On October 23rd, the United Methodist Church (UMC) General Commission on Archives and History (GCAH) will host a kickoff celebration on the New Jersey campus of UMC-affiliated Drew University for the new Center for LGBTQ+ United Methodist Heritage. Since the latest UMC General Conference, the denomination has defended its newly permissive sexual ethic as merely a neutral position. Although not forced, members are free, UMC officials insist, to support and engage in LGBTQ activity without violating biblical principles. Despite these claims, the UMC is decidedly not “neutral” in its approach an ..read more

Historian of American religion Thomas Kidd of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary recently shared a quote from Benjamin Rush to Thomas Jefferson: I agree with you in your wishes to keep religion and government independent of each Other. Were it possible for St. Paul to rise from his grave at the present juncture, he would say to the Clergy who are now so active in settling the political Affairs of the World. “Cease from your political labors, your kingdom is not of this World. Read my Epistles. In no part of them will you perceive me aiming to depose a pagan Emperor, or to place a Christi ..read more

This past Friday I was delighted to attend the consecration of Bishop Darryl Fitzwater as Coadjutor for the Anglican Church in North America’s (ACNA) Missionary Diocese of All Saints. It was a beautiful service in the High Church tradition bringing together hundreds, including the current and emeritus ACNA Archbishops and members of the diocese as far away as Seattle. I’ve been privileged to know Father (now Bishop) Darryl for years, first as a postulant for Anglican ordination in my Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic as he studied at Asbury Theological Seminary. As a church planter, he’s been a tea ..read more

The question of the canon of the Bible, which concerns which books are inspired by God and thus the final rule of faith and practice, has recurred over the centuries, and is especially important for Protestant Christians, since for them it is the “norma normans” (the norm of norms). The identification and authority of the Christian canon was reviewed by the Third Prince Georges Conference on Reformed Theology at Greenbelt Baptist Church in Greenbelt, Maryland on September 27 and 28. Steven Wellum, Professor of Christian Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky ..read more

Israeli intelligence and military personnel have enjoyed high-caliber wins of late. These include the three August strikes that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, and Hamas military wing chief Mohammed Deif. September brought the audaciously inventive—and effective—episode involving exploding beepers. Soon after, a series of airstrikes systematically devasted Hezbollah’s senior leadership, including a single hit that eliminated 16 bigwigs from the elite Radwan Brigade, including Ibrahim Aqil, a player in the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing t ..read more

The Institute on Religion & Democracy’s autumn Board of Directors meeting this week welcomed past IRD President Kent Hill to share about IRD’s founding document, Christianity and Democracy. Video of Hill’s comments before the IRD Board can be found here via IRD’s YouTube channel and in downloadable podcast audio via IRD’s SoundCloud account, and I have compiled an edited transcript of Hill’s comments below. The IRD · Kent Hill on Christianity and Democracy Mark Tooley: We’re so glad my predecessor can join us. All of you are familiar with our Christianity and Democracy founding statemen ..read more

There is good news to report this week on the protection of religious liberty and free speech claims in Virginia. In 2018, teacher Peter Vlaming was fired from his job for declining, as a matter of personal policy, to use pronouns for a student who identifies as transgender. Vlaming has successfully resolved his case in a settlement announced Monday. In exchange for ending his lawsuit against the West Point, Virginia school board, Vlaming will receive $575,000 in damages and legal fees and a change of school district policies according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) the Christian legal o ..read more

On Thursday, September 26, the United Methodist Building celebrated its 100th anniversary. Catty-cornered from the U.S. Capitol and next door to the Supreme Court, the UMB is the only non-governmental institution on Capitol Hill, a position it has held since its dedication in 1923. The Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals initially devised the UMB as a beachhead in the crusade against alcohol in the United States. Until the ratification of the 21st Amendment, the UMB was home to the most ferocious prohibitionists in the nation, advocating for lengthy jail times for drinkers and ..read more

Must church traditions and corporate liturgy always impose, at least viewed by Protestant groups, ecclesiastical structures of the Roman Catholic Church? Early in my life, I would have answered yes.  Yet, although many Protestant denominations in the United States do not emphasize corporate liturgy or the essential creeds of the Christian Church, most affirm the principles of the historic creeds.  Raised in a congregationally governed church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, I was skeptical of hierarchical church authority for much of my life and embraced the attitude ..read more

Amid the decline of nearly all U.S. Protestant denominations, both liberal and conservative, the new Global Methodist Church (GMC) has emerged and last week convened its first governing general conference in Costa Rica. Although about 80 percent of its 4,733 congregations are in the U.S., the approximately 350 delegates met outside the U.S. to stress the new church’s international identity and to facilitate visas by African delegates.  The GMC’s creation in 2022 resulted from the schism of what was once America’s third largest religious body, the United Methodist Church. M ..read more