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Living with Tares: Why I stay in a church that has seriously strayed from biblical teaching. Posted on Mon Mar 06 2006: by Bishop Edward S. Little II (Christianity Today) Whenever a priest or a deacon in the Episcopal Church is removed from ministry, the cleric's diocese sends official notification to every active bishop. In the years since the church's controversial General Convention of 2003—a convention that, among other things, consented to the ordination of a partnered gay bishop—most notices contain a disclaimer: "This action was taken for causes that do not affect moral character." This is code language. It...

Man, it's getting hard to keep up with all the developments at DePaul. From NPR last week: DePaul University in Chicago -- the largest Catholic university in the United States -- is launching a "queer studies" program that looks at issues of homosexuality. DePaul will be the first Catholic university to offer a minor in the topic, and could face the wrath of the Vatican. Jason DeRose of Chicago Public Radio reports. Will DePaul offer a minor in "conservative studies?" Or even "libertarian studies?"

--snip--Danforth draws no connections between the divisions bared in the Thomas debate and the polarization that bedevils Congress today. He recalls a more pleasant era of coalitions and compromises that gave way to ever fiercer partisanship starting in the early 1990s after Thomas was already on the bench. He dates the beginning of the downslide to the arrival in the Senate of sharp-tongued former House Republicans. --snip--That certainly dovetails with the argument of Baptist Sunday school teacher and certified Democrat Jimmy Carter, who pursues the theme in his hot-selling recent book, "Our Endangered Values," with 750,000 copies in print. He...

'I Am a Mystic' 'I never doubt,' says Bishop Spong. 'It's not that I'm getting older and cramming for finals. It's that God becomes more real.' Interview by Deborah Caldwell John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal Bishop of Newark, N.J., for 20 years before his retirement in 2000. Widely admired (and often scorned), Spong is a leader of the worldwide liberal Christianity movement. He has taught at Harvard, the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., and has lectured in North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific. He is the author of 15 books, including his latest, The Sins of...

The California Council of Churches has asked the governor to rescind his support of the Minuteman Project, which posted civilian volunteer, some armed, on the Arizona-Mexico border. "No responsible or moral public official would encourage citizens to take the law into their own hands, particularly on an issue that is already so laden with division and hatred," the statement said. "Playing on people's fears and divisions and dropping bombshells like those of last week represent demagoguery, not leadership," said the letter, signed by the Rev. John Walsh, a University of Redlands chaplain, and 149 other religious leaders. Gov. Schwarzenegger said...

A shooting star streaks across the sky during a meteor shower. Residents of the area near Madrid airport reported seeing a ball of fire explode and disintregrate in skies over the Spanish capital overnight, security services said.(AFP/NASA. Someone may want to link up to the Photo. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1778&e=1&u=/050128/photos_od_afp/050128154706_51rancsg_photo0 The photo is clearly of a sword with a distinct hilt Though the artcle makes no mention other than it is an "Offbeat Photo." -- something strange