Attendees sing during a service hosted by the Love Your Neighbor Coalition at the Holiday Inn in St. Louis on Feb. 27, 2019, the morning after the special session of the UMC General Conference closed. RNS photo by Emily McFarlan Miller
Need to know: Friday, March 1, 2019
‘In this to the end’: LGBT United Methodists express hurt, hope after vote
After a wrenching three days of deliberations and spending $3.7 million to organize a special conference of its global church, the UMC has only marginally more more clarity on its future than when the meeting began.
Independent report finds allegations against Willow Creek founder Bill Hybels credible
The Willow Creek Independent Advisory Group released its findings in a report posted online by Willow Creek Community Church in the Chicago area.
Catholic bishops, advocates meet to discuss response to Trump border policies
'We were at the border yesterday. The emergency is not here,' one bishop said.
Supreme Court seems inclined to retain cross on public land
Even liberal justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer suggested that they could join a narrow ruling upholding this particular memorial.
Grading the Vatican abuse summit
An F is inappropriate, writes Mark Silk.
Portland bans discrimination against atheists and agnostics
Oregon’s biggest city is the second in the U.S. to extend nondiscrimination protections to nonreligious people.
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Faith is no excuse for skipping vaccines, says med school professor
SPOKANE, Wash. (RNS) — 'These are important times where religious leaders need to speak out on behalf of vaccines,' said Dr. Peter Hotez of the Baylor College of Medicine. 'We need an interfaith statement on vaccines.'
Jewish youth organization nabs $25 million gift to help empower young women
The gift from businessman Theodore Perlman, and his wife, Harriette, will allow BBYO to start a women’s leadership initiative connecting women through their college and early professional careers with mentorship and training.
Biblical guide marks 400 years since enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia
'Lament and Hope, a Pan-African Devotional Guide' was produced by Bread for the World and is set to be dedicated at a prayer service at a Washington church on the last day of Black History Month.
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How Christian theology lost its way
(RNS) — When our theology does not provide us with a compelling alternative vision of the good life, it betrays its purpose, write two prominent Yale theologians.
When Lenten fasting is indistinguishable from a New Age cleanse
(RNS) — Modern Lent has come to have more in common with Dry January — the viral sensation encouraging New Year's resolvers to give up alcohol for a month — than with its ecclesiastic antecedents.
Understanding ex-Mormons
Researcher E. Marshall Brooks wanted to know what a faith crisis meant on the most intimate level, so he embedded himself in ex-Mormon communities to understand.