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The WCRC and Social Justice

Rev. Daniel Meeter, pastor in the Reformed Church of America (RCA), writing in the Reformed journal Perspectives, “Observations on the World Communion of Reformed Churches”: My participation at Johannesburg is the reason I was an observer at the General Council, and why I was assigned to the General Council’s committee on Accra (though there were many other committees and a host of workshops that interested me, from worship to theology to inter-faith dialogue). Continue Reading...

Ecumenical-Industrial Complex at Work?

I assert the existence of the “ecumenical-industrial complex” in my book Ecumenical Babel. On that point, this bears watching: “Ecumenical news agency suspended, editors removed.” From the piece: Earlier this year the WCC, which has been ENI’s main funder and in whose headquarters the agency was based, said it was reducing its financial support for 2011 by over 50 percent. Continue Reading...

The Beginning and End of Christian Giving

Over at Mere Comments, and following up on this week’s Acton Commentary, “Christian Giving Begins with the Local Church,” I discuss some reasons why Christian giving doesn’t end there. It’s vitally important, I think, to distinguish between the church as institution and the church as organism. Continue Reading...

Colson: Our Work Matters to God

In this week’s “Two Minute Warning,” Chuck Colson shows that “work is something we are all called to do, using our gifts to God’s glory.” As a special offer this week, the Colson Center is giving away complimentary copies of Lester DeKoster’s little classic on this subject, Work: The Meaning of Your Life—A Christian Perspective from Christian’s Library Press. Continue Reading...

Addendum to Loss of Institutional Faith

Here’s a final and brief follow-up to the discussion about the loss of faith in institutions over recent decades. We might observe that the increase in charitable giving to religious organizations amidst declines in charitable giving overall might show that at least there is not a corresponding loss of faith by religious people in charitable institutions. Continue Reading...

Understanding Human Behavior

In “Human Nature and Capitalism” on AEI’s The American, Arthur C. Brooks and Peter Wehner look at three different “pictures” of what it means to be human and point to the one, foundational understanding that has undergirded the flourishing American culture of democratic capitalism: “If men were angels,” wrote James Madison, the father of the Constitution, in Federalist Paper No. Continue Reading...

Loss of Institutional Faith

In this week’s commentary I say that part of the reason less money is being given to local churches is that it is reflective of a broader trend of distrust towards institutions. Continue Reading...