Jacob Lupfer
A contributing editor at RNS, Jacob Lupfer is a writer and consultant in Baltimore. His website is www.jacoblupfer.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jlupf. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of Religion News Service.
Tears of joy, tears of sorrow, and little empathetic listening (COMMENTARY)
(RNS) I suspect I am not the only one who does not believe that my gay friends are vile sinners or that my traditional religious friends are retrograde bigots.
Why a ‘yes’ to gays is often a ‘no’ to evangelicalism (COMMENTARY)
(RNS) When the editor of Christianity Today does not distance himself from “fellow evangelical” David Neff or The New York Times reports on a “brother in Christ” named Matthew Vines, the gatekeepers must spring into action.
Are churches failing the poor? Yes and no (ANALYSIS)
WASHINGTON (RNS) Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor. Surely comfortable churchgoers must do more than say, “Be more like me.”
What Catholics can teach America about polarized politics (COMMENTARY)
WASHINGTON (RNS) Compared with secular ideologies and other churches’ political pronouncements, Catholic social teaching offers the most comprehensively and authentically “Christian” ethic.
Affirmation is not a civil right, and it cannot be coerced (COMMENTARY)
WASHINGTON (RNS) If the holdouts eventually abandon their religious opposition to homosexuality, it will be because of persuasion, not coercion.
The Southern Baptists’ challenge on race (ANALYSIS)
(RNS) If Southern Baptists’ public posture remains primarily a catalog of concerns of aggrieved white conservatives, they shouldn’t be surprised if few black folks come along.
Americans of faith must reconsider stands on nuclear weapons (COMMENTARY)
(RNS) The global concern about the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons invites Americans of faith to engage a vital issue after years of complacency.
Theological purity tests will ruin presidents and the presidency (ANALYSIS)
WASHINGTON (RNS) The trouble with making presidents’ religiosity just another weapon in our ongoing ideological war is that we may have ruined religion for presidents themselves.
The religious politics of abortion are more nuanced than we think (ANALYSIS)
WASHINGTON (RNS) The absolutism of polarized abortion activists on both sides betrays the more ambivalent views of rank-and-file Americans.
Before pronouncing Fido in heaven, let’s consider human creatures (COMMENTARY)
(RNS) It is at the supermarket, not the pearly gates, where we grapple with pressing ethical and theological dilemmas about nonhuman animals.
Gay debate challenges traditional definitions of ‘evangelical’ (ANALYSIS)
WASHINGTON (RNS) What can you believe about gays and still call yourself an evangelical? And who gets to decide?
Southern Baptists change their tone but not their substance on homosexuality (COMMENTARY)
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Nashville conference was remarkable for two notable shifts: a change in tone — call it a kinder, gentler opposition to homosexuality — and a pragmatic concession that the fight over gay marriage is largely lost.
At Idaho wedding chapel, a hollow victory for religious freedom (COMMENTARY)
WASHINGTON (RNS) Donald and Evelyn Knapp are businesspeople, not pastors. They abandoned their religious vocation the moment they traded the sacred meaning of marriage for a profit-making enterprise.
Conscience vs. authority at Pope Francis’ Synod on the Family (ANALYSIS)
(RNS) The conflict between conscience and authority is the pre-eminent battle underlying the debates at the Vatican’s Synod on the Family.
The rise and fall and rise of the National Council of Churches (COMMENTARY)
WASHINGTON (RNS) Perhaps the influence of the National Council of Churches was overinflated during its heyday a half-century ago, but it is a mistake to ignore the people behind the NCC.
