The sanctuary walls are, as a rule, made of flat wood, concrete and glass wrapped in metals with an industrial look — often matching the furnishings on the stark altar. The windows are frosted or tinted in muted tones of sky blue, lavender, amber or pink. If there are stained-glass images, they are ultramodern in style, to match any art objects that make sense in this kind of space. The floors are covered with carpet, which explains why there are... Read more
Editor’s note: This past week, tmatt took a vacation to a site with no telephone or wifi. Imagine that. Such places still exist. Thus, there was no weekly column for Scripps Howard. However, here is a recent post from GetReligion.org that would be of interest to regular readers of this website. *** Two weeks ago, the Sunday Boston Globe magazine ran an essay — not a news story, I admit — that I have been thinking about ever since. It... Read more
Anyone who attends one of the national church assemblies that dot the calendar every summer knows that they are highly ritualized affairs. Officers will be elected. Political issues will be discussed. Lofty resolutions will be passed. At least one long business session will include a proposal about clergy benefits and salaries. In recent decades, gatherings in the “seven sisters” of mainline Protestantism have also — to varying degrees — featured battles over sex. These flocks are, in descending order of... Read more
KERRVILLE, Texas — The bracelet is both simple and a bit strange, since it consists of six or seven fishing lures connected end to end. Some people look at this piece of silver or gold jewelry in the James Avery line and they see fishing lures — period. But other shoppers see the same item and they think of these words of Jesus: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” This is especially true if they have... Read more
The Southern Baptist Convention has passed scores of blunt resolutions in recent decades urging America’s leaders to reject the sexual revolution and defend marriage as the sacred union of one man and one woman. But something different happened during this summer’s convention. In a jolting statement on the divorce crisis, leaders from America’s largest non-Catholic flock looked in the mirror and decided that their own sins were just as bad as everyone else’s sins. “Studies have indicated that conservative Protestants... Read more
It wasn’t hard to connect the dots when, after decades of lurid news about the sexual abuse of the young, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger delivered a Good Friday sermon bemoaning “how much filth” was in the church, including “the priesthood.” Weeks after that signal in 2005, the cardinal became pope. Then at World Youth Day 2008, he said, “I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured. … These misdeeds, which constitute so grave a betrayal of... Read more
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — As the end of his life drew near, Pope Pius XII began addressing complex medical questions that were personal, theological, practical and scientific, all at the same time. For example, how far could doctors go to relieve a dying patient’s pain? Months before his death in 1958, the pope wrote: “Is the suppression of pain and consciousness by means of narcotics (when it is demanded by a medical indication) permitted, by religion and morality, to the patient... Read more
Like most people born and raised in Biloxi, Miss., theologian Russell Moore grew up about 10 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico. It cost too much to live near the water, but that didn’t really matter since the sights, smells and rhythms of the coast defined the whole community. Driving away from his hometown has always been emotional, but the last time he pulled onto U.S. Highway 90 was different. Hurricane Katrina was terrible. Now, the locals are facing what... Read more
As the decades passed, the coach got used to hearing people call him a hero, an icon and even a saint — even though he reminded them that only God knows the truth about any man. It was common to see the former English teacher reading the classics. But he also read his Bible daily and rarely missed church, so some friends called him the “reverend.” That was probably for the best, since he disliked his other nickname — the... Read more
The first Orthodox missionaries to reach Alaska traveled with the early Russian explorers and, in 1794, a party of monks established the Orthodox Christian Mission to America. When Orthodox believers venerate icons of the “Saints of North America,” many of the images are of missionaries. One is St. Herman of Alaska, a pioneer monk, and another is St. Innocent, an early missionary bishop. Then there is St. Tikhon of Moscow, who envisioned one united Orthodox body in America, a church... Read more
Terry Mattingly
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