Category: School of Theology
Chris Broussard and Jason Collins: It’s okay to be gay, and Christian
Washingon Post “On Faith Blog”
Co-written by Pamela Lightsey, School of Theology
This week, Jason Collins came out as a black, gay, professional basketball player in Sports Illustrated…
Take Me Out to the Movies
Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Christopher Evans, School of Theology
Baseball movies are the land of the cliché and the home of the brave, and that’s why we love them…
Expert quote:
“The idea that everything else about America is crazy, but you have this beautiful Iowa cornfield, and everything here is timeless.”
Scholars debate what Bible says about sex
The Advocate
Jennifer Wright Knust, School of Theology
Prostitution. Polygamy. Premarital sex. And that’s just the Old Testament…
Expert quote:
“The Bible, however, is a diverse collection of books written over the course of about 1,000 years by human actors living in circumstances that changed dramatically… As such, the Bible cannot be expected to offer a single or consistent message on anything, including sex, even if some of us do regard this collection as divinely inspired, as I do.”
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Episcopalians put a new public face on Ash Wednesday
Portland Press Herald
Elizabeth Parsons, School of Theology
Every year on Ash Wednesday, Gale Murphy of South Portland gets her forehead marked with a cross of palm ash…
Expert quote:
“This is who Jesus was. Jesus was with the people.”
Making black history for gay rights
Washington Post
By Pamela Lightsey, School of Theology
Last spring when President Barack Obama announced his “evolving” support for marriage equality, many conservative groups were confident it would woo black voters to their side and ultimately deliver a death-blow to the president’s reelection bid…
300 remember King, look to future at Natick breakfast
MetroWest Daily News
Walter Fluker, School of Theology
Speakers at Greater Framingham Community Church’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial breakfast urged the next generation of leaders to keep qualities such as courage and compassion in mind as they begin to shape the world…
Push for Mormon women to wear pants to church
Associated Press
Nancy Ammerman, School of Theology
A feminist Mormon group is urging women to ditch their skirts and wear pants to church this weekend in a show of solidarity for women’s equality, using a Facebook page that became a forum for vigorous debate Wednesday…
Scandal Hints at Decline of U.S. Denominations
New York Times
Nancy Ammerman, School of Theology
When World magazine, an evangelical Christian publication, reported last week that Dinesh D’Souza, the outspoken conservative and president of the King’s College, a small Christian liberal arts institution in Manhattan, had checked into a South Carolina motel with a woman who was not his wife, the first obvious question was how a smart man could do something so ill-considered…
Religion in America
Boston Public Radio
Nancy Ammerman, School of Theology
Callie Crossley speaks with Nancy Ammerman, Professor of Sociology of Religion at Boston University, and writer Jeff Sharlet to dissect a new Pew poll showing that 20% of Americans now identify as nonreligious…
Pastor to become first black leader of Southern Baptists
USA Today
Nancy Ammerman, School of Theology
Baptist pastor Fred Luter Jr. once preached the Gospel through an amplifier on street corners in this city’s Lower 9th Ward…
