SEATTLE — Outside the Golf Park club house, rows of men are hitting practice balls into the Northwest’s chilly morning mists. Inside, the Rev. Leighton Ford is warming up, too. After nearly 50 years as an evangelist, the longtime leader in the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization keeps seeking the right set of images to reach new listeners. On this day, that means digging into what he calls “a rather New Agey” novel called “The Legend of Bagger Vance: Golf... Read more

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Anyone seeking Middle America’s true marketplace of ideas need only click on a television. Thus, one political cartoonist summed up the ’92 White House race by having a husband study the TV listings and then tell his wife: “We can watch Clinton on MTV, Bush on `Letterman,’ Perot on `Arsenio’ … or Madonna on `Meet the Press.'” That’s entertainment and, today, that’s politics. Many of America’s hottest debates about morality and public life are staged in... Read more

It’s hard to debate religious liberty issues with a superstar pig from Hollywood. The star of “Babe, the Gallant Pig” made a cameo appearance during the recent taping of an Oprah Winfrey show about Bible readings and prayers in public schools in Pontotoc, Miss. The talking pig — on video — interrupted the host’s opening narration about “people who have been made to feel like outcasts in their own communities.” While plugging the movie, “Babe” stressed its timely message —... Read more

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — This was only Janine Nitterauer’s second time in the pulpit and her mind went blank when she finished reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Father Bill McLoughlin guided her to the liturgy’s next line. “The Word of the Lord,” he said. “Thanks be to God,” responded the congregation. “I knew there was something I was supposed to say,” said Nitterauer, laughing. Several friends offered hugs as she returned to her folding chair in the Church... Read more

One easy way to create fog is to bring together clashing fronts of lawyers and theologians. The soup got thick this week in Wilmington, Del., site of the heresy trial of Bishop Walter Righter, who stands accused of violating his vows by ordaining a noncelibate gay man. While homosexual issues took center stage, this complex trial pivots on another question: Does the Episcopal Church have a doctrine that says sex outside of marriage is sin? Today, this question leads directly... Read more

For years, Nashville has sort of played for Southern Baptists the role that Rome plays for Roman Catholics. The pastor of Nashville’s 175-year-old First Baptist Church doesn’t just lead a tall-steeple church — he fills a symbolic role in America’s largest non-Catholic flock. So it raised eyebrows at Nashville’s “Baptist Vatican” when the news spread that the Rev. Dan Francis was leaving his 2,400-member church to start a mission. “The senior pastor of a First Baptist church isn’t supposed to... Read more

As the late Southern humorist Grady Nutt always said, you know you’re in Baptist country when the preachers pronounce “dance” with four syllables — as in “daaah-E-unce-uh!” Nutt was a graduate of Baylor University, so he knew all about hot-button issues in the Bible Belt. It seems like every few years, journalists can count on the world’s largest Southern Baptist university to make headlines linked to drinking, dancing, sex or all of the above. Naturally, a recent chapel announcement that... Read more

The agenda for next week’s Promise Keepers clergy conference ends with a tiny note saying the “schedule is subject to change.” That’s interesting, since the agenda for the Atlanta gathering is sketchy to begin with. It opens with a Tuesday session on “Hope for the Church,” ends with “Renewing Our Call” on Thursday and, in between, leaves organizers lots of room to maneuver. The program doesn’t even nail down who speaks when. Strangest of all, Wednesday night is wide open.... Read more

It wasn’t a firestorm, but British newspapers recently found a subject hot enough to compete with the Royal Family’s sex life. “Hell hath no fury any more,” said the Observer, responding to a Church of England report that included modernized language on heaven, hell and damnation. Another London headline said, “We believe in Hell, says the Church (but without the flames).” While “The Mystery of Salvation” does reject “universalism,” the belief that everyone goes to heaven, it suggests that those... Read more

Amid the tumult surrounding Super Bowl XXX, Americans will congregate to party, pray, swear, chant, eat, drink and bond. They will wear symbolic clothes, attend public rites, recall heroic deeds, consult oracles, hand down traditions and spend — or risk — millions of dollars. It’s easy to see why many researchers now consider Super Sunday a pseudo-religious holiday. “The Super Bowl combines all the elements that America has always valued the most. It’s a ritual that glorifies physical excellence, determination,... Read more