Michele Bachmann and others declare that the U.S. government has been infiltrated and compromised by Muslim terrorists. Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh contends that radical Islam is “trying to kill Americans every week” and that “it is a threat that is much more at home now than it was after 9/11.” In our own state, then-Rep. […]
religion
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Poised for progress
The election of an African-American president to an organization with its roots in slavery is being heralded as a milestone in racial reform. The Southern Baptists broke off from Northern Baptists in 1845 in support of slavery. Having supported Jim Crow and resisted integration for more than a century, the organization officially apologized in 1995. […]
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Raise a VOICE
Lance Schmitz Credit: Mark Hancock Founded last winter at a convention that drew more than 1,200 people, Voices Organized in Civic Engagement (VOICE) hopes to get residents focused on what their biggest needs are, and how those can best be achieved at the local and state level. “We hope to get citizens engaged in conversations […]
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Pious people
Credit: Brad Gregg While the survey methodology sounds very science-y — using census data and whatnot — it would have been easier for researchers simply to drive through OKC and count the corners without churches. (The actual number is 21.) OKC was ranked behind Salt Lake City and Birmingham, Ala. One of those cities has […]
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Modern word
Considered one of the nation’s most provocative voices for a non-literal Christianity, John Shelby Spong will speak Friday at an event hosted by the United Church of Norman. The lecture, titled “Why Christianity Must Change or Die,” is based on Spong’s contention that many Christians practice an outdated faith. “What I try to do in […]
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Strained relations
On March 7, the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, issued a media release calling on the Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond to drop “its anti- Muslim agenda” and cancel its scheduled guest speaker, Avi Lipkin. CAIR said Lipkin is “an infamous Islamophobe who alleges among other things that Muslims worship […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Divine digs
That house of worship relocated in 1956, leaving the facility without a church family until Citychurch moved in in the early 1990s. Now, 100 years after the first congregation occupied the facility, a new pastor — who was once affiliated with Citychurch — and a new church are calling the three-story limestone structure “home.” Frontline […]
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Romney and religion
“I think it’s very possible Romney’s faith will be an issue,” said Charles Kimball, director of the University of Oklahoma’s religious studies program. “When you consider that the Southern Baptist Convention has a program for ‘interfaith witness’ directed at Mormons, it points out that they don’t consider them part of the same Christian faith. “In […]
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Don’t discriminate
I would also like to say to the Oklahoma City Council, you have made a difference, although I wish this policy did not even have to exist. Discrimination for any reason is wrong. Mr. Kern, when you state God’s word as fact, you are discriminating against all other religions that may not have the same […]
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Force? What force?
I read Kern’s letter and immediately thought, “WTF?” Is Kern a real person or a fictional character from a piece of homophobic literature? I’m a nonreligious person, but if I ever adopted a religion, I would like to believe that my chosen religion’s higher being would espouse love, tolerance, kindness, friendship and peace among my […]