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Brendan Smialowski AP
If You Really Respect Law Enforcement, Don’t Obstruct, Obfuscate, Object and Misdirect on Jan. 6
If you respect our law enforcement, don’t do everything you can to obstruct, obfuscate, object, misdirect and accuse others who were not involved in storming the Capitol Jan. 6. Don’t you dare. How deeply hypocritical can you be? Read more
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Would Election by Lottery Help or Hurt UMC General Conference?
What would happen if instead of reforming General Conference that we reform the way that we elect delegates, transforming GC from the bottom-up? Read more
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Does the Church in America Need a New Barmen Declaration?
It could be said that in every age, since its first capitulation to Constantine, Christianity has struggled with the temptation of serving the powers-that-be rather than Christ. And so it is today in the United States of America. Read more
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Church Must Tackle Its Real Estate Crisis
The United Methodist Church has extensive real estate that holds significant value but also poses a financial threat. As thousands of U.S. churches face closure, the denomination must adopt a more comprehensive strategy for managing its properties. Read more
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Hartford Seminary Receives $5 million Lilly Endowment Grant
Hartford Seminary has been awarded a five-year, $5.3 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to fund research into how congregations are changing, innovating, and establishing new ministry practices as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more
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Church Hasn’t Stopped for a Second: 4 Lessons From the Pandemic-Era Church
This year forced us to wrestle with our theological understandings of worship communal attendance. Church pastors and leaders spent time carrying the exhaustive weight of decision-making: How to be the church and keep people safe amid trauma? Read more
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Three Reasons 2021 Looks Like 1961 in Voter Suppression
A three-volume graphic memoir of civil rights leader John L. Lewis provides scholar Bill Leonard with three parallels between the events of 1961 and today's attempts at voter suppression around the United States. Read more
Crisis Watch
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Delta Variant Surge Prompts New Cautions for Churches
As the Delta variant of coronavirus surges across the United States, church leaders are again urging churches to require masks at indoor gatherings and encourage vaccinations against COVID-19. Read more
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Joy and Grief Will Coexist
Despite the recent surge in coronavirus infections, Americans are slowly returning to some semblance of pre-pandemic life and finding their happiness at being united is mingled with mourning for those they've lost Read more
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Needling the Unvaccinated to Get Their 'Fauci Ouchie'
With encouragement from many sources – including a bishop's poem – will coronavirus vaccinations increase? Read more
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Young Methodists Raising Climate Change Awareness
An international group of young Methodists, dubbed Climate Justice for All, or CJ4A, is posting videos and other information on a website to help educate people about the threat of climate change. Read more
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United Methodists Ramp Up Climate Justice Efforts
United Methodist Women, general agencies and a new coalition of Methodist youths are increasing efforts to convince public officials to enact policies addressing the global climate emergency. Read more
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Help Needed in Bracing for Wildfire Impact Across Greater Northwest
With the largest wildfire in the country currently burning in southern Oregon and almost three dozen more popping up throughout Washington and Idaho, Greater Northwest Area UMC disaster response teams are watching things closely. Read more
Notable Quotes
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"Yes, we should judge people by the content of the character and not the color of their skin — but that is when we have a true, just, humane society where there are no biases, where there is no racism, where there is no discrimination. Unfortunately, all of these things still exist."
— Martin Luther King III, oldest son of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Republican Texas lawmakers this year made it a priority to limit how racism and current events are taught in school. King calls their legislative moves “a literal effort to whitewash history." Reported in the Texas Tribune.
