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Sep 27, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Javier Zamora |Ron Cole-Turner |Steve Thorngate |Mac Loftin
In December 2020, in the middle of the COVID pandemic and a month before Joe Biden was inaugurated, I visited the Arizona-Mexico border to learn about the border wall that the Trump administration was building and how it was impacting immigration policy. My guide was Father Neeley, a Jesuit priest who works for a migrant relief organization based in Nogales, a town that spans the border.
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Sep 26, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Steve Thorngate |Alejandra Oliva |Ron Cole-Turner
I’m a longtime aficionado of horror fiction, and I was floored by Kier-La Janisse’s staggeringly ambitious 2021 documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched. In its three-plus-hours running time, the film offers a sweeping survey of the genre of folk horror, touching on 200 films from all parts of the world.
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Sep 26, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Steve Thorngate |Alejandra Oliva |Ron Cole-Turner
Washington National Cathedral on September 23 unveiled and dedicated a new set of stained-glass windows with a racial justice theme, called the Now and Forever Windows, that feature people engaged in a march bearing signs calling for “Fairness” and “No Foul Play.”The windows replace the cathedral’s former windows honoring Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, which were removed in 2017.
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Sep 25, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Steve Thorngate |Alejandra Oliva |Ron Cole-Turner
Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño stands as the presiding officer reads the jury verdict on September 22. (Photo by Paul Jeffrey, United Methodist News) A United Methodist church court found Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño—the denomination’s first Latina bishop—not guilty of four charges. Carcaño, who has served as bishop of the California-Nevada Conference since 2016, stood trial before a jury of 13 racially diverse clergy members from the North Central Jurisdiction.
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Sep 25, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Steve Thorngate |Alejandra Oliva |Ron Cole-Turner
I wonder if another word for “empty conceit”—rendered in other translations as “vain conceit” or “vainglory”—would be “narcissism.” Paul wants to tell the faith community in Philippi that no one is served when some seek their own self-aggrandizement rather than the collective good of the community. In Paul’s vision of a healthily interdependent, interconnected, love-centered people, there is no room for narcissistic attitudes or behavior.
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Sep 22, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Margaret Bendroth |Mac Loftin |Steve Thorngate |Alejandra Oliva
With its narrow focus, this book may not reach a large audience. But I suspect it will, in years to come, be referred to as groundbreaking. Margaret Bendroth is clearing a path on which others will follow. She has been at this work for a long time. Her first book, Fundamentalism and Gender, 1875 to the Present, based on her dissertation at Johns Hopkins, was published by Yale University Press 30 years ago.
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Sep 22, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Ray Speller |Mac Loftin |Alejandra Oliva |Steve Thorngate
To receive these posts by email each Monday, sign up. For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century. Some of the most indelible memories of my childhood took place on Friday evenings during what my little church community, and many others like it, called testimony service.
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Jun 21, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Chad Martin |Alejandra Oliva |Steve Thorngate |Tony Lin
In 2004, I was the music director at a congregation with eclectic taste in music. This was exciting—but when it came to navigating copyright compliance, also a bit overwhelming. So I was relieved that year when GIA Publications introduced ONE LICENSE, a one-stop service for churches and others to secure reprint permissions from several key publishers of congregational music. Since then ONE LICENSE has grown, adding many more songs, publishers, license types, and customers.
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Mar 31, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Steve Thorngate |Alejandra Oliva |Ron Cole-Turner
Amy-Jill Levine is professor of New Testament and Jewish studies at Hartford International University. Her books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi, and the forthcoming Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians; she is also coeditor of The Jewish Annotated New Testament and coauthor of several children’s books.
