Security is focus at churches, mosques amid heightened fears
In Alabama, a Presbyterian church wanted to be able to hire its own police for protection.
Influence of churches, once dominant, now waning in South
Prayers said and the closing hymn sung, tea-drinking churchgoers fill Marble City Grill for Sunday lunch. But hard on their heels comes the afternoon crowd: craft beer-drinking, NFL-watching football fans.
Court legalizes same-sex marriage, but what about local churches?
Same-sex marriage is now the law of the land, but that holds no bearing on individual religious institutions — they can marry whom they choose within their walls.
Easter on 4/20, pot holy day; pastors reach out
Social media has been buzzing for weeks with jokes about how, this year, Easter Sunday shares the calendar with the pot-lover’s highest holiday: April 20, or 420 in stoner lingo. Pot-smokers have long celebrated on the date by lighting up for reasons not quite clear.
Churches celebrate with special services
Several area churches are having evening services tonight and encouraging people to come and celebrate the birth of Christ.
Church signs roll the dice getting hip with quips
Pastor Mike Butzberger insists he only had holiday spirit in mind when his Florida church’s marquee read, “Christmas — Easier to spell than Hanukkah.”
A very special Christmas: Area mass choir to perform with Grammy-winning tenor (and it all began with a spot of channel surfing)
A few years ago, Doug Browning was casually flipping through channels and came across David Phelps.
“I hear this voice, and I just back up and watch. I was riveted in my living room!” said the Columbus First United Methodist Church music director.
Although no one could have foreseen it then, Browning’s discovery planted the seed that will bring the Grammy and Dove Award-winning artist to the Golden Triangle Dec. 21 at Rent Auditorium.
Churches split on Scouts’ welcoming of gay youth
In suburban Atlanta, northern Idaho and a number of other places, churches have moved swiftly to sever ties with the Boy Scouts of America in protest over the vote last month to let openly gay boys participate in Scouting.
Southern Baptists push expansion northward
FALL RIVER, Mass. — Pastor Tom Cabral still tells people to meet him at “the bar,” even though it’s his church now. Locals best remember
Evangelical churches refine message on gay issues
The Rev. Robert Jeffress has changed the way he talks about homosexuality from the pulpit.
The pastor of the 11,000-member First Baptist Dallas hasn’t stopped preaching that homosexual sex is sinful, but he no longer singles it out for special condemnation. Now, Jeffress says he usually talks about homosexuality within “a bigger context of God’s plan for sex between one man and one woman in a lifetime relationship called marriage.”
IRS not enforcing rules on churches and politics
For the past three years, the Internal Revenue Service hasn’t been investigating complaints of partisan political activity by churches, leaving religious groups who make direct or thinly veiled endorsements of political candidates unchallenged.
Law gives churches tax break on utilities
After more than 10 years of lingering in legislative purgatory, state churches will soon be getting a break when it comes to paying utility bills. Effective Sunday, churches will no longer have to pay sales tax on utilities including electricity, water and natural gas.
Pastors struggle to find words to comfort on 10th anniversary of attacks
Ten years is a long time, but the wound the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks inflicted on the American psyche has had a deep effect, prompting many to re-examine mortality, morality and faith. Even for pastors, the answers do not come easily.
Columbus Boys and Girls Club ‘in the black’ for the first time in five years
After a year’s worth of transfusions, the Columbus Boys and Girls Club is again standing on its own.
From January to December 2010, eight local churches picked up the club’s $2,800 mortgage, giving it time to catch up and get out of the red.