Three new posts by Kendall -- Friday 11 a.m.

Where sexuality, religion meet

February 16th, 2007 posted by kendall at 11:06 am

Hahn said a representative from Focus on the Family is registered to attend but will not give a presentation. Focus, a leading conservative Christian organization in Colorado Springs, believes that people can change their sexual orientation if they wish, and it sponsors conferences nationwide that teach people how.

“I think it’s very healthy for people with different viewpoints to get together,” said Joe Dallas, who speaks at these “Love Won Out” conferences. “I’d probably disagree with a large portion of the viewpoints presented,” he said, adding as long as all viewpoints are treated respectfully, he’s all for it.

Hahn said conservative views will be represented, partly through video presentations from local faith leaders.

Kelly Williams, head pastor of Colorado Springs’ Vanguard Church, will be featured on the video. Although he said homosexual activity is sinful, Williams said he believes many Christians don’t address the issue very well - pointing fingers at the sin without talking with, and taking care of, the person.

Dialogue, he said, is crucial in healing some of the divide the issue has created. He’ll be at the conference, too, helping to facilitate smallgroup discussion.

“We have to be willing to talk across the aisle,” he said.

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Posted in Dar es Salaam 2007 | 1 Comment »

Why February 16th is a Vitally Important Day

February 16th, 2007 posted by kendall at 11:04 am

It was on this day in 1977 that Janani Luwum was matyred.

Posted in Africa, Dar es Salaam 2007 | 1 Comment »

From the Los Angeles Times: Anglican angst

February 16th, 2007 posted by kendall at 11:03 am

ANGLICAN BISHOPS from around the world are meeting this week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in what is being advertised as a showdown between the predominantly liberal Episcopal Church of the United States — which is represented by Katharine Jefferts Schori, the denomination’s first female presiding bishop — and the conservative churches of the “Global South.”

A leading source of division is the American church’s growing acceptance of homosexuality. But there is another factor in the rift between liberal Anglicans from North America and their conservative brethren in Africa and elsewhere — one that also figures in a nasty debate about what really led to the 9/11 attacks. That factor is Islam and the discomfort many of its adherents feel about what they see as Western decadence.

Philip Jenkins, a professor at Penn State University who has written about the Anglican divide, told Religion News Service recently that “one reason Africans don’t want to change on [strictures against homosexuality] is they don’t want to seem to be more morally lax than the Muslims who they are competing with for converts.”

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Posted in Dar es Salaam 2007 | 1 Comment »