Free Republic

A little noticed meeting a couple of weeks ago in Atlanta opens a window into the changing relationship between religion and politics in the age of Obama. The gathering at the Carter Center, former President Jimmy Carter's base of operations, brought together a spectrum of Christian leaders to talk about their role in helping to ease the conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians. For the past eight years, the Christian leaders who had the easiest access to the corridors of power at the White House were those who were unabashedly pro-Israel. Their voices reinforced the tendency of the Bush administration...

From Columbus: Growth measures seek to build membershiphttp://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_76286_ENG_HTM.htm Episcopal News Service By: Carol E. Barnwell Tuesday, June 20, 2006 Personal evangelism, campus ministry and church plants form the cornerstone of the General Convention's effort to achieve the goals of the 2020 initiative. The Convention passed a resolution proposed by Bishop David Jones of Virginia, chair of the Evangelism Committee, to study the Joint Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism's concern that the Episcopal Church "may be in systemic decline." The resolution charges the Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism with initiating "a national consultation on methods and strategies identify...

Leaders of the Christian left in Europe and the US are backing calls by the patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem for the EU and the US to resume aid to Hamas. On April 11, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches [WCC] , Dr. Samuel Kobia, wrote to the chairman of the Council of the European Union, Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, asking the EU to exercise "respect for the democratic mandate given" to Hamas and to allow "time for the new government to find its feet and demonstrate its intentions." The WCC warned of "of...