Articles for tag: Catholic Church

April 1, 2021

What’s Your Trust Factor?

In the early 1970s, half of Americans said that most people can be trusted, according to the General Social Survey and the American National Election Survey. In 2020, that figure dropped to less than one-third. The United States is the only established democracy in the world to see a major decline in social trust. Two-thirds of Americans say religious and nonreligious people generally are equally trustworthy, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey. Evangelical Protestants are more likely than other Americans to say religious people are more trustworthy than those who are not religious. Forty percent of evangelical Protestants

March 1, 2016

Mark A. Taylor

Christian Living

Living in the Spotlight

By Mark A. Taylor They were experienced reporters with the Boston Globe, accustomed to encountering shocking facts. And yet they had trouble believing the breadth of the priest pedophile problem in their city. As Spotlight (which Sunday won the Oscar for best picture) tells the story, they came to the truth slowly. From a single incident they found connections to more, from one priest to 13. And by the time they broke the priest child-sex-abuse scandal, almost 90 clerics had been implicated. Since then many hundreds of victims have come forward in Boston alone. And abusing priests have been punished

March 8, 2015

Christian Standard

Discipleship & Spiritual Formation Spiritual Disciplines

Redeeming Lent

By T.R. Robertson Some ignore it. SomeÂ condemn it. But others have found waysÂ to redeem this 40-dayÂ observance withÂ values both biblicalÂ and missional. I didn”t grow up with Lent as part of my life. My church, as well as most other congregations in the Restoration Movement of the 1960s and “70s, didn”t observe Lent at all. It was considered a nonbiblical invention of the Catholic Church. We not only looked down on Lent, we mostly ignored it. I don”t remember Lent ever being mentioned in Sunday school or in sermons. My first exposure to Lent came when I was a safety patrol guard

September 8, 2010

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square

Anne Rice”s Decision Makes Me Sad

By Mark A. Taylor Perhaps you”re familiar with Anne Rice, the world-known novelist who left the Catholic faith of her childhood to become an atheist and then returned to a vibrant belief in God. Perhaps you know about her Facebook post July 28. “Today I quit being a Christian,” she wrote. “I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “˜Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It”s simply impossible for me to “˜belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.” The next day she added, “My faith in Christ is central to my life. .

August 2, 2009

Christian Standard

Culture & Public Square Reconciliation

Barrier or Bridge to the Catholic Community?

Â by Greg Nettle Where I grew up in northern Ohio, the predominant religion was Catholicism. As a result of not being a Catholic, I formed some very unhealthy approaches to my Catholic friends. Most involved arguments and confrontations about what was scripturally incorrect with the Catholic church. I would regularly discuss with my youth-group buddies topics such as: Is the pope the Antichrist? And, is it OK to date a Catholic girl so you can convert her to New Testament Christianity? In short, I was erecting a lot of relational barriers. Years later, after serving as a senior pastor