For those who follow Christian traditions, Christmas begins when the darkness of Christmas Eve yields to bright midnight candles and the Mass of the Angels or the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Christmas season then lasts 12 days, ending with Epiphany on Jan. 6. But things aren’t that simple in modern America, the land of the free and the home of the malls. For millions of us, today’s Christmas begins when “Feliz Navidad”... Read more
Journalists have been known to jump to premature conclusions if a denomination has the word “Southern” in its name. Consider this paragraph in an MSNBC.com report about efforts by Southern Baptist researchers to shed light on the pros and cons of changing the name of America’s largest non-Catholic flock. Southern Baptist Convention leaders have been discussing this prickly issue off and on for a generation. This new LifeWay Research survey was conducted, noted MSNBC, after SBC leaders created a task... Read more
At first, there didn’t seem to be much an 80-something grandmother could do to help her church’s college freshmen wrestle with the trials and temptations of their first weeks away at college. After all, she knew very little about Facebook, YouTube, online homework, smartphones or texting, let alone “sexting.” She did, however, know how to write letters. So that is what she did, writing personal letters to each student to let them know that she was praying for them, wishing... Read more
Decade after decade, the Gallup Organization reported some of the most familiar numbers in American religion. More than 90 percent of Americans said, “yes” when asked if they believe in God — a number has changed little since the 1940s. Nearly 80 percent insisted they are “Christians,” in some sense of that word. How many claimed to have attended a worship service in the previous week or so? That number hovered between 41 and 46 percent. These are the kinds... Read more
Believe it or not, politicians used to be able to assume that when the U.S. Catholic bishops spoke on an issue, that meant that the nation’s Catholics had spoken. That was so mid-20th century. Before long, Catholic liberals — backed by Playboy’s Hugh Hefner and others — would dare to create a pro-abortion-rights group called Catholics for Free Choice. Before long, American Catholics would become so divided that traditionalists felt the need to form a group called Priests for Life.... Read more
There is nothing new about church leaders arguing about worship, including whether the rites have become too casual or superficial. Take St. John Chrysostom, for example, who complained about the irreverence he saw in the churches of Constantinople. Back in the old days, he said, people knew what it meant to solemnly observe the holy mysteries. Alas, some believers seemed to be going through the motions — in the 4th century. The archbishop urged his flock: “When I say, ‘Peace... Read more
When it comes to higher education, Georgia Baptists are of two minds these days. On Oct. 21, the trustees of Shorter University in Rome, Ga., approved a covenant requiring faculty and staff to support the “mission of Shorter University as a Christ-centered institution affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention.” Then they asked employees to “reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality.” A fortnight latter, Baptists... Read more
When it comes to changing course, ecclesiastical bureaucracies are like giant oceangoing vessels that struggle to turn quickly when obstacles appear in their paths. It took time, but the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has made a sea change in how it works on religious freedom issues. Faced with what they see as dangerous trends in the Obama administration, the bishops recently announced the creation of their own Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty. The goal is to address church-state... Read more
When it comes to the daily news, the recently retired editor of The New York Times has decided there is news and then there is news about religion and social issues. When covering debates on politics, it’s crucial for Times journalists to be balanced and fair to stakeholders on both sides. But when it comes to matters of moral and social issues, Bill Keller argues that it’s only natural for scribes in the world’s most powerful newsroom to view events... Read more
If Southern Baptists gather for a seminar on what Mormons believe, the odds are good that one of the teachers will be a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Then again, if Mormons gather for a seminar on what Southern Baptists believe, the odds are good that one of the teachers will be a former Southern Baptist. “There’s an important word that people forget when they start talking about Southern Baptists and Mormons and that... Read more
Terry Mattingly
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