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by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, available from http://fssp.org One of the greatest tragedies of the Reformation is the loss of authentic holy orders in Protestant communities, and as a subsequent result of that, the loss of the real presence in Holy Communion. Of course this is not a problem for a large number of Protestants who no longer believe in the real presence of Christ in Holy Communion anyway. Transubstantiation is the belief that the bread and wine elements in communion, really and truly, become the actual body (flesh) and blood of Jesus Christ once they are...

Will the United Methodist Church soon have to drop the “United” part of its name? A group of 80 pastors, including at least two from North Carolina, says the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination faces a split because of an inability to resolve long-standing theological disputes about homosexuality and church doctrine. But more than lamenting the divisions, the pastors indicated there is little reason to think reconciliation – or even coexistence – could be found. Like a couple heading to divorce court, the pastors cited irreconcilable differences that can’t be mended.

The Imperative to be Baptized shows its Necessity “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," Mt 28:19 [baptize the verb means be buried, immersed; verb does not mean sprinkle water; the person is baptized, not the water] "For you are saved by grace through faith" Eph 2:8,9 [works are important, even necessary, but only by faith in God is one saved] "‘Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’" Acts 22:16 [Therefore...

A controversial new book from a mainstream, evangelical Christian publisher is being described by a critic as a “new low-water mark” for the industry while an advocate calls it a “game changer.” “God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships,” by Matthew Vines, who describes himself as a gay Christian, has been released by Convergent Books, an imprint of WaterBrook/Multnomah Publishing. Ingrid Schlueter, a long-time conservative voice in Christian media, sees Vines’ book as yet another example of evangelicals accommodating “a culture in moral free-fall.” “All the theological contortions in the world by evangelical authors...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the sweeping acceptance of gay marriage in recent years is owed in large part to Christianity. Rejecting the rigidly hierarchical and stratified societies of the ancient world, Jesus Christ taught the equal dignity of all persons, proclaimed that the meek shall inherit the earth, and declared that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. The Western world has been working out the logic of these subversive teachings ever since, with the institutional transformation of marriage being the latest, though surely not the last, example of its social, moral,...

When I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior at the age of eighteen, I began for the first time in my life to read the Bible with eagerness and interest. I'd come into a new relationship of faith and love with Christ, and it was in the pages of Scripture that I could learn what I needed to know about Him. I spent an entire summer reading the New Testament from cover to cover. Truths sprang out at me; insights, rivers of wisdom flowed from the pages. I was surprised to find Scripture so gripping. "That's because...

Birth control reconsidered A Protestant film questions contraception, and rediscovers Reformation beliefs By Celeste McGovern Jun 11, 2013 The contraception mentality: Despite half a century of contrary evidence, many still believe this. For anyone under 60, birth control is just a fact of life. Those under 50 won’t recall that it was ever controversial. The pharmaceutical separation of sex from babies has been so thoroughly accepted by Western society that any holdouts are seen as fringers: “orthodox” Catholics, Mormons, and health hippies.But questions about contraception are arising from unlikely sources lately: not enough to call it a trend, but significant...

Divorce rate is higher among religiously conservative Protestants, and even among those living around them, finds a new study that examined all counties in the United States where divorces occurred and looked at what the characteristics of those counties were. Demographers Jennifer Glass at the University of Texas and Philip Levchak at the University of Iowa looked at the entire map of the United States, and found that a key factor predicting divorce rates is the concentration of conservative Protestants in a county. To be published in the American Journal of Sociology next month, the study notes that religiously conservative...

What has intrigued me most about Pope Francis is not the way in which Catholics -- well, most of them, anyway -- have embraced him but the way in which countless Protestants have moved into his fan club. More is at play here than simple celebrity in our overwrought pop culture. At least, I hope so. The Protestant fascination with him hasn't broken down the many theological, liturgical and structural barriers that still exist between Protestantism and Catholicism, but it has softened them a bit and it has caused some Protestants to want to figure out what makes Francis tick,...

Church Nativity Scene Replaces Jesus with Bloody Trayvon Martin By Russell Goldman Dec 28, 2013 HT trayvon nativity nt 131227 16x9 608 Church Nativity Scene Replaces Jesus with Bloody Trayvon Martin John Zachary created a Nativity scene for Claremont United Methodist Church that employs a figure of Trayvon Martin as a commentary on gun violence. (David Allen/Daily Bulletin) A California church sought to make people think about the repercussions of violence, by replacing the baby Jesus with a bloody sculpture of Trayvon Martin in a nativity scene. What they got instead were threats. The crèche outside the church Claremont United...

Outside the Claremont United Methodist Church is a nativity scene with a bleeding Trayvon Martin. The California Church has turned their nativity scene "into a piece of art that comments on our times" for the last seven years. John Zachary, the artist, told me the acquittal in July of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot the 17-year-old African-American in 2012, struck him as a worthy subject for Christmas comment. For one thing, the backdrop to the Christmas story is the slaughter by King Herod of all infants in Bethlehem, a barbarous attempt to kill the Messiah.

CLAREMONT, Calif. (AP) -- Southern California authorities are investigating vandalism of a church's Nativity display that includes depictions of gay and lesbian couples. The damage at Claremont United Methodist Church occurred late Saturday or Sunday morning. . . . Claremont police Sgt. Jason Walters tells the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin it's a hate crime.

Few people engaged in the "War on Christmas" are aware that at one time it was a crime in Massachusetts to celebrate Christmas. Oh sure, some will say, count on liberal Massachusetts to pass a law against Christmas. But it was Calvinist Massachusetts, in the days of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, the Pilgrims and Puritans, that established penalties for the observance of Christmas Day "by abstinence from labor, feasting, or any other way." The noisiest opposition to public celebration of Christmas today comes from professed agnostics and atheists, particularly those seeking "freedom from religion." But there are still...

The King James Version of Luke 2:14 is one of the most famous verses in the English language Bible: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." The current Roman Catholic version is: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.” The Catholic version seems to me more restrictive with the conditional clause than the universality of the KJV translation. Is there any theological implication? Is one a more "accurate" translation from the original Greek? I think the Protestants beat the Catholics on this one.

The worst Christian massacre—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—recently took place in Syria, at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpiece are, as usual, silent (that is, when not actively trying to minimize matters). The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation, so old as to be mentioned in the Old Testament. Most of the region’s inhabitants are poor, as Sadad is situated in the remote desert between Homs and Damascus (desert regions, till now, apparently the only places Syria’s Christians could...

A former Mormon bishop in Riverside County is expected to serve three years in prison for sexually assaulting two teenage girls who attended a Menifee church, prosecutors said. Todd Mitchell Edwards, 49, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts related to the assault of the teens, ages 16 and 18, as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney's office. The counts were sexual battery and sexual penetration with a foreign object. In addition to the prison time, Edwards will also have to register as a lifetime sex offender as part...

Almost thirty years ago, when I first started to become interested in Reformed Christianity I happened to mention it to the Rev Wally Easter, pastor for evangelism at Westminster Presbyterian Church, in my hometown. Wally was a sweet fellow and very graciously lent me volume one of the Battles edition of Calvin’s Institutes. A while later I visited him in his luxurious office at the local “tall-steeple” PCUSA congregation in order to return the book. I was full of questions. In conversation, Wally mentioned that he was a graduate of Princeton Seminary. I had heard about this fellow “Machen” so...

The United Methodist Church’s division over homosexuality grew heated Friday (Nov. 15), as the denomination’s Council of Bishops called for charging retired Bishop Melvin Talbert with presiding at the Oct. 26 wedding of two men, which the church forbids. The council asked its president, Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, and Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett of the North Alabama Conference, to file a complaint accusing Talbert of undermining the ministry of a colleague and conducting a ceremony to celebrate the wedding of a same-gender couple at Covenant Community United Church of Christ in Center Point, Ala. Talbert, who served as bishop of the San...

One of the most hotly-contested passages in Catholic-Protestant dialogues is the “Upon This Rock” passage in Matthew 16:18. After the Apostle Simon confesses faith in Jesus as the Messiah (the Christ), Jesus says to him “And I tell you, you are Peter, [Petros] and on this rock [petra] I will build my church, and the powers of death [Hades] shall not prevail against it.” So is Jesus founding His Church upon Peter, the first pope, as Catholics say? Or is He just saying that the Church will be built off of those who confess faith in Jesus as the Christ, as...

A new report has exposed the West’s blindness to the persecution of Christians around the world; it highlights how the “lion’s share” of this is done by Muslims, whom the media do not want to criticise over misplaced fears of “racism”. the West’s blindness to the persecution of Christians around the worldWorld, January 09, 2013: Christianophobia, which was published last month, written by journalist Rupert Shortt for Civitas, argues that “Christians are targeted more than any other body of believers.” He quotes research by the Pew Forum and the World Evangelical Alliance, which estimates that 200 million Christians (ten per...