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Over the next few hours and during the morning news show, the Greensboro-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools will defend its Bible study program, which is being used in public schools in 37 states.
Is it possible to treat one of the oldest and best-known books as a study class without a religious agenda?
The Rev. Monica Coleman, chosen as one of the top 20 preachers under 40 in the country by an industry journal, delivers several sermons at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Friendly Avenue this weekend.
Coleman, a religion professor and director of Bennett College’s Womanist Religious Studies program, is listed in "The New Generation of Leading Clergy: Preachers under 40" by the African American Pulpit Forum. Coleman, who was raped in divinity school, has spoken at the NAACP Leadership 500 Conference and the National Religious Leadership Summit.
She is scheduled to perform services at 6 p.m. Saturday and 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Is there something unsettling about the Antiochian Orthodox Church pulling its membership from the National Council of Churches, a move that some conservatives hope will prompt other churches to leave the liberal-leaning ecumenical body?
It's not that I'm lobbying for the National Council of Churches: Last year the Southern Baptist Convention voted to pull out of the Baptist World Alliance, accusing the worldwide organization of a drift toward liberalism that included growing tolerance of homosexuality, support for women in the clergy and "anti-American" pronouncements.
I guess I like the idea of religious groups of differing opinions at least having dinner at the same table occasionally.
You can't make this up Making the headlines today: Catholic priest resigns. I don't know if the allegation is true, but it's led to this.
I parrot a friend, who asks: "I wonder what folks here in America would think if it ended up that we sent our forces into Iraq only to help give birth to a Iran-style theocracy?"
I keep seeing this sort of story and thinking 'Could we really stand by idly as these guys put women into burqas?' And another part of me says 'Respect for soveriegnty is a pretty basic value in today's world.'"
For a column on Saturday's Religion page, I ask local people of faith to pass along advice to incoming freshmen -- a Top 10 mostly of things they wished they had known when they were freshmen. Check out the column (10. "I wish I had known freshman year that the instructors care about those who care about themselves." 3. "There’s nothing sinful about partying! Just keep it clean, sober and stay up until the early church service the next morning." 2. "Bring to school a desire to make the world a better place. It is easy to think that the world is too big for our voices to be heard or that all of the good struggles took place in prior generations.")
What could you add to the list?
If you could look forward five years from now, what's happening in the Gaza Strip/in the Middle East now?
It's just fiction?
What kind of punishment should he face?
Where are our values headed? And what do you credit with this downward spiral -- or am I making too much of this?
An awful lot of people feel frustrated that they have no option in this case but to heap verbal abuse on this killer.
They'd love to see BTK killer Dennis Rader executed.
But would that really help enough?
Rader, who killed whole families, was sentenced to life in prison just minutes ago.
Hmmm...The Capital Beat looks at the state budget and asks: Should religious groups of any stripe be getting state money? Comment there or here.
"Tell someone to come get me please. I want to live."
Should emergency workers risk their lives to rescue people who chose to stay in their homes despite the warnings of how bad this could get?
"I would love to sit with you and walk with you through the Bible to show that Jesus wasn't poor," says Bishop Eddie Long, whose 25,000-member church has compensated him with a $1.4 million six-bedroom, nine-bath home on 20 acres of land and the use of a $350,000 luxury Bentley automobile.
I don't think religious leaders have to be poor.
I think the problem a lot of people have with this (including the person who emailed me about the story)is that his charity, Bishop Eddie Long Ministries Inc., provided him with at least $3.07 million in salary, benefits and the use of property between 1997 and 2000 -- nearly as much as it gave to all other recipients combined during those years, tax records show. Of the four-person board of directors, he and his wife claimed two spots.
Now here's a gas saver ...