want to decorate, preach about, or organize a committee around. That's a positive quality so long as it does not imperil action and genuine confession.
I do not claim to know that unity, but I believe there is promise in the combined evangelical, mainline, Roman Catholic, and Jewish assault on hunger and poverty -- led by Jim Wallis and others. At a conference brought together around this theme in New York some weeks ago, an evangelical held up a Bible from which he had cut all references to the poor for whom God cares, for whom God holds rulers of the earth accountable, and to whom Jesus (Luke 4) said he would preach the good news. There were precious few pages remaining. He then said that if you cut out the references to sex in similar fashion, the Bible would remain intact.
BOP reviewing policies on reserves, governance
In an effort to maintain members' trust and sustain its reputation, the Board of Pensions (BOP) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is reviewing several of its guidelines and policies.
The self-review takes in everything from the pension plan's contingency reserve to how it recruits and trains prospective members and governs itself. "Every few years, we undertake significant review, especially of the valuation methodology for the pension plan and the death and disability plan," said Robert W. Maggs Jr., the board's president and CEO. "We are trustees ... for over $6.5 billion dollars, and over 56,000 people count on us for their benefits or financial assistance. We can't risk reputational harm because of non-compliance or a bad governance process."
With that in mind, the 32-member board of Presbyterian clergy and lay members from throughout the United States is at both ends of the microscope.
Between defeatism and triumphalism: Foreign policy thinking in a time of torture
In the wake of the anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War, I have questions.
Do the Iraq war’s opponents want the new Iraq to dissolve in civil war? Do the war’s advocates believe our invasion was justified by an election in which the once-dominant group hardly participated, but which is having some impact throughout the Middle East?
Where do ministers come from?
If this question sounds like one a child might ask a harried parent, it is. Gestation is involved since ministers are made not born, and church officers need to consider where they really come from.
PC(USA) mission goals explored at GAC meeting
For the first time, the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is meeting in the spring -- and the next General Assembly isn't roaring directly outside the door, demanding to be let in.
So these denominational leaders are using the time, that extra little bit of breathing room, to think big-picture, to talk about how some of the strategic initiatives it's set in play -- efforts to look comprehensively at denominational funding and governance, for example -- are working out.
Charles Townes wins 2005 Templeton Prize
Charles Townes, the Nobel laureate whose inventions include the maser and laser and who has spent decades as a leading advocate for the convergence of science and religion, has won the 2005 Templeton Prize. The prize, valued at more than $1.5 million, was announced March 9 at a news conference at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York.
Suffering for the sake of the Name
It has finally occurred in a public aside, in the March meeting of the Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church. A conflict erupted that many people have been waiting for impatiently. Could it be that the real challenge of status confessionis before the church of Jesus Christ in the United States of America is not homosexual ordination but the imperial conduct of this 'Christian' nation in its Middle East pursuits? If the Confessing Church movement has something to confess, then over against what apostasies and soul-destroying idolatries on behalf of Jesus Christ do they take their stand? Are they simply against other Presbyterians whom they deem heretical and unbiblical? Is the Covenant Network espousing a confessional position on the removal of G-6.0106b.? Are these organizations implicitly positioning themselves for "severance?"
Letter to the Churches in America
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
For seventeen years I was a minister of the church in Switzerland, and since 1986 I have been Professor of Reformed Theology in Germany at the university in Goettingen. In Switzerland most Protestants are Reformed. In Germany the Reformed are a small minority in relation to Lutherans and the United Churches, but they are Reformed more consciously than in Switzerland.
A source of the disconnect
Our polity as Presbyterians is grounded on the proposition that all authority rests in governing bodies acting either in plenary session or through committees, commissions, councils, and task forces. Though frequently described as a democratic process, it is decidedly not a democratic one, at least not in the common understanding that the will of the people is expressed through their representatives.
Easter Devotional: We’re ready for our close-up
Reflections on Matthew 28:1-10
It is a dark and stormy night in upstate New York as I write this, and I close my eyes to recall the sun that warmed me one spring day several years ago, in Jerusalem. I was on a seminary trip and I had taken my last free day to go back with my video camera to “The Garden Tomb,” a verdant postage stamp-sized plot of ground off Nablus Road that stands as good a chance as any of being the actual site of Jesus’ burial and resurrection.
Disgraceful impasse
Editor's Note: As I write, we are preparing for tonight's Maundy Thursday observance at Second Church. The news reports are full of the latest court maneuverings related to the Terri Schiavo tragedy. By the time you read this, it will be a very different time. But the questions raised today deserve continued, prayerful consideration
We who belong to the church of Jesus Christ might do well to cast ourselves before God and beg for mercy for our part in (either to ignore, to cheer, or to feed) the deplorable circus that has grown up around the life and disability of Terri Schiavo. How did one family (out of hundreds who are now faced with similar circumstances) gain such notoriety over what ought to have been from the outset a matter -- not of personal preference -- but of decision by family, doctors, priest, pastor, and social worker?
Easter congregations: New beginnings, new hope
Resurrection, when you think about it, can be very specific: one man, one cross, one life sacrificed for others.
But the Easter celebration also is a story across all time, a story of rebirth and new beginnings and hope.
Some Presbyterian congregations have their own Easter stories to tell. Some are of brand-new life, some of exciting new combinations, some of coaxing fresh growth out of old roots. In each case, these are Christians willing to do what Jesus did at Easter: to listen faithfully for God's voice, and to follow.
Where the real battle begins
In an interview on National Public Radio February 27, Andy Trudeau was talking to Sheilah Kast about film scores nominated for an Oscar this year, one of which was composed by John Debney for The Passion of the Christ. That was Trudeau's choice. We heard selections accompanying various scenes in the film. Trudeau's discussion of music for the resurrection caught my attention.
Director Mel Gibson had told Debney that he wanted a martial feeling to the resurrection sequence because "that's where the real battle begins for the souls of mankind." Trudeau explained over background drum rolls of victory, pomp, and circumstance that the music represents a "moral marshalling of the troops."
A Letter from Scotland: A New Beginning
The visit of your new Secretary of State to the Middle East, during which Condoleeza Rice met with Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, raised the tantalising possibility of an end to the Intifada. Carefully dipping her toes into the previously unrewarding swamp of Middle Eastern politics and peace making, Miss Rice spoke of the possibility of a new beginning for the peace process.
Proud to be a Fundamentalist
In 1922, a young Baptist minister delivered a sermon before a Presbyterian congregation in New York City, entitled “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” It resulted in his leaving that pulpit to become one of America’s most influential Protestant preachers. Harry Emerson Fosdick, both loved and reviled, delivered intelligent and often controversial sermons from the church that John D. Rockefeller provided for him on Moningside Heights. The Riverside Church has stood for decades as a bastion of progressive theology.
Easter focus: The significance of the Resurrection
I warn my seminary students to watch out for “litmus test” theology. “If you find yourself getting backed into a corner on a doctrinal issue, with someone pressing you merely to ‘check “yes”’ or ‘check “no,”’ do your best to redirect the conversation,” I advise them. Being a Christian believer is not, primarily, about checking the right boxes.
Easter Focus: Easter faith, Easter church
What does it mean to be an Easter Church—that is, a church that confesses “God raised the crucified Jesus from the dead?” Is there only one correct interpretation of that most central of Christian confessions or is there room in that confession for different interpretations of what it means? Is there only one “orthodox” interpretation?
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