Songs and Stuffed Animals Instead of Sermons
RICHLANDTOWN, Pa. (RNS) — The seven women, most in wheelchairs, sat in a semicircle facing stained-glass windows and an altar topped with a cross and a statuette of Jesus holding a lamb. Underneath the draped table was an ark-shaped container brimming with small stuffed animals.
Dementia and Religion: Do’s and Don’ts
(RNS) — When a congregant has dementia, what can a house of worship do? Here are some do's and don'ts.
Roe v. Wade May Be in Peril, but Future of Anti-Abortion Movement Is Unclear
WASHINGTON (RNS) — After 45 years, the March for Life will have more of the feel of a victory party. Advocates and legal scholars say that for arguably the first time since 1973, undoing the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion isn’t just a dream of anti-abortion activists and the faith-based groups that back them — it’s likely to happen in some form.
DeMoss, Exec with ‘All-Access Pass’ to Evangelical History, to Close PR Agency
(RNS) — After nearly 30 years, a public relations agency that has acted as a powerful gatekeeper for some of the most prominent Christian faith-based organizations is closing its doors.
Dementia and Religion: ‘What If I Forget About God?’
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (RNS) — When geropsychologist Benjamin Mast evaluates dementia clients at his University of Louisville research lab, there’s a question some people of faith ask him: “What if I forget about God?”
Cyntoia Brown: Christian University’s Prison Program ‘Changed My Life’
(RNS) — This week, the most high-profile graduate of the LIFE program at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. — offered behind the locked steel doors and razor-wire perimeter of the Tennessee Prison for Women — made national headlines when Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam granted her full clemency.
Unhealthy Resolution Fails
To be honest, exercising more and eating better sounds great and is easily achievable — all I would need to do is complete one workout per year and stop eating endless amounts of clearance candy that I habitually purchase the day after a food-themed holiday (a.k.a. nearly all American holidays) and I would be doing more than I currently am.
Sexual Purity Movement Undaunted by New Critics
Twenty-five years after the True Love Waits movement was launched, an early leader in the purity movement says he does not "second-guess the rightness of the original message." Meanwhile, the latest critics of the TLW claim abstinence emphases by evangelical churches wrongly shame girls and cause them to view their bodies as threats.
Growing Chorus of Voices Are Reexamining the Purity Movement
There are a growing chorus of voices rethinking the purity movement and its lasting spiritual and psychological effects on a generation of believers. Among them is Joshua Harris, author of “I Kissed Dating Goodbye: A New Attitude Toward Romance and Relationships,” the 1997 book that became the de facto bible of the purity movement.
Redesigning Sacred Spaces to Serve Their Communities — and Save Their Congregations
PHILADELPHIA (RNS) — the crowd at the Philadelphia Center for Architecture was packed in, clergy shoulder to shoulder with architects, ordinary citizens with community organizers. They gathered to see the results of Infill Philadelphia, a design competition hosted in the city to improve community spaces.