It’s not the first time an openly gay candidate has been nominated — Wulf has been nominated before, according to Reconciling Ministries Executive Director Matt Berryman — but there’s “no question” there is momentum this time after last month’s United Methodist Church General Conference in Portland, Ore.   At its quadrennial meeting last month, the United... Continue Reading

We too often see America as somehow more “real” than the kingdom, and our country as more important than the church. But 2 Chronicles 7:14 itself starts with the question of identity: “If my people…called by my name…” This, or any other country, is not called by the name of God. The kingdom of God,... Continue Reading

Augustine, our great North African father, said that each Psalm had a ‘single body of feeling that vibrates in every syllable’. As Peter Brown has noted, Augustine believed that each Psalm could be presented as a microcosm of the whole Bible — the clear essence of Christianity refracted through in the exotic spectrum of Hebrew... Continue Reading

The Assembly considered an overture on “Admission of, and Apology for, Harms Done to the LGBTQ/Q Members of the PC(USA), Family and Friends.” With much discussion in both the committee and on the floor, and with the broad support of many groups – but not all – the Assembly approved a statement that says the... Continue Reading

A bit of searching in historical newspapers suggests that these services were fairly common in early national history, although references to them were rare to nonexistent on years when the Fourth of July fell on a Sunday. I would be interested to know if this meant that they did not hold them in those years,... Continue Reading

Why did the biennial meeting of the largest Presbyterian denomination in the country garner so little attention? Well, news outlets like extremes and from a worldly perspective, nothing particularly explosive happened. Volatile items of business like that related to Israel and fossil fuels, were answered in measured ways. The so-called “apology overture” in which LGBTQQ... Continue Reading

Polls are often trumpeted showing that majorities of self-identified Catholics and oldline Protestants, plus a large minority of evangelicals favor same-sex marriage. Yet closer examination almost always shows that actively church going adherents are much more traditional. Many secularists assumed in their historically determinist way after the court ruling that religion like the rest of... Continue Reading

The inclusive crowd was actively advocating. The night before, delegates exited their meeting to find messages in rainbow sidewalk chalk: “We are the church too” … “ALL ARE IN GOD” … “WE ARE DYING TO BE WHO GOD MADE US” … “57 yrs in CRC, GAY, What will you do w/ me? And 1000s others?”... Continue Reading

Many liberal Presbyterians have castigated evangelicals for leaving the denomination over the diminished place accorded Jesus in the life of the PCUSA. The theological left says this is nonsense, that the PCUSA still stands for the unique lordship of Jesus, and for the truth that salvation is uniquely through him. But if the denomination lets... Continue Reading

The flag communicates many things to many people, but it does not communicate the one thing needed:  Jesus Christ and him crucified.  Because the flag is a sign without an agreed upon ‘thing signified’ it obscures, distracts and may in fact be hindering people’s receptivity to the glorious good news of Christ.    The presence... Continue Reading