News from the Realm of Religion

[easye]

Greetings, 

A thread to talk about the doctrines and beliefs of various religious organizations in the news.  That includes Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Catholics, etc. that are interesting and hit the news wire.  

Here is an article to get us started: 

Southern Baptists say no to women pastors and vote to expel Saddleback megachurch

www.npr.org/2023/06/14/1182141691/southern-baptist-convention-sbc-women-pastors-saddleback-megachurch

The Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelming today to uphold earlier decisions to expel two churches because they have women pastors.



The decision came during the group's annual meeting in New Orleans. The SBC heard appeals by California megachurch Saddleback and a smaller church, Fern Creek Baptist in Louisville, Ky.



Saddleback Church ordained a woman as a campus pastor, and the Kentucky congregation has had a woman pastor for more than three decades.



The SBC's statement of faith asserts that only qualified men can serve as pastors and the nearly 13,000 voters, who are called "messengers," voted overwhelmingly to uphold the churches' removals.

The women will continue to serve as pastors, but their congregations are no longer part of the Southern Baptist Convention.

[bobtheinquisitor]

I hope the expelled churches thrive at the cost of the SBC.

[Least censored on the planet!]

I hope this turns people off religion altogether.

[semipotentwalrus]

Don't the Southern Baptists exist because they didn't like slavery being abolished?

[easye]

Congregations leave United Methodist Church over defiance of LGBTQ bans

www.npr.org/2023/07/25/1189315875/congregations-leave-united-methodist-church-over-defiance-of-lgbtq-bans

More recently, the congregation voted unanimously to leave the United Methodist Church because of what Haworth describes as a drift from traditional biblical teachings on morality.

"Most recent and probably most prominent is the differences of opinion we have with regard to homosexuality, marriage in general, the sexual ethic," he says. "And we believe, as do many Christians, that the Bible is very specific in that teaching."

And he believes that teaching is accurately reflected in the United Methodist Church's official rule book, called the Book of Discipline. It states, "Homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching."

The problem, as Haworth sees it, is that church leaders openly defy this official teaching and other rules that flow from it such as bans on ordaining LGBTQ clergy and blessing of same-sex marriages.

It sure is nice to see churches destroying themselves over a political issue they largely self-created.

I'm not even sure if this requires a /S or not?

[easye]

Communities of faith welcome migrants caught in polarized immigration debate

www.npr.org/2023/08/02/1190541710/migrants-sanctuary-sacramento

A community comes together around unexpected guests
Since the arrival of the 36 new Sacramento residents, a coalition of congregations — Jewish, Christian and Muslim — has come together to help them settle in. It has meant shouldering unplanned costs of time, energy and money for the coalition — all the result of the country's polarization over immigration.

[easye]

www.npr.org/2023/08/30/1196839901/former-cardinal-mccarrick-found-not-competent-to-stand-trial-for-sex-abuse

Former cardinal McCarrick found not competent to stand trial for sex abuse

Theodore McCarrick was once a cardinal – one of the highest-ranking positions in the Roman Catholic Church. He was also the archbishop of Washington, D.C. And he's the only current or former U.S. cardinal to ever face sex abuse charges.

But now a judge in Massachusetts has dismissed a criminal case against McCarrick stemming from the alleged molestation of a 16-year-old boy there in 1974.

Two years ago, McCarrick pleaded not guilty.

The judge's move comes after examinations of the 93-year-old found that he has dementia.

[Disciple of Fate]

The pope has a less than stellar speech recently, where he seemingly praised Russian imperialism to a Russian audience.

www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-had-no-intention-glorify-russian-imperialism-vatican-2023-08-29/

[Haighus]

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/christian-uk-atheist-britain-young-secular-b2403282.html

I thought this might be an interesting article for US members of the board. The context is irreligion becoming more common and Christianity slipping into a minority on the most recent census (still the single biggest group IIRC).

I can relate to the notion of finding practicing Christians weird- I see overt displays of religiosity so rarely that it is odd to encounter in public. I remember visiting a friend's house as a primary school kid and being really weirded out when they said grace before the meal.

[mdgv2]

It would be nice if the usual far right shills didn’t abuse “Christian’s am now minority!!!!”. Because it’s still something like 48% of the population. So they’re still the majority demographic, and aren’t being “outbred” or “replaced”. Rather with an increase of 12%? It’s non-religious that’s making ground.

Of course, these same shills only pay the merest lip service to their claimed religion, given they never seem to have comprehended, or even read, the teachings of Christ, given they’re universally Fucking Awful Humans.

[Haighus]

Yes, a massive rise in irreligion has driven the drop in Christians, not any large-scale increase in other religions.

Christians are in the minority, but they are now the single biggest minority.

I also thought it was interesting that the number of churchgoers has dropped by over 10% in the last decade. I'd assume these would constitute the majority of "practicing" Christians with strong faith.

The bit that stuck out most from the article is the focus on community. Most of those interviewed seem to have found their churches through a connection with the community based around the church. Some even mentioned they were not religious as kids despite the Anglican Church being all over our education system, until they found the right community. To me, this suggests there is an underlying issue with alienated youth lacking community in modern Britain.

[easye]

Football coach who won Supreme Court case for right to pray on the field resigns after one game

www.cnn.com/2023/09/06/us/washington-football-coach-pray-resigns/index.html

A Washington state high school football coach who won a Supreme Court case in 2022 after he lost his job for praying at the 50-yard line after games has resigned from his position.

The nation’s top court ruled the Bremerton School District violated coach Joe Kennedy’s First Amendment rights, saying prayers amounted to private speech and could not be restricted by the school district.

On Wednesday, Kennedy announced his resignation on his website, saying multiple reasons factored into his decision, including taking care of an ailing family member out of state.

“I believe I can best continue to advocate for constitutional freedom and religious liberty by working from outside the school system so that is what I will do,” Kennedy said. “I will continue to work to help people understand and embrace the historic ruling at the heart of our case. As a result of our case, we all have more freedom, not less. That should be celebrated and not disrespected.”

“As I have demonstrated, we must make a stand for what we believe in,” he continued. “In my case, I made a stand to take a knee. I encourage all Americans to make their own stand for freedom and our right to express our faith as we see fit.”

The Bremerton School District issued a statement on Wednesday about the resignation.

“The District has received Mr. Kennedy’s resignation and it is pending board approval at tomorrow’s regularly scheduled meeting,” the statement said. “The District does not comment on personnel matters, so we will not be issuing any further statements.”

Kennedy had coached one game before his decision to step down, the First Liberty Institute, which represented Kennedy, told CNN.

His case before the Supreme Court was decided in a 6-3 vote along conservative-liberal ideological lines.

I look forward to him entering Republican politics as a candidate in the near future ala Joe the Plumber.

[bobtheinquisitor]

I too assume he has moved on to some form of culture war grift.

[easye]

Churches confess and repent for sins against Native and Indigenous people

www.npr.org/2023/10/06/1203760200/churches-confess-and-repent-for-sins-against-native-and-indigenous-people

The Doctrine of Discovery has its roots in European Christianity

Healed from a long tradition of conquest and colonization started in the 15th Century during the Age of Exploration, including the time when Christopher Columbus arrived in North America. That tradition of claiming new lands for European powers is based on an idea now called the Doctrine of Discovery, says Nancy Pineda-Madrid, professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

I learned somefin' from this. I had not heard of this before, even if I knew it was true. Now I have a name for it!

[easye]

This is an opinion piece on CNN, but I thought it was interesting. It posits the rise/return of the Social Gospel in American politics as a counter to the Christian Nationalism we are seeing from Evangelicals. The Social Gospel was a key movement and religious factor in the last Progressive ERa post- Guilded Age.


There’s another Christian movement that’s changing our politics. It has nothing to do with whiteness or nationalism

www.cnn.com/2023/11/13/us/social-gospel-movement-uaw-strike-blake-cec/index.html

Fain’s sermonette underscores a trend that has largely gone unnoticed: The Social Gospel movement is making a comeback. Some may argue it never left.

When it comes to religion, stories about White Christian nationalism command most of the media’s attention today. But a collection of American intellectual and religious leaders are showing that there’s another type of Christianity that’s also shaping our politics, and it has nothing to do with Whiteness or nationalism.

These leaders include the UAW’s Fain, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, independent presidential candidate Cornel West, the Rev. William Barber II, the Rev. Liz Theoharis and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Matthew Desmond. The most famous follower of the Social Gospel is the Rev. Martin Luther King, who was assassinated while helping lead a labor strike of sanitation workers.

All the above leaders are carrying on the torch of the Social Gospel in one way or another. They are using the Bible, as Social Gospel leaders once did, to argue in various ways that Christian deeds are more important than creeds and that unfettered capitalism “thrives on selfish impulses that Christian teaching condemns.”

Is the Progressive Church actually making a comeback? If you look at the numbers and attendance figures, I would argue that the Computer says "no". However, as a counter to Evangelicalism it might have some legs in the public square? We will see.