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Church

This category contains 239 posts

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‘Let no one who is not eager for truth and peace enter here’ (Plato)

Articles on this site express varying points of view, to encourage mature thinking on serious issues. The assumption is that you will want to study a controversial topic from various angles before you arrive at a conclusion, rather than simply believe what someone told you when you were impressionable! (So some stuff here is ‘hot’. Proceed at your own risk!). See the Statement of Faith for John Mark Ministries' theological stance.

Southern Baptist Missionaries come home

Missionaries Come Home By MARTIN E. MARTY NOV 2, 2015 2015 Conference poster, Grace Baptist Church of Kankakee, Illinois (creative commons license) Newspeople and commentators outside the South ordinarily pay little attention to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). They find little reason to notice this church body if they are geographically remote from, or see […]

SECULARISM and RELIGION in Australia

Which Secularism? Australia Has a Serious Religious Literacy Problem Michael Bird

Abortion: Pope Francis’s Message of Mercy

True and Generous Forgiveness’: Pope Francis’s Message of Mercy to Abortion Survivors Austen IvereighABC RELIGION AND ETHICS3

Vanishing Clergy (Martin Marty)

By MARTIN E. MARTY

Interfaith Dialogue: Conservatives vs others…

Religious Conservatives, “Nones,” and Interfaith Dialogue By JOSEPH DeMOTT MAY 14, 2015 Too often, interfaith programs fail to attract broad participation and have little social impact. One major reason for this is that they tend to take place in an echo chamber of religious progressives. Local and regional interfaith associations are typically made up of […]

Defining a healthy religion

Faith: Christianity is not about putting yourself first Date February 22, 2015  Barney Zwartz ‘To a Christian, Scientology may be distorted and dangerous, but it is certainly a religion.’ Obscenity may be hard to define, said a United States Supreme Court judge decades ago, “but I know it when I see it.” Religion, too, is […]

Income and Wealth Inequality: Religion’s Current Efforts Won’t Cut It

by MYRIAM RENAUD Thursday | Nov 20 2014 The only remaining, major, organized institutions in the US with enough scope and moral authority to launch efforts to reverse this country’s growing income and wealth inequality are the religions. Other institutions have waned; today’s labor unions represent only 7% of private sector employees. Delays matter: as […]

Introducing: the new Catholic Archbishop of Sydney

Returning to Jesus Christ: How the Gospel Addresses a Culture that has Forgotten How to Love Anthony Fisher, O.P.ABC RELIGION AND ETHICS 23 OCT 2014 WHATEVER THE FAILURES OF THE CHURCH AND CHALLENGES OF THE MODERN WORLD, WHAT PEOPLE MOST NEED IS TO ENCOUNTER GOD IN CHRIST. ONLY HERE WILL THEY FIND GOODNESS AND BEAUTY PURIFIED AND PERFECTED.CREDIT: […]

A lady took my seat in church…

A lady took my seat in church a while back. It’s not that important really. She is a very nice lady, kind and considerate. A good friend, in fact. There were several other seats available. I can sit anywhere. The people in our congregation are as friendly and caring as you will find anywhere in […]

Hillsong: an American view

(Is this the first time the doyen of American ‘public theologians’ has commented on something emanating from DownUnder?) by MARTIN E. MARTY Monday | Sept 15 2014     “Hillsong.” Never heard of Hillsong, the Australian Pentecostal megachurch? Readers of the New York Times have no excuse to be in the dark, thanks to the […]