Word: churchful
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Haynes also brought in Chuck Stetson, who wanted to take the next step: a secularly acceptable Bible textbook. Stetson's religious credentials alarm church-state separationists. He is a graduate of Colson's Wilberforce Centurion project, a study group pledged to "restore our culture by effectively thinking, teaching and advocating the Christian world view as applied to all of life." Yet he claims his commitment to his textbook's constitutionality determined its secularity. In late 2005 he unveiled The Bible and Its Influence, which was vetted by 40 religious and legal scholars, including Jews, Protestants and a Roman Catholic bishop...
Some secularists are worried about who will teach the literacy classes. Joe Conn and Rob Boston of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State have expressed a concern about how teachers willing to give the Bible secular treatment would be found, particularly in states where vast majorities are evangelical. They note that Stetson's history sections are almost exclusively positive. "A textbook should offer objective study about both the positive and negative uses of the Bible," Conn writes. "Where is the analysis of the role of the Bible in the Inquisition or the Salem witch trials?" They specifically...
When the levees broke in New Orleans, the Rev. Jerry Kramer scrambled to get his family out alive. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed their tiny house, but within days, Kramer, pastor of the Free Church of the Annunciation, was wading through the filthy floodwaters to help others. Before rebuilding his own home, Kramer helped rebuild homes and find shelter for many others. His congregation took out a million-dollar mortgage to turn the church and several surrounding properties into what they call Resurrection House, which includes a dormitory for volunteers who do construction work or reach out to the needy...
...Even religious groups that proselytize by tradition have responded to the disaster by collaborating across once deep religious, racial and socioeconomic divides. "When it comes to serving the needy, we don't proselytize," says the Rev. Travis Scruggs, the minister of home relief and recovery for the First Baptist Church of New Orleans, who is known around town as the "Disaster Pastor." "We love people the way Christ loved them, without turning anyone away. Actions speak louder than words...
...passed bits of bipartisan legislation, making it easier for faith-based groups to receive public funds and technical assistance. And the Louisiana Recovery Authority stresses the need to involve and support religious leaders and their organizations. But the city's faith-based organizations are now sagging. Unless Kramer's church gets $125,000 soon, its beg-and-borrow construction projects will grind to a halt. Scruggs too says that keeping the grass-roots rebuilding efforts going will require affirmative answers to fervent prayers for more money and volunteers. Catholic Charities and Habitat are short-staffed and stretched thin...