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A Large Colorado Congregation Just Became LGBT-Inclusive. Here’s Why It...

(RNS) In 2009, a friend told me that the prominent evangelical leaders who were pro-LGBT could all fit into a minivan. I struggled to prove him wrong. But over the last eight years, a number of...

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Hurt By The Church? It’s Time To Talk About It

In 2010, Barna Group released a poll indicating that 4 out of 10 non-church Americans claim they do not attend due to negative experiences with churches or congregants. Seven years later, I doubt the...

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How Feminists Have Failed Christian Women

Championing “women’s issues” is not the same as championing women. That’s according to Allison Trowbridge, author of “Twenty-Two: Letters to a Young Woman Searching for Meaning.” She claims that while...

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Forget Millennials. How Will Churches Reach Generation Z?

For the last decade, church experts have been wrestling over the best ways to reach and retain “millennials,” which is a phrase the describes individuals born from the early 1980s through the...

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This Woman Preacher Is Schooling The Christian Boys Club On The Crucifixion

If you are embedded in a Catholic or conservative Protestant community, you might assume that theology is a man’s job. After all, most theological books are penned by male authors. Women are prohibited...

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This Vatican Adviser Is Moving Catholics Toward LGBT Inclusion

(RNS) In 1992, the Vatican under Pope John Paul II published the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which stated, among many other things, that “homosexual tendencies” are “objectively disordered.” One...

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Rob Bell Once Questioned hell: Here’s Why He Is Now Taking Aim At The Bible

In his 2011 book “Love Wins,” former pastor Rob Bell famously questioned the existence of hell. The bold move made him a pariah among some conservative Christians, but the furor catapulted the book...

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Is The Bible More Pro-Woman Than You Assume?

I’ve heard many progressive Christians make the case for feminism using the Bible. But I’ve never heard a bona fide conservative Christian do it. That is, until Wendy Alsup. She is honest about the way...

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Eugene Peterson On Donald Trump And The State Of American Christianity

During the last election cycle, prominent Christians of all stripes voiced their opinions about the American political landscape. Eugene Peterson, however, did not speak out at that time. Perhaps this...

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Church Clarity Pressures Pastors And Churches To Disclose Views On Homosexuality

(RNS) — Jim has happily attended his church for more than six months. But he decided that this past Sunday would be his last. Why? Because he attended a membership class and discovered the church’s...

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Against Clarity: A Progressive Christian Opposes Rating Churches On LGBT...

(RNS) —As reported by RNS senior columnist Jonathan Merritt, an organization called Church Clarity wants to label as many congregations as possible “affirming” or “non-affirming” of LGBTQ+ members. For...

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A Funeral Director Says Many Churches (Unknowingly) Promote A ‘Death...

What do you think about when you think about funerals? Most of us probably think about death, grief, mourning, tears, and the well-dressed corpses of lost loved ones. But Caleb Wilde, a longtime...

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Needed: A Coalition Of Feminists And Conservative Christians

In 2006, conservative theologian Wayne Grudem released a 272-page jeremiad decrying feminism as a “slippery slope” to liberalism and “a system of thinking that denies the complete truthfulness of the...

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Sexuality, Race, And Gender: 3 Explosive Insights About America’s 100 Largest...

Last October, evangelicalism was rocked by the launch of ChurchClarity.org, an organization that reports churches’ LGBTQ+ policies and rates congregations based on their level of clarity. The website...

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How Aaron Niequist is Reimagining the Word “Worship”

Aaron Niequist spent many years as a musician and worship leader in some of America’s largest megachurches. But then–at the pinnacle of his career–he lost faith in the system. As Niequist writes in The...

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In a Divided Age, Who Should Be Welcome at the Christian Table?

We live in a moment where Christians are deeply divided, and sometimes rightfully so. And yet, the Christian table has historically been wide and inclusive space where all are welcome. How do we...

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