Features
Camping out: Celebration of sukkot
Beyond redemption: Pastor to a killer
About the only person to stand by Dennis Rader—known as the BTK Strangler—since his arrest in February for ten vicious murders has been his pastor, Michael Clark. The pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in northern Wichita, where Rader was president of the church council, visited Rader twice a week in Wichita’s Sedgwick County Jail while he awaited sentencing. Clark said he plans to maintain the relationship now that Rader is serving a 175-year prison sentence at the state penitentiary in El Dorado, Kansas.
Faith leader tells Bush to establish nonpartisan panel: Gaddy demands investigation of federal disaster response
Baptist pastor C. Welton Gaddy is known mostly as president of the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance, a liberal group addressing religious-ethical issues central to debates within the Beltway.
But writing to President Bush on September 27 as the pastor of North Minster Baptist Church in Monroe, Louisiana, Gaddy joined two Democratic congressmen from Louisiana and Mississippi to call for the White House to form an independent, nonpartisan commission to investigate federal failures during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Louisiana UMC bishop sees huge money toll: Katrina causes financial catastrophe
Destroyed churches cannot take up collections, at least not to the degree needed to pay pastors’ salaries and meet other needs, says United Methodist bishop William W. Hutchinson of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Hutchinson told United Methodist News Service that in a worst-case scenario the state conference of more than 90 churches will have to pay out $1.1 million. “That is a huge undertaking which the conference does not have in reserve funds,” he said. He predicted a $700,000 shortfall for the rest of this year and probably an added $1.7 million deficit in 2006.
The new monastics: Alternative Christian communities
Twisted childhood
When he wrote Oliver Twist in 1837, Charles Dickens had a cause: he was protesting the harsh and unjust treatment of children in England. His depiction of the situation was searing—more so than the best-known movie adaptations. David Lean’s atmospheric post–World War II film, which starred Alec Guinness, and the brilliantly stylized 1968 musical Oliver!, directed by Carol Reed, both played down the cruelty. (There have been many other versions: four appeared during the silent-movie era alone.)
Books
Take and read
Christian Identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman World. Judith M. Lieu. Oxford Univ. Press, 384 pp., $99.00.
In this multifaceted and sophisticated undertaking, Lieu explores the ways in which early Christian texts depict an emerging Christian identity and reflect the embeddedness of that identity within the ancient world. For all who struggle with the question of what it means to be a Christian, Lieu presents a thoughtful guide.
Take and read
Take and read
For heart and mind
Call of eternity
Christian politics
Judgment Days
Minding the Spirit
The Poems of Rowan Williams
Departments
Book bag: Suggested reading
Radical relocation: Moving to places of need
Win-win situation: Speed and excellence
Citing Reinhold: Niebuhr's legacy
The story of Old Man Cedar: A model of strength
News
Century Marks
Lion and lamb: Pope Benedict XVI and liberal Catholic Hans Küng met in 1962 when they were both young and progressive. Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, took a turn to the right and may have played a role when Küng was later stripped of his privilege to teach on the grounds that his theology was incompatible with Catholic doctrine. Küng called Ratzinger a “grand inquisitor.” But after a recent four-hour meeting, Küng said the pope isn’t as reactionary as many assume, and needs to be given time. The two discussed the notion that science and religion are not incompatible, and the role of the church in a secular world (New York Times, September 27).