3.20.2017
Group gives Protestants competition for souls, but also an ally on religious freedom.
CHR Comment: Russian legal process typically distinguishes between traditional religions, such as Baptists and Lutherans, and non-traditional groups that are new to the country.
3.15.2017
The profanity-prone president and his country’s Catholic Church are at loggerheads, mostly over Duterte’s war on drugs, which has killed more than 7,500 people in less than a year.
CHR Comment: The pastoral letter from the bishops’ conference opposes the war on drugs as a reign of terror and opposes use of the death penalty. The Philippines are 80% Roman Catholic.
Source: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Has A New Adversary — The Church : Parallels : NPR
3.13.2017
Meeting between ERLC president and Southern Baptist leader Frank Page results in ‘mutual understanding,’ not a firing.
CHR Comment: Moore was involved in presidential politics, supporting Trump, which offended Graham and others in the Southern Baptist Convention.
3.13.2017
CHR Comment: The article describes the social ethics of Rauschenbusch, Hauerwas, and refers to some conservative social ethics movements.
Source: The Christian social ethics project hits a wall | Religion News Service
3.14.2017
(UPDATED) Eight staff members found safe and relocated.
CHR Comment: Tens of thousands are displaced. About 60% of south Sudanese are Christians. The famine is man-made due to fighting.
3.10.2017
The pontiff suggests easing the rules could address a shortage of priests in some areas.
CHR Comment: The article gives an example of a Brazilian diocese where there are 700,000 Catholics served by only 27 priests.
Source: Pope Francis open to allowing married priests in Catholic Church
3.8.2017
Avoiding the subject of homosexuality will not prepare kids for the real world.
CHR Comment: The article expresses outrage that Franklin Graham and other conservative Protestants suggest the boycotting of a recent Disney film, which was announced to portray a homosexual character.
Source: Flaming hypocrisy in evangelical Disney boycott: Jonathan Merritt
3.6.2017
Recent, ugly nonsense about those who supposedly cannot refrain from sinful sexual relations is pastoral cruelty disguised as kindness. The voice of Archbishop Chaput, by contrast, strikes a welcome and profound note of clarity and true compassion.
CHR Comment: A brief essay concerning the Archbishop’s recent book, Strangers in a Strange Land, reflecting also on the importance of this bishop.
Source: A Book for Me and All Protestants to Read | Carl R. Trueman | First Things
3.2.2017
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — An archaeological dig in St. Augustine continues to marvel scientists and historians. More burials have been found, and some are children’s graves. They are children who may have been some of the earliest colonists in St. Augustine
CHR Comment: Parish records illustrate the higher mortality rate for children in the earlier years of settlement, according to the report.
Source: firstcoastnews.com | Historic burials of children found in St. Augustine
3.3.2017
It’s illegal, or at least dangerous, for Muslims to convert in Muslim-majority countries.
CHR Comment: Jesus began appearing to the father in his dreams. Several months later the whole family was baptized. One bishop reports over 100 such Baptisms at his church alone.
Source: Why some Muslim Syrian refugees are converting to Christianity
church history review 