David Briggs writes in Wednesday’s RNS report about the potential effects of the Vatican’s proposed document on homosexuality in the Catholic Church. While some gay rights groups have condemned the document, they say a ban on celibate gay seminarians cannot stop the momentum for gay and lesbian rights: Leaders seeking change in faiths from Catholicism to Islam to mainline Protestantism said the decision of the Episcopal Church to stand behind its election of a gay bishop and the United Church of Christ’s vote to endorse same-sex marriages are part of a “great awakening” on gay rights issues.
Luis Palau is redefining evangelism with his festivals, according to correspondents Adelle M. Banks and Judith Cebula. His upcoming “DC Festival” on the National Mall Oct. 8-9 will feature a “party approach” to evangelism, defined by the slogan, “Great Music! Good News!” Palau will continue a team effort his ministry has established, moving away from the centuries-old crusade model made famous by Billy Graham. Graham has defined large-event Christian evangelism with a fabled career that presents the gospel in stadium crusades. Palau’s model has been so successful in attracting young people that some see it defining evangelism in the early part of this century as Graham shaped it in the latter part of the last century.
Juanita Westaby talks to practitioners of Kabbalah, an ancient form of Jewish mysticism, to find out how they practice their beliefs: If you want to find Len Robinson, a longtime practitioner of the Jewish mystical path Kabbalah, it won’t be through his local synagogue. The best way to Robinson, the Kabbalist, is through local theater circles, where he is a director and actor. To be the best director he can be is at the heart of his Kabbalah practice. “I direct Kabbalistically,” Robinson says. “I have to sit back and go into exile to allow creativity to happen.” Which is how, according to Kabbalah practitioners, God created the world. “God wanted to share and the only way to share was `tzim tzum,’ to pull back,” Robinson says.
