IndyStar.com: Faith & Values
Indiana's leading news source for all the top stories, local news, sports and weather.
Religion in public schools is focus of Washington Twp. session
Washington Twp. session explains how courts have ruled in various scenarios What would you do, as a public school principal, if some former Colts players want to give a strong anti-drug message to your student body, but the presentation will be...
Veterans Sunday is way to say thanks
Noblesville church’s annual event honors military personnel On Sunday, Noblesville United Methodist Church will express appreciation to men and women who have served the country. In its ninth year, the program began as a veterans’...
It's time to change the way we view the role of the clergy
A Lutheran pastor was fuming. “I can’t believe the number of clergy who think they are entitled to jobs,” she said. Whether they are newly ordained or veterans like herself, they think the church owes them employment, she said. They...
Church helps out at home
After projects elsewhere, Calvary Temple turns attention to local agencies that need help This summer, congregants at Calvary Temple reflected on the attention they were giving to missions overseas and in U.S. locations such as hurricane-damaged New...
New world may be outside congregational walls, says Tom Ehrich
Before I could send out an essay about a favorite street in Manhattan, I needed photographs. On a Sunday morning when I should have been in church, I went out with my camera into a glorious fall day. I passed a caravan of handicapped people being...
Christ Temple to mark 100 years
It was one of country’s first integrated churches, pastor says Christ Temple Apostolic Faith Assembly is spreading the Gospel while reaching out to neighbors in need. Pastor Charles M. Finnell is proud that his church has stayed in the inner...
Hard work goes on after leaders leave
“So what do you think of Obama?” asked my sister, as we sat around after a lovely birthday dinner. I had an opinion, of course. I grew up in a family where having opinions mattered, and we read newspapers and magazines to get ready for...
Fishers church remains small, social
‘Small but mighty’ Bethlehem UMC is celebrating 165 years FISHERS, Ind. — When a fellow member of Bethlehem United Methodist Church is out of town or ill, Susan Melton knows about it. The church, she says, is “a small but...
Small groups can make churches healthier, says Tom Ehrich
If I could wish one thing for today’s churches, it wouldn’t be further perfecting of Sunday worship. We already spend more than half of our resources providing one hour of worship to the 31 percent of shrinking flocks who attend on a...
Spirituality in trying times
Professor examines how politics, violence and religion relate David Carlson, who has taught religious studies at Franklin College since 1978, has long been interested in topics related to reducing levels of violence in human relationships,...
At 175, Salem is 'a happy church'
ZIONSVILLE, Ind. — Salem United Methodist Church sits on top of a knoll on Fishback Creek, along a curving road about three miles west of Zionsville. Worshippers assemble in the same pews as their forebears did nearly 100 years ago. Folks have...
Congregations much reach out to addicted, Ehrich says
NEW YORK At 10:30 p.m., after a drive upstate to look at colleges, I returned a borrowed car to Greenwich Village, threaded my way through reeling and raucous revelers, and boarded the subway for home. A couple got on around 14th Street. She had...
Pub Theology conveys Christian message in Broad Ripple
Pub Theology reaches out to 20-somethings where they are — at a tavern in Broad Ripple — with a rock band’s message about God The tap is open, and the beer flows at C.T. Peppers. Sunday Night Football and “Caddyshack” alternate on more...
Lutheran 'reformers' decide to wait a year
Group opposed to ELCA’s policies on gays will work on a recommendation; others ready to split from church now FISHERS, Ind. — Some came looking for a clean and fast break from a denomination they feel abandoned them. Some, with roots in...
Conservative Lutherans organize after vote on gays
FISHERS, Ind. — Conservative members of the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination voted Saturday to spend the next 12 months deciding whether to split from the church after it liberalized its stance on gay clergy. About 1,200 people...
Same-sex issue splits Lutherans
At meeting in Fishers, minister advises forming new ‘free-standing synod’ The leader of a reform group within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said the denomination had “fallen into heresy” because of its acceptance...
Jesus was an opener of doors for all
NEW YORK Still wrestling with fatigue from a three-day business trip, I made the 13-block walk to the Church of St. Paul&St. Andrew, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where my wife’s English as a Second Language class was holding an...
Rosh Hashanah observances adapt to 21st century
One online Jewish community will stream video of a Rosh Hashanah service that purposefully omits a Torah reading about Abraham’s test of faith deemed too dangerous in an age of religious fanaticism. Indiana University’s Jewish student...
Cornerstone Baptist to celebrate 30 years
Cornerstone Baptist’s only pastor talks about congregation, reunion Cornerstone Baptist Church hopes to attract 900 past and present members to a 30th anniversary celebration that kicks off Sunday. Pastor Donald Mitchell, Fortville, has been...
Politics of extreme hurt us all
Now that the term “bloviator” has entered our common tongue, we need to retire it and see what is actually happening: the relentless poisoning of our common well, the willful destruction of political discourse, the unleashing of attack...
People from 3 faiths gather for a meal to end Muslim fast and start talking
The people from the synagogue made a place for their Muslim guests to break their daily Ramadan fast in an airy chapel, one adorned with a banner featuring the most Jewish of symbols — a Torah scroll, a menorah and a burning bush. The Jewish...
Gospel concert will benefit troops
Military personnel to be honored at event PLAINFIELD, Ind. — Southern gospel music will be used to reach out to military personnel and their families at the fourth annual Support the Troops Benefit. David Hatfield, worship pastor at Harmony...
A new person in a new place
The new Whole Foods Market across 97th Street from my apartment on the Upper West Side seems to be having one banner day after another since opening on Aug. 27. Walking toward the store in recent days has been like swimming upstream against a flow of...
Prayer walkers will focus on needs in Greenfield
4 churches collaborate to cover all streets in prayer at same time GREENFIELD, Ind. — Four Greenfield churches are collaborating to hold a prayer walk the evening of Sept. 20. Called “One Prayer Greenfield,” the event is meant to...
Too much information masks what's important
It happened two weeks ago — Information Overload Awareness Day — but I missed it. Too much information got in the way, I guess. But it isn’t too late to worry about the estimated $900 billion that “information overload”...
Interfaith Calendar
DISCUSSIONS AND CHATS Bartlett Chapel United Methodist Church, 4396 E. Main St., Avon. Noah’s Legacy Program, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Pet owners address concerns, such as decisions they may be facing; find resources; face and pray about...
Environmental concern bridges various faiths
Congregations plan walk-bike-carpool-bus effort Sept. 25-27 Several church leaders in the Indianapolis area are asking worshippers to take a stand for the environment next month during an event they’re calling “WALBICUS to...
Woodstock was an example of classist divide-and-conquer
When the original Woodstock sprang up 40 years ago, my own off-the-wall adventure was taking place in Pittsburgh as I attempted to be a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. It was an uphill battle. I was a clueless young man taking a crash course in...
Pence says family, prayer keep him grounded
Mike Pence says family, prayer help him stay grounded Practicing one’s faith while in the national political spotlight presents challenges. Voters sometimes question whether officeholders’ professed beliefs are genuine or the result of...
I want to be asked who I am and how I live my faithIndyStar.com
NEW YORK — I arrived at church in high spirits, heard a great sermon, but left feeling strangely deflated. My 35-minute walk across Central Park on my way to church had left me tingling. So much beauty, so much life. But entering a dimly...
