Is a Bad God Better than No God at All?
The issue of the gods we believe in made headlines this week when Richard Mourdock, a Tea Party Republican candidate for US Senate in Indiana, stated that pregnancies stemming from rape, however horrible, are “something God intended to happen.”[1] While Mourdock has sought to soften the impact of his statement, I believe that his words reflected his – and many other Christians – understand of God’s presence in the world.
read moreFrontline: In-Depth Investigation into the Climate Denial Industry
Frontline goes inside the groups who shifted the direction of the climate change debate
Watch Climate of Doubt on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE. This story was originally posted on PBS Frontline.
read moreEvangelical Christian blogger scolded for using word ‘vagina’ in book
Rachel Held Evans doesn’t want to talk about her vagina anymore. “I’m sorry,” said a spokesman for her publisher, Thomas Nelson, in turning down a request for an interview, “she’s a little uncomfortable continuing with this conversation.” …
read moreReport | Catholic Attitudes on Gay and Lesbian Issues: A Comprehensive Portrait from Recent Research
Catholics are more supportive of legal recognitions of same-sex relationships than members of any other Christian tradition and Americans overall. Nearly three-quarters of Catholics favor either allowing gay and lesbian people to marry (43%) or allowing them to …
read moreNew Evangelical Partnership Releases “A Call to Christian Common Ground on Family Planning, and Maternal, and Children’s Health”
Worldwide, about 125 million women face social, emotional, and spiritual trauma – and for some, the life-threatening risk – of not having access to family planning. As a result, one in four births worldwide is unplanned, leading …
read moreWhy a Bible belt conservative spent a year pretending to be gay
Timothy Kurek, a graduate of the evangelical Liberty University, decided to 'walk in the shoes' of a gay man and emerged with his faith strengthened
Timothy Kurek grew up hating homosexuality. As a conservative Christian deep in America’s Bible belt, he had been taught that being gay was an abomination before God. He went to his right-wing church, saw himself as a …
read moreWhy Not Wear Purple on Friday?
Friday, October 19 is a big day for Catholics, especially for Jesuits and their colleagues. It is the Feast of the North American Martyrs, which commemorates such spiritual giants as St. Isaac Jogues, St. Jean de Brébeuf …
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TEDxManitoba – TJ Dawe: An Experiment in Collective Intelligence
TJ Dawe speaks about the goals of his organization, Beams and Struts, and an ideology of compassionate cooperation.
read moreBreakaway group offers more progressive form of Catholicism
FAIRFAX, Va. (RNS) About 30 people are gathered in a dark, makeshift sanctuary at St. Anthony of Padua Church as the sun dips into the horizon. The service follows the familiar pattern of a Catholic Mass, but something is …
read moreFifty years on, Catholics still debate the meaning of Vatican II
When Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council half a century ago, he said he wanted to “open the windows” of his almost 2,000-year Church to the rapid changes in the modern world. Within a few …
read moreReligious leaders respond to the rise of the “Nones”
As we noted yesterday, the number of Americans who have no religious affiliation has hit an all-time high, according to a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. One in five adults does not belong …
read moreCatholic theologian preaches revolution to end church’s ‘authoritarian’ rule
Hans Küng urges confrontation from the grassroots to unseat pope and force radical reform at Vatican
One of the world’s most prominent Catholic theologians has called for a revolution from below to unseat the pope and force radical reform at the Vatican. Hans Küng is appealing to priests and churchgoers to confront the Catholic …
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Outgrowing Evangelicalism: It’s Not Just for Scholars Anymore
In July, Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay, posted on his website his experience of being a Christian, a musician, and why he finds it hard–maybe more than just “hard”–to do that within the world of evangelicalism. The band’s in a studio …
read moreNumber of Protestant Americans Is in Steep Decline, Study Finds
For the first time since researchers began tracking the religious identity of Americans, fewer than half said they were Protestants, a steep decline from 40 years ago when Protestant churches claimed the loyalty of more than two-thirds …
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Faithiest: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious
Chris Stedman is an atheist working to foster positive and productive dialogue between faith communities and the non-religious. Visiting from the States in advance of his new book, he charts his journey to this point – from …
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Support Forum for A Joyful Path Teachers
This is a place for teacher’s using A Joyful Path children’s curriculum in their homes or communities to discuss and support each other. Here you can: ~Post questions to ProgressiveChristianity.org and each other ~Note tactics and/or supplementary …
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Where Do ‘Liberal’ Bible Scholars Come From?
Biblical scholarship is an academic discipline, taught and studied at universities, colleges and divinity schools all around the world. So it should be no surprise that biblical scholars run in all shapes, sizes, colors and denominations. What would surprise many people, though, is that a very large number of us love Jesus and the church, and we spend hours upon hours communicating the love and wonder we experience with the Bible.
read moreReligion and Government
The religious beliefs of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have persistently been a major talking point in this Presidential campaign. Some Christians do not consider Romney’s Mormon faith to be truly Christian. Although Obama’s beliefs should be …
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