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☆ After Fire Destroys Sanctuary, Landmark Dallas Church Mourns What’s Lost
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-20 | by ( Mary Beth Gahan | Kate Selig | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The red brick outer walls of First Baptist Dallas Church were singed black on Saturday morning, and though they were still intact, along with the steeple at the front of the historic building, there was no sanctuary within. Ms. Smith wiped tears from her eyes with a tissue as she talked about the sanctuary, with its dark wood pews and ornate carvings. There was a library in the church, she said, along with a printing shop and the offices of former pastors. Mr. Smith began to talk about what was lost when he trailed off, looking at the smoldering remains. Church members and other residents of the Dallas area mourned on Saturday the severe damage to the sanctuary, a landmark in the heart of Dallas where many of the megachurch’s members have been baptized, married and memorialized.

Persons: Larry Smith, Rita, Smith Organizations: Baptist Dallas Church Locations: Arlington , Texas, Dallas

☆ Fire Badly Damages Sanctuary of a Landmark Church in Dallas
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-20 | by ( Hank Sanders | Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A fire that broke out Friday at the First Baptist Dallas church, a landmark in the city’s downtown, appeared to cause major damage to an old part of the church complex. The church’s pastor, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, said that he understood from his conversations with fire officials that in the fire’s final phase, the roof of what is known as the historic sanctuary had collapsed. “We will have to see about whether we try to recreate it or do something else,” he said in an interview. Dallas Fire-Rescue did not immediately provide information about the fire, but a spokesman told The Dallas Morning news that part of the structure had collapsed.

Persons: Robert Jeffress, ” Organizations: First Baptist Dallas, Dallas, Dallas Morning

☆ Why some women stay in religious groups that don’t let them become leaders
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-15 | by ( John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

“It hurt,” says Muse, the executive pastor of Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. Nikki Hardeman, of Atlanta, an advocacy director for Baptist Women in Ministry, left, Meredith Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, center, and Christa Brown, an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse and a supporter of the Baptist Women in Ministry, protest outside the venue of a Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting on June 11, 2024, in Indianapolis. Some Southern Baptist leaders, for example, say they do not oppose women running for political office. And yet millions of women still give their time and money to church groups that won’t allow them to lead men. Meredith Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, a group that works with the SBC and other Baptist groups.

Persons: Kristen Muse, Muse, Paul, Timothy, ”, Hayes Barton, “, –, Clint Pressley, Nikki Hardeman, Meredith Stone, Christa Brown, Doug McSchooler, Albert Mohler Jr, Kamala Harris, Shelby Tauber, ” Muse, Christ, Mary Kassian, Beth Allison Barr, Barr, Jesus, Pope Francis, lectors, Beth Moore, Terry Wyatt, Moore, Infants, ” Barr, it’s, they’re, Rick Warren, Peter Smith, that’s, she’s, Rabbi Nachman, Rosh Hashana, Sergei Supinsky, don’t, ‘, Bishop Teresa Jefferson, Jay Reeves, Deborah, Lydia, Priscilla, Dorcas, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Luke, hasn’t, John Blake Organizations: CNN, National Public Radio, Southern Baptist Convention, Hayes Barton Baptist Church, SBC, Baptist Women, Ministry, Southern Baptist, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Roman Catholic Church, of God, Reuters, complementarianism, Children, Baylor University, Research, Saddleback Church, Saddleback, Getty, Christian Methodist Episcopal, Moody Temple CME Church, Jefferson Locations: manila, Raleigh , North Carolina, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Indiana, Dallas , Texas, Nashville , Tennessee, Texas, Saddleback, Southern California, New Orleans, Uman, Ukraine, AFP, Raleigh, Moody, Fairfield , Alabama, Israel

☆ Tree removal at North Carolina church unearths centuries-old artifacts
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-07 | by ( Sydney Bishop | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Cenci’s two passions coincided when a plethora of centuries-old items were found June 20 in the yard of Christ Episcopal Church in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where Cenci has served as rector since 2019. Excavation work is seen at Christ Episcopal Church in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Daniel Cenci speaks at Christ Episcopal Church in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His daughter Charlotte was married in the Episcopal church in 1833, according to church records and as posted by Lowry on Facebook. Part of a wine bottle from France was excavated from the site at Christ Episcopal Church in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Persons: Daniel Cenci, Cenci, WTKR, ” Cenci, ” Cinci, Michele Walker, Ian Lowry, Robyn Nix, Sam Moncla, George Davis, Charlotte, Lowry, Davis, ” Lowry, “, Nix, “ We’re, ” Organizations: CNN, Episcopal, North, North Carolina Office, Raleigh, WTKR, North Carolina Department of Natural, Cultural Resources, Episcopal Church, Facebook Locations: Elizabeth City , North Carolina, North Carolina, Greenville, wasn’t, Pasquotank, France, China

☆ Carlo Acutis: Teenager to become first Catholic millennial saint as pope and cardinals approve canonization
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-01 | by ( Christopher Lamb | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A video-gaming Italian teenager will become the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint after his cause for canonization was approved by church authorities. Often depicted wearing jeans and trainers, his story is seen as helpful for the Catholic Church as it seeks to better connect with the younger generation in a digital age, and he’s become popular with Catholic youth groups. In May, a second miracle attributed to Acutis was recognized by Pope Francis, a decision which paved the way for him to be declared a saint. He was reportedly healed after his mother said she prayed to Acutis to intercede and help heal her son. Her mother said she prayed for her daughter’s recovery at the tomb of Acutis in Assisi.

Persons: Carlo Acutis, ”, Acutis, he’s, Pope Francis, ” Acutis, Matteo Berlenga, Reuters Acutis, –, Mario, Pokémon, Antonia Salzano, “, Salzano Organizations: CNN, Catholic, Vatican, Catholic Church, Reuters, PlayStation Locations: Catholic, St Peter’s, Vatican City, London, United Kingdom, Milan, Costa Rica, Florence, Italy, Assisi

☆ Slur by Francis Lays Bare the Church’s Contradictions on Homosexuality
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-22 | by ( Emma Bubola | Elisabetta Povoledo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When reports spread that Pope Francis had used an offensive anti-gay slur while speaking to Italian bishops at a conference last month, many Catholics were both shocked and baffled. How could a pope known for his openness to and acceptance of L.G.B.T.Q. people use homophobic slang and caution prelates about admitting gay men into seminaries? But the question, and the apparent inconsistency in Francis’ messaging, reflect the deep contradictions and tensions that underlie the Roman Catholic Church’s and Francis’ relationship to homosexuality. The church holds that “homosexual tendencies” are “intrinsically disordered.” When it comes to ordination, the church’s guidelines state that people with “deep-seated” gay tendencies should not become priests.

Persons: Pope Francis, Francis ’, Catholic Church’s Organizations: Catholic

☆ Robert Morris: Gateway Church pastor admits to past inappropriate sexual behavior with a ‘young lady,’ CNN affiliate reports
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-17 | by ( Jamiel Lynch | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

“When I was in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying. “God is bigger than all of that.”CNN has sought comment from, Morris and Gateway Church, as well as Clemishire and her attorney. In a statement to WFAA, Gateway Church said Morris underwent a two-year “restoration process” after a “moral failure” in his twenties. “Pastor Robert has been open and forthright about a moral failure he had over 35 years ago when he was in his twenties and prior to him starting Gateway Church. Morris’ son, James Morris, will take over senior pastor duties in 2025 with the elder Morris remaining a primary speaker on weekends, according to the church’s website.

Persons: CNN —, Robert Morris, ”, Cindy Clemishire, Morris, of, Donald Trump’s, “, ” Morris, Clemishire, it’s, “ Pastor Robert, Trump, Morris ’, James Morris Organizations: CNN, WFAA, Wartburg Watch, Gateway Church, Shady Grove, Elders, Shady, Shady Grove Church, Church, Trump’s Evangelical, Gateway’s Dallas Locations: CNN — Dallas, Grand Prairie, Shady Grove, Morris

☆ Angry Catholics Wanted to Burn the Church. He Came to Save It.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-13 | by ( Norimitsu Onishi | Renaud Philippe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Gérard Tsatselam boarded the ferryboat and settled in his usual place, on a reclining seat, at the back of a cold, unlit room that would have been packed in summer. Uneasy, he sat shrouded in his large, black coat as high winter winds delayed the boat’s arrival in the village where he was trying to save the church. Except for a quick stopover for a funeral, he had not visited his parish — in Unamen Shipu, an Indigenous reserve on the frigid, isolated coast of northeastern Quebec — in months. Mold had invaded the presbytery and left him scrambling for lodging on each visit. Another reason behind his unease was the enduring fallout from the accusations of sexual and other abuse by a predecessor, a Belgian priest.

Persons: Gérard Tsatselam, Mold, Father Gérard, — Organizations: Quebec —, Catholic, Central Locations: Unamen, Quebec, Belgian, Central African, Cameroon

On March 9, 1965, at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., the Rev. In the years since their passing, we have often been asked what they would say on issues and events. We know they would march against the rolling back of civil rights and voting rights. We have never needed their counsel more than in these past awful months, since Oct. 7. Our hearts are broken by the hatred, violence and loss of life in Israel and Gaza.

Persons: Edmund Pettus Bridge, Martin Luther King Jr, Ralph David Abernathy, Rabbi Israel Dresner, King’s, “, ” Abernathy, Dresner, Abernathy Organizations: - Jewish Locations: Selma, Ala, Montgomery, Israel, Gaza

☆ Vatican investigation of secretive society in Peru brings fresh hope for victims
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Claudia Rebaza | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —Like many victims of sexual abuse, it took years for Santiago to acknowledge that he was raped as a teenager. I come here to tell the truth because the authorities have not allowed me to speak,” Figari told reporters in Rome. At the age of 15, Figari told him he had great mental powers and offered to train him in ancient techniques, Santiago said. Years later, Santiago first reported his abuse to SCV members and filed a complaint against Figari at Lima’s Archdiocesan Tribunal in 2011. “I felt privileged, I felt listened to … (with) that phone call,” Santiago told CNN about when he first learned the Pope’s envoys wanted to meet him.

Persons: Santiago, “, ” Santiago, Sodalitium, Luis Fernando Figari, Figari, ”, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, Jordi Bertomeu, Pope Francis, Cristiana's, José David Correa, Holy, Charles J, Scicluna, Vida Cristiana, White, Pedro Salinas, Salinas, Paola Ugaz, ” Figari, Martin Mejia, Young, Oscar Osterling, Superior Jose David Correa, Peru’s, Dr, Jose Ugaz, “ Sodalitium, ” Salinas, Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto, Pope, Chris Lamb, online.rainn.org Organizations: CNN, Catholic, Vatican, Military, SCV’s, Superior, Figari, Peruvian, Canon Law Locations: Peru, Santiago, Vatican City, Lima, Mons, America, Peruvian, Salinas, Rome, Italy, Lima , Peru, Lima’s

☆ A Match Made in Church Sparks a Journey of Self-Discovery
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Valeriya Safronova | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At that time, almost no one knew that Mr. Stewart was romantically interested in men. Mr. Stewart knew Mr. Lagasca from Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Manhattan, where Mr. Lagasca, a classical singer, performed periodically, and where Mr. Stewart headed the board that oversaw the church’s Bach Vespers series. He and Mr. Lagasca saw each other around and were Facebook friends, but had never spent time alone — until that day. “It was like, I have to impress him,” Mr. Lagasca said. Mr. Lagasca, 38, grew up in Manila and moved to Orlando, Fla., in 2006.

Persons: Jonathan Runge Stewart, Enrico Lagasca, Stewart, Lagasca, “, ” Mr Organizations: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Facebook, Mannes School of Music, New School, Carnegie Hall, Portland Baroque Orchestra Locations: Manhattan’s West, Manhattan, Manila, Orlando, Fla, United States, Canada, Germany

☆ Opinion | Harrison Butker’s Very American Traditionalism
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Across almost two weeks of controversy over the commencement speech that Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker gave at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., one of the most useful pieces of commentary came from Kevin Tierney, writing in Catholic World Report. Tierney neither defended nor attacked Butker’s sweeping condemnation of modern secular culture and lukewarm forms of Catholic faith. Instead he identified the kicker’s worldview as part of a distinctive tendency that Tierney calls “DIY traditionalism” — a form of Catholic piety that offers a “radical emphasis on personal accountability, is inherently populist, and has little direct connection to Church authorities.”A little context: Butker is a Latin Mass Catholic as well as Travis Kelce’s teammate. Benedictine College is a conservative Catholic college that featured prominently in a recent Associated Press report on the rightward turn in American Catholic piety and practice. Butker also delivered a sweeping condemnation of the church’s bishops, whom he cast as weak-kneed bureaucrats and denounced especially for suspending Masses and disappearing from the lives of the faithful during the pandemic.

Persons: Harrison Butker, Kevin Tierney, Tierney, Butker’s, Travis Kelce’s, ”, Butker, —, isn’t, haven’t Organizations: Kansas City Chiefs, Benedictine College, Catholic, Benedictine, Associated Press Locations: Atchison, Kan

☆ Carlo Acutis, Italian teenager nicknamed ‘God’s influencer,’ set to become Catholic Church’s first millennial saint
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Christopher Lamb | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager and computer prodigy who earned the nickname “God’s influencer,” is set to become the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint. Pope Francis has recognized a second miracle attributed to Acutis, a gamer and computer programmer who died from leukemia in 2006 at age 15. Many attended the beatification ceremony of Carlo Acutis at the St. Francis Basilica on October 10, 2020 in Assisi, Italy. Vatican/Getty ImagesDuring his life, Acutis used his technological skills to spread awareness of the Catholic faith, including setting up a website documenting miracles. Prospective candidates for sainthood normally need to have two miracles attributed to them before they can be canonized.

Persons: CNN — Carlo Acutis, God’s, Pope Francis, Acutis, Carlo Acutis, Francis Basilica, “, Pope, Acutis –, –, Mario, Pokémon Organizations: CNN, Catholic Locations: Italian, Assisi, Italy, London, Milan, Costa Rica, Florence

☆ After a gunman tried to shoot him, this Pennsylvania pastor wants to make his church safer
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-19 | by ( Christina Maxouris | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

Germany, a full-time bus driver and full-time pastor, knows how important this church is to its community. And now, it seems there’s another critical expense, though one this small church hardly could afford: security. Now, Germany wants to hire security experts to assess his church’s vulnerability and see how they can secure it. Pastor Glenn Germany in an undated image in his church in Pennsylvania. And it’s really dangerous.”In Tennessee, Lori Morrison has long been talking about the importance of church security, on both her website and her podcast.

Persons: Glenn Germany, It’s, ”, Chuck Schumer, Pastor Glenn Germany, Kevin Nelson’s, televangelist Joel Osteen, Nelson, I’m, ” Nelson, Schumer, Donell, what’s, “, Charlie Cytron, Walker, Beth Israel, Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, Christ, McKenzie, it’s, Schumer’s, ” Schumer, Pastor Kevin Nelson, Rico Reed, ” Reed, Lori Morrison, Morrison, there’s Organizations: CNN, Police, Kevin Nelson’s Calvary Baptist Church, Lakewood Church, Calvary Baptist, Baptist, Calvary, Training, Beth, National Council of, Jewish, FEMA, New, Calvary Baptist Church . Calvary Baptist Church, SecureTek Service, Inc Locations: Pennsylvania, Germany, North Braddock, Pittsburgh, Louisiana, Lakewood, Houston, ” Germany, San Antonio, Nelson’s, Sutherland Springs, Maryland, Baltimore, …, Texas, USA, New York, Calvary Baptist Church . Calvary Baptist Church Florida, In Tennessee, ”

☆ Pope Francis says his conservative critics in the church have a ‘suicidal attitude’
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Christopher Lamb | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Pope Francis has suggested that his conservative critics in the United States have a “suicidal attitude,” in an interview with CBS News. Asked about criticism from “conservative bishops” in the US who have opposed Francis’ more progressive papacy and efforts to reform the Catholic Church, the Pope paused on the word “conservative,” saying a conservative is “one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude.”There is an important difference between taking “tradition into account” and being “closed up inside a dogmatic box,” Francis emphasized. Francis has envisioned a merciful Catholic Church open to everyone, a “field hospital” ready to bind up the wounds of a suffering humanity. Those who oppose Francis say they want a pope instead who lays down the law and presents doctrine in black-and-white terms.

Persons: Pope Francis, ”, Francis ’, Pope, ” Francis, Francis, Cardinal Raymond Burke, Harrison Butker’s, Butker Organizations: CNN, CBS News, Catholic Church, Catholic, CBS, Kansas City Chiefs Locations: United States, Tyler , Texas

☆ Louisiana parishioners confront teen who entered church with a gun during children’s mass, police say
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-12 | by ( Chris Boyette | Elizabeth Wolfe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A mass celebrating a group of children’s first communion at a church in southern Louisiana was interrupted Saturday when a 16-year-old boy armed with a gun walked in, the church and police said. The incident happened in Abbeville at the St. Mary Magdalen Church when a “suspicious person” opened the back door of the church while mass was underway, the church said in a statement. Parishioners immediately confronted the person, took him outside and called the police, the church said in a message to its community. Some parishioners in the front pews appeared concerned and were turning around to look toward the back of the church, the video shows. CNN also reached out to St. Mary Magdalen Church for more information.

Persons: Mary Magdalen, ”, Father Nicholas DuPré, DuPré, Go, He’s, Mike Hardy, “, “ Grant, Grant, Mary Magdalen Parish, CNN’s Rafael Romo, Yan Kaner Organizations: CNN, Mary Magdalen Church, Authorities, Abbeville Police Department, Mary Magdalen Catholic, Abbeville Police, FBI, Facebook, National Register of Historic Places Locations: Louisiana, Abbeville, St, ” St, Vermilion Parish, Lafayette

☆ Opinion | Why Conservative and Liberal Catholics Can’t Escape One Another
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

A college of supposedly conservative cardinals elected a surprisingly liberal pope. It seemed as though liberal Catholicism had been merely hibernating, awaiting a new pope, a new spring. But lately, in both Rome and the United States, I’ve had conversations with well-informed Catholics in which the old conservative confidence has made a comeback. The fear that the next pope might be another liberalizer, younger and more ambitious than Francis, has largely receded. This new confidence reflects a specific reading of the waning years (or what are probably the waning years) of the Francis pontificate.

Persons: Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, I’ve, Francis Locations: Rome, United States

☆ United Methodist Church embraces the LGBTQ after decades of division
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-05 | by ( Chelsea Bailey | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Courtesy Neighborhood Church AtlantaA church at war with itselfThe United Methodist Church has been at war with itself for decades over its stance on homosexuality. In 2019, the United Methodist Church’s governing body opened a temporary window for congregations to petition to leave over the issue. Andy Oliver reacts after the United Methodist Church removes a rule forbidding "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or appointed as ministers. And yet you stay, and you fight because you know, a better church is possible.”A sign outside the Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. Andy OliverThe Real Work BeginsThe United Methodist Church, is one of the largest mainline Protestant Christian denominations in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center.

Persons: Andi Woodworth, Woodworth, Anjie, ”, “, that’s, ” Woodworth, Anjie Woodworth, Rev, Kristin Stoneking, “ We’ve, “ There’s, ” Anjie, she’s, …, Andy Oliver, Chris Carlson, Robert “ BJ ” Jackson, Oliver, Jackson, Tim, Tim’s, he’s, ” Oliver, Jackson’s, ‘, BJ, – John Wesley –, Billy Hester, Hester, disaffiliate, ” CNN’s Justin Gamble Organizations: CNN, Neighborhood Church, United Methodist Church, Methodist, Church, United Methodist, Christian, “, Conference, Network, Allendale United Methodist Church, Pew Research Center, Asbury Memorial Church Locations: Atlanta , Georgia, Atlanta, Church Atlanta, Allendale, St . Petersburg , Florida, United States, Savannah , Georgia, Savannah

☆ Winners and Losers of the Columbia Protests? History Will Tell.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-03 | by ( Ginia Bellafante | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Two years later, a plurality of Americans held the view that so-called outside agitators — in this instance, Communists — were behind the civil rights movement. If we think of attention as a prevailing measure of success, then the Columbia protests, inspiring so many others and consuming global headlines, have been triumphant. “I see very little talk this week about what is happening to Palestinians in Gaza,” Peter Staley, the celebrated AIDS activist, told me. He recalled a major ACT UP demonstration in December 1989 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral that is still debated among participants. The idea was to disrupt a Mass offered by Cardinal John O’Connor to condemn the church’s stance on condoms.

Persons: Eric Adams, ”, condescension, —, unmet, ” Peter Staley, Cardinal John O’Connor, ” Mr, Staley Organizations: Columbia University, Hamilton Hall, Gallup, Washington, Police Department, ACT Locations: Gaza, Columbia, Morningside Heights, St, Patrick’s

☆ Norman Kansfield, 83, Dies; Defrocked for His Daughter’s Same-Sex Wedding
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( Alex Traub | More About Alex Traub | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dr. Norman Kansfield seemed to personify the Reformed Church in America. To an extraordinary extent, he had grown up in the world of his church’s 17th-century Dutch founders. So when his daughter, Ann Kansfield, was considering coming out of the closet to him, she was nervous. After she did, Dr. Kansfield went beyond responding with warm acceptance. Years later, in June 2004, he insisted that he officiate at her wedding, held in Massachusetts weeks after the state legalized same-sex marriage.

Persons: Norman Kansfield, Kansfield, Ann Kansfield Organizations: Reformed Church, Ill, New Brunswick Theological Seminary Locations: America, South Holland, New Jersey, United States, Massachusetts

☆ Rev. Cecil Murray, Leader Amid Los Angeles Riots, Dies at 94
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Clay Risen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Cecil Murray, a minister who turned a struggling church in Los Angeles into one of the country’s largest congregations, then made it a base to combat the many ills facing the city’s Black population — most notably during and after the 1992 riots — died on Friday at his home in the View Park-Windsor Hills section of Los Angeles. The death was announced by the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California, where he had taught after retiring from the church. When Mr. Murray arrived at First African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1977, it was both storied and troubled: It was the oldest Black church west of the Mississippi, but it was loaded in debt and attracted just a few hundred congregants. Mr. Murray, known as Chip, brought new life to the church. Within a decade he had retired the church’s debt and brought attendance up to about 7,000.

Persons: Cecil Murray, —, Murray Organizations: Center for Religion, University of Southern, First African Methodist Episcopal Church Locations: Los Angeles, Windsor, University of Southern California, Mississippi

☆ Vatican Document Casts Gender Change and Fluidity as Threat to Human Dignity
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Jason Horowitz | Elisabetta Povoledo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Vatican on Monday issued a new document approved by Pope Francis stating that the church believes that gender fluidity and transition surgery, as well as surrogacy, amount to affronts to human dignity. The sex a person is assigned at birth, the document argued, was an “irrevocable gift” from God and “any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.” People who desire “a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes,” risk succumbing “to the age-old temptation to make oneself God.”Regarding surrogacy, the document unequivocally stated the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition, whether the woman carrying a baby “is coerced into it or chooses to subject herself to it freely.” Surrogacy makes the child “a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others,” the Vatican said in the document, which also opposed in vitro fertilization. The document was intended as a broad statement of the church’s view on human dignity, including the exploitation of the poor, migrants, women and vulnerable people. The Vatican acknowledged that it was touching on difficult issues, but said that in a time of great tumult, it was essential, and it hoped beneficial, for the church to restate its teachings on the centrality of human dignity.

Persons: Pope Francis, ” Organizations: Catholic, Vatican

☆ Four Takeaways From the Vatican’s Document on Human Dignity
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Jason Horowitz | Elisabetta Povoledo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The document issued on Monday by the Vatican puts human dignity at the center of Catholic life, but in doing so, it broaches some of the most difficult and sensitive social issues, those that Pope Francis has spent his papacy avoiding. On Monday, though, his church leaned hard into them in the document, called “Infinite Dignity.” It argued that the exploitation of the poor, the outcast and the vulnerable amounted to an erosion of human dignity. Catholics to receive blessings from priests and transgender people to be baptized and act as godparents, has a limit: Catholic doctrine. The pope’s conservative critics have for a decade argued that his tendency to speak off the cuff and in overly welcoming ways toward L.G.B.T.Q. people, the divorced and remarried, along with others who sin in the church’s eyes, had sent the wrong signal.

Persons: Pope Francis, Pope Francis ’ Organizations: Vatican

☆ Gender-affirming surgery threatens ‘unique dignity’ of a person, Vatican says
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Christopher Lamb | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” it adds. The latest Vatican document identifies various “violations” to human dignity, including in the digital world, pointing to the trends where people’s personal lives are laid bare and “combed over” anonymously. “There is a widespread notion that euthanasia or assisted suicide is somehow consistent with respect for the dignity of the human person,” the document states. He also pointed out that church opposition to abortion is not down to “fanaticism” but a consistent defense of the human person. He pointed out that the new document lists violence against women before abortion in its list of violations against human dignity.

Persons: Pope Francis, ”, Francis, “, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández –, ” Francis DeBernardo, ” Pope Francis, Cardinal Fernández, Cardinal Fernández’s Organizations: CNN, New Ways Ministry Locations: Torvaianica, Rome, Vatican, Africa

☆ Christians Shouldn’t Tolerate Cruelty - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-04 | by ( David French | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 2007, I had a conversation about the culture war with the evangelical pastor Tim Keller that I’ve never forgotten. Keller, who was the founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, died last year, a devastating loss. “I’ve long seen friendships flourish across political differences,” he told me. He was seeing the change everywhere. Your political or theological positions were becoming the primary measure of your virtue, and your conduct was a distant second.

Persons: Tim Keller, I’ve, Keller, “, ”, Keller wasn’t, ” I’ve Organizations: Redeemer Presbyterian Church Locations: Manhattan

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