Twenty years ago, I worked as a Dallas-based religion reporter for The Associated Press. Many of the stories that dominated the headlines then remain relevant today.
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Despite an alumni-led petition drive urging a more progressive stance on LGBTQ+ issues, Abilene Christian University reaffirmed its existing policy. But for students at ACU, the debate over traditional vs. affirming views on same-sex relationships is not purely theological. It’s personal.
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The Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church has approved the conditional disaffiliation of 55 churches over human sexuality issues, including same-sex marriages and potential ordination of pastors who identify as LGBTQ+.
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(OPINION) During his 16 years in Congress, Rep. Daniel Lipinski voted with his party 90% of the time, and his convictions never changed, especially on economic and labor issues. Nevertheless, by 2018, New York magazine had floated this headline: "House Democratic Leaders Rally to Defend Their Illinois Heretic."
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(OPINION) In England, proclaiming God’s blessing on same-sex relationships has become the new orthodoxy for clergy with established ties to the powers that be. But that’s not the case in Nigeria and the Global South, where Anglican leaders have urged the Church of England to consider the impact of its actions on believers facing conflict with Jihadi terrorists.
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(OPINION) The teaching against gay and lesbian sexual relationships stood essentially unquestioned for 2,000 years, but now that’s changing. Still, on the global level, some 2 billion people belong to Christian traditions where there’s no prospect of any major change, though individual members dissent. The same is true for a billion Muslims.
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(OPINION) Churches were always active in abortion debates, with some embracing centuries of doctrine on the sanctity of human life and others becoming strategic abortion-rights supporters. Thus journalists in the Religion News Association named the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as the year’s top American religion-news story.
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The Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization seeking to preserve and promote “the family in Virginia as God’s foundation upon which all free and thriving societies are built,” was denied service at Metzger Bar and Butchery, a restaurant in Richmond, this month on the basis of their stances regarding abortion and same-sex marriage.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the religious debate over the Respect for Marriage Act. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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(OPINION) The “Chain of Discipleship” image showing five Catholics celebrating at a church, including a woman in priest’s vestments and a person in a rainbow-lettered “PRIDE” shirt, rocked Catholic social media — especially when it appeared on the Synod of Bishops Facebook page, linked to the ongoing Synod on Synodality that began in 2021.
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A Dallas-area church, St. Andrew United Methodist Church of Plano, with more than 6,500 members said it will disaffiliate with the United Methodist Church and will remain independent while it investigates alliances with other Methodist denominations.
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Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal defense group, sent a letter on behalf of 2,000 “pastors, ministers of faith, and leaders of religious nonprofit organizations” asking the U.S. Senate to oppose the Respect for Marriage Act, H.R. 8404, which it said puts churches and ministries in danger of injustice.
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(OPINION) While Canterbury is urging Anglicans to keep “walking together,” the 2022 Lambeth Conference demonstrated that many of the Anglican Communion’s bishops can no longer even receive the Eucharist together because of conflicts over sexuality.
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