Content about Quotation

In a Sept. 28 article published by the Barna Group, “Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church,” Barna, a nationally respected non-profit research organization dedicated to spiritual development, outlines six reasons why young people stay away from churches:

• Churches seem overprotective: While many churches try to convince members to reject or avoid “worldly” influences, today’s young people are more connected to culture, media and concerns of the world than ever.

 DURBAN, South Africa -- Climate change may be of grave concern to many people, but that would have been hard to tell by the sparse size of the crowd that attended a faith-based rally Sunday in King's Park Stadium in Durban, South Africa.

"It was disappointing really," says Peter VanderMeulen, director of the Christian Reformed Church Office of Social Justice, who attended the rally.

Friedrich Nietzsche was a provocative 19th century German philosopher who is still frequently quoted. He was a severe critic of religion, especially the Christian religion. He once suggested, "The last Christian died on the cross." And concerning Christian evangelism, he said, "If the church wants the world to believe in redemption, then the church ought to look a little more redeemed."

One of the most treasured books in my library is a 100-page tome titled the Lessons of History, written in 1968 by Will and Ariel Durant. I have read and reread it and referenced it in many sermons, columns and essays. It is a profound book that should be read by anyone who wishes to understand the great lessons of history by the century rather than by the year. History really makes more sense that way.

Under the leadership of environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, a United Methodist layman, thousands of concerned demonstrators succeeded in delaying the Obama Administration's approval of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline.

The pipeline is slated to cross thousands of acres of vulnerable U.S. land from its origin in the Canadian tar sands to refineries along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The front lawn of the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill has become the site of weekly interreligious prayer vigils for a just, compassionate “faithful budget.” The 15- to 20-minute vigils will be held on Tuesdays at 12:30 p.m. The United Methodist Building faces the U.S. Capitol.

Daily 15- to 20-minute prayer vigils began in July and ran for several weeks while Congress engaged in acrimonious debate over raising the U.S. debt ceiling.

Ask anyone if they can imagine a world without nuclear weapons, and as polls indicate, most will say they can. This is true even in countries that possess nuclear weapons according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons or ICAN, a new civil society initiative dedicated to the hope of a nuclear free world.

However, governments that possess nuclear weapons send a different signal. Their policies and expenditures say that "well...perhaps someday...but certainly not in our lifetimes."

The Rev. James Rowe Adams, an Episcopal priest considered the father of contemporary progressive Christianity, died Sept. 13 in Cambridge, MA, after a long bout with brain cancer. He was 77.

As a kid I often heard people say that they remember exactly where they were when President John F Kennedy was assassinated. They remember exactly where they were when the Challenger Shuttle exploded. I never fully understood what they were talking about until I was 16 years old.

By Wajahat Ali, Eli Clifton, Matthew Duss, Lee Fang , Scott Keyes, Faiz Shakir