What a Way aims to bolster recruitment and retention of church workers in the Synod.
Best-selling pastor is off to L.A. to write more books
GRANDVILLE, Mich. (RNS) — Megachurch pastor Rob Bell, whose best-selling book raised evangelical eyebrows by questioning traditional beliefs on hell, knew it was time to address the “giant, glowing, loud” elephant in the room on the morning of Sept. 25.…
Muslim students vow appeal in free speech conviction
LOS ANGELES (RNS) — A group of Muslim students who were convicted Sept. 23 of disrupting a speech by the Israeli ambassador plan to appeal as Muslim community leaders call the high-profile free speech case a civil rights moment. The…
Amnesty International slams Irish Catholic Church on abuse
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — A new report by the Irish branch of Amnesty International says the sexual abuse of children by Ireland’s Roman Catholic priests “included acts that amounted to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.” The 430-page report, released…
Dead Sea Scrolls now available online
JERUSALEM (RNS) — Five of the Dead Sea Scrolls that have been stored for decades in a climate-controlled exhibit at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem are now available in digital form to anyone with an Internet connection. A website (http://dss.collections.imj.org.il)…
Christians outraged as BBC drops B.C./A.D. dating method
LONDON (RNS) — British Christians are incensed after the state-funded BBC decided to jettison the terms B.C. and A.D. in favor of B.C.E. and C.E. in historical date references. The broadcaster has directed that the traditional B.C. (BeforeChrist) and A.D.…
Church/jail sentencing program under review
BAY MINETTE, Ala. (RNS) — An alternative sentencing plan that would give inmates the choice between time in jail or a year in church will be delayed for several weeks while lawyers review it to make sure there are no…
'Values voters' still motivated by gay marriage, abortion
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Amid a political climate dominated by economic concerns, social conservatives are as concerned as ever about issues like abortion and gay marriage, a leading conservative activist said Sept. 27. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council…
Court hears Hosanna-Tabor case Oct. 5
The United States Supreme Court will hear one of the most important church-state First Amendment cases in many years at 10 a.m., Oct. 5. The case involves an LCMS congregation and school and an LCMS commissioned minister who taught at…
'Walther' movie sent to congregations, schools
A four-disc DVD collection — including the new, two-hour movie “Walther,” based on the life of the Synod’s first president, the Rev. Dr. C.F.W. Walther — was mailed in late September to LCMS congregations, schools, colleges, universities and seminaries. The…
BIM continues work on developing policies
ST. LOUIS — At its Sept. 9-10 meeting here, the LCMS Board for International Mission (BIM) continued developing policies to guide the work of the Synod’s Office of International Mission (OIM). This was the board’s fifth meeting since it was…
Needs continue from string of deadly disasters
By Kim Plummer Krull More than 220 LCMS families lost their homes due to historic flooding in Minot, N.D. — a disaster that has largely disappeared from national headlines but that the Rev. Glenn F. Merritt calls an example of…
Synod stats: membership drops, giving increases
By Linda C. Hoops While the Missouri Synod’s 2010 statistics report shows a 1.45 percent loss in baptized membership — continuing a 30-plus-year trend in declining church membership experienced by most Protestant denominations — it also reveals a slight increase…
'Reporter,' 'Witness' move to new Web addresses
The online versions of the Synod’s official periodicals — Reporter and The Lutheran Witness — have new Web addresses. Those new addresses are reporter.lcms.org for Reporter Online and witness.lcms.org for the online version of The Lutheran Witness. The two Web…
Judaism without God? Yes, say American atheists
BERKELEY, Calif. (RNS) — For an atheist, Maxim Schrogin talks aboutGod a lot. Over lunch at a Jewish deli, he ponders the impulse to believe — does it come from within or without? Why does God permit suffering?Finally, he pulls…
Catholic anti-abortion group in financial trouble
(RNS) A leading Catholic anti-abortion group whose leader is under scrutiny for failing to disclose financial details reported a $1.4 million deficit in 2010 despite collecting tens of millions of dollars in donations during recent years. The budget shortfall at…
