Tag Archives: protestant

Idiot Box

Churches Go Commercial To Spread Their Message
TV Campaigns Bring Denominations to Homes
By Alan Cooperman, Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 11, 2004; Page A01

"What burst into the Cleveland marketing executive's head that night in January 2002, however, was not a message from the Almighty. It was a slogan for a television advertising campaign. Beginning this fall, the United Church of Christ plans to spend $30 million to promote itself using the line that came to Buford in his sleep — 'God is still speaking' — to reflect its willingness to reinterpret the Bible and embrace such innovations as same-sex marriage and openly gay ministers."

I just love this:

The Episcopal Church, for example, has faced an insurrection by conservative parishes since its ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire last year. But marketers see an opportunity.

"Among 20- to 30-year-olds, everybody's heard of the gay bishop. And in focus groups, the words that keep coming up are that we are a 'progressive,' 'open' and 'nonjudgmental' church," said Daniel B. England, the church's director of communication.

Progress requires a goal to be meaningful. An open mind is like an open trap – it's only useful when it closes on something. Nonjudgemental, in this context, really means unwilling to discriminate between right and wrong.

Communication Breakdown

The New American Bible raises banality to an art form. The Good As New Bible is
a sin against the Holy Spirit.

Lost
in Translation

A reader send me a link to the following story. By now I am sure many people have
seen the story about the “Good as New” Bible translation by a former Baptist
Minister. The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is reportedly backing this
version and has said it is a “vehicle for thinking.”

This version is pretty funny and I would have a hard time coming up with a better
parody then was achieved. The St. Paul quotes are strait from Bizarro world.

Priestesses in the Church?

The aforementioned comments discussion at GetReligion is becoming a battle between those for and against women priests, or at least allowing them as a solution to the priest scandal. *rolls eyes*

I'm with this guy:

Perhaps I'm obtuse, but I'm having trouble seeing a connection between priests who participate in deviant sexual practices and the need for women priests. The latter is unproven as a corrective and lumping the two together under the increasingly meaningless rubric of "justice" does violence to common sense and church tradition….Wooderson

PRIESTESSES IN THE CHURCH?
by C. S. Lewis

"I SHOULD LIKE BALLS INFINITELY BETTER', SAID CAROLINE Bingley, 'if they were carried on in a different manner . . It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing made the order of the day.' 'Much more rational, I dare say,' replied her brother, 'but it would not be near so much like a Ball.' (1) We are told that the lady was silenced: yet it could be maintained that Jane Austen has not allowed Bingley to put forward the full strength of his position. He ought to have replied with a distinguo. In one sense conversation is more rational for conversation may exercise the reason alone, dancing does not. But there is nothing irrational in exercising other powers than our reason. On certain occasions and for certain purposes the real irrationality is with those who will not do so. The man who would try to break a horse or write a poem or beget a child by pure syllogizing would be an irrational man; though at the same time syllogizing is in itself a more rational activity than the activities demanded by these achievements. It is rational not to reason, or not to limit oneself to reason, in the wrong place; and the more rational a man is the better he knows this."

"These remarks are not intended as a contribution to the criticism of Pride and Prejudice. They came into my head when I heard that the Church of England (2) was being advised to declare women capable of Priests' Orders…"

Women, Ordination, and Angels
Michael Novak

"When Dr. George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, visited Pope John Paul II in May 1992, the two church leaders discussed the probable future ordination of women priests in the Anglican Church. That, the Pope said, 'touched on the very nature of the sacrament of holy orders.' A Vatican spokesman said later that 'the Catholic Church, for fundamental theological reasons, does not believe it has the right to authorize such ordination.'

Catholicity or female priests? Must the choice be made?
Al Kimel

"Is it possible to oppose the pansexual morality of the Episcopal Church and still support the decision of the Episcopal Church to ordain women to the presbyterate and episcopate? Clearly most of those who have committed themselves to the Network and American Anglican Council believe that it is possible. But this has become now a real question for me."

Women in the Church

I generally find that women don't appreciate being instructed about their proper roles from men. That's understandable. I'd imagine most men don't like being told their roles by women, either (though my gut tells me women hate hearing about womanhood from men more than the reverse). The author of the following defense of the all-male priesthood is a women. Even cooler, she's an ex-Lutheran minister (I'm an ex-Lutheran as well).

Former Lutheran Pastor Debunks Women's Ordination (Part 1)
Jennifer Ferrara Was Won Over by the Pope's Theology of the Body

SPRING CITY, Pennsylvania, JUNE 21, 2004 (Zenit.org).- When she was younger, Jennifer Ferrara never would have foreseen the day when she became a sort of apologist for the all-male Catholic priesthood.

Former Lutheran Pastor Defends All-Male Priesthood (Part 2)
Jennifer Ferrara on Proper Roles in the Church

SPRING CITY, Pennsylvania, JUNE 22, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Women can find innumerable opportunities for service in the Church if only they embrace their proper role, says a former Lutheran minister who now extols the all-male Catholic priesthood.

Also regarding women in the Church:

Scholars rethink image of biblical figure
By Mary Kaye Ritz, The Honolulu Advertiser

How did Mary Magdalene, who has inspired legions of the faithful, gnostics and scholars, and even affected pop culture, come to be so popular — and so misunderstood?

Bedfellows

Proposal Warns Evangelicals on Politics
Sun Jun 20, 6:31 PM ET

LOS ANGELES – A national evangelical group is mulling guidelines that would warn the faithful against allying themselves too closely with any one political party, “lest nonbelievers think that Christian faith is essentially political in nature.”

I’m all for keeping faith separate from party affiliation. If you vote for a certain party’s candidate because his views line up well with those your faith inspire in you, that’s fine. However, the blind faith most Evangelicals seem to have in Bush is disturbing and impedes any intelligent debate about religion and politics with them. “Let the Christian who opposes Bush be anathema.”