North Park University named Dr. Daniel White Hodge director of the University’s Center for Youth Ministry Studies (CYMS). Hodge, 38, will assume his new role at the University on Feb. 15. “We are excited to welcome Dr. Hodge to the North Park University community,” Dr. Joseph Jones, University provost. “His work and commitment to serve in the field of youth ministry studies will be a great asset in our vision to engage students, youth workers and pastors in the growth... Read more

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. is among the prominent African-American leaders in the United Church of Christ coming to Cleveland to speak during the denomination’s Black History Month celebration. Wright became a controversial figure to many Americans during the 2008 presidential campaign. Because President Obama and his family had attended Wright’s church when they lived in Chicago, excerpts from some of Wright’s sermons became points of contention. Obama eventually denounced some of Wright’s statements, but many scholars and clerics... Read more

by Keith Allen Lehman Suzanne Fields writes in Turning Swords in Bombs, “Christians who sought domination, on the other hand, never invoked the teachings of Christ to justify violence,” is misleading, and not entirely correct. Examples would be the series of Crusade expeditions, other than the first one. Violence was seen in the New World, in the name of the Church by Conquistadors and Jesuit monks and priests. Christians in the medieval period burned books — and people. The Inquisition tortured confessions from people, and if that was not... Read more

by Steven ForestOp ED News “Tell me a tale”, I said to my master. “Tell me of a time when man was deceived by promises of a better tomorrow that never came: A fiction of men who lie to make me feel secure within my life’s insecurities. Tell me a story of false hope, Master: The one where I will serve you while suffering the death of my conscience and the blackening of my soul before leaving this plain. Lie... Read more

The Religious Communication Association invites submissions for the 2012 NCA Convention, November 15-18, in Orlando, FL.  (PLEASE NOTE: all submissions will be considered for NCA as well as the RCA Pre-Conference. By submitting to RCA, you agree to have your work considered for the RCA pre-conference.) The 2012 NCA Convention Theme is “Celebrate COMMunity.” This theme provides opportunities to highlight the various intersections between traditional divisions within our broader areas of Communication Studies. We strongly encourage you to address the theme and... Read more

I lived there for almost a decade, so I’m familiar with the challenge of covering politics in the US South. The challenge stems from that region’s peculiar social phenomenon: double consciousness. Basically, seeing shouldn’t always be believing. During the GOP primaries in South Carolina, I smiled to myself when I read reporting that was awed by churches that look like shacks, trios of wooden crosses mounted on roadsides and highway billboards admonishing drivers that they must be born again. I was reminded... Read more

January 17, 2012 United States SenateWashington, DC 20510 Dear Senator: We hope that you will take the opportunity at the beginning of this New Year to address what has become a pervasive national problem(1). On behalf of the hundreds of progressive faith leaders across the country who are members of African American Ministers in Action (AAMIA), we write urging your support and cosponsorship of the Student Non‐Discrimination Act (SNDA) (S. 555). Following the increased media attention paid to bullying-related suicides... Read more

 Read more

by Jonathan TranChristian Century A couple years ago, when the Century asked some leading theologians to name five “essential theology books of the past 25 years,” J. Kameron Carter’s Race: A Theological Account (Oxford University Press, 2008) was one of the few books mentioned more than once and the only one that was published in the past five years. Last year, the Ameri­can Academy of Religion gave its Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion to Willie J. Jennings’s... Read more

Mr. Gingrich, For this you still owe our children an apology: “Some of the things they could do is work in a library, work in the front office, some of them frankly could be janitorial; what if they clean up the bathrooms, what if they mopped the floors, what if in the summer they repainted the school; what if in the process they were actually learning to work, learning to earn money; if they had their own money, they didn’t... Read more