Faith
Restoration of Black church in Parkville inspires rainbow coalition
The community has rallied around the restoration of Parkville, Missouri’s, Washington Chapel. Built in 1907, the chapel has been a haven for a Black population that has not always been welcome in town.
Tackling the Scourge of Christian Nationalism
In recent decades, Christian Nationalism’s warped ideas have begun to attract the attention of scholars and teachers at universities and seminaries here in the Heartland. They’re trying to understand both its appeal and its dangers and to give students the tools necessary to make their own judgments about whether it’s good old basic Americanism or,…
‘Bountiful’ Jackson County Community Exemplifies Religious Freedom
The practice of changing one’s religious affiliation goes back more than a century in the family of W. Kevin Romer. He’s now presiding bishop of the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a resident of what the church calls “Bountiful: A New Jerusalem Community” in eastern Jackson County. Romer’s father was one…
Downtown KC Renaissance Seeds Congregations
As civic, commercial and residential life has blossomed in Kansas City’s Downtown in recent years, religious life has grown there, too. But that doesn’t mean it’s been easy for newly planted Downtown faith communities to flourish. “It’s been tougher in one sense than we thought it would be,” says the Rev. Troy Campbell, pastor of…
Taking ‘Bold Political Stances’ To Fight Injustices
It didn’t take long for the new Greater Kansas City Pastors Association to spring into action. As The Kansas City Star reported in early September, just one “day after thousands of people descended on the Missouri Capitol to demonstrate their outrage over congressional maps aimed at minimizing Kansas City’s voting power,” the new pastors’ group…
9/11 Pain Continues as Justice System Plods Along
Every email I get from Danielle Reddan, director of the Victim Witness Assistance Program in the Office of the Chief Prosecutor of Military Commissions, starts the same way: “Dear Survivors & Families.” More than two decades after the murder of my nephew, a passenger on the first plane that Osama bin Laden’s misguided theological thugs…
Gay Bishop Reflects Evolution of Evangelical Lutheran Church
Almost 20 years ago, I devoted a long column in The Kansas City Star to an interview with two local pastors, both in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a Mainline Protestant denomination. The ELCA was then debating whether to change its rules to allow the ordination of LGBTQIA+ people as clergy. The Rev. Donna…
Kansas City’s ‘Stunning’ Array of Sacred Music
Rockhurst University music professor Timothy L. McDonald grew up near New York City where, he says, “we have a lot of sacred music, but it’s my perception that New York has not nearly as many professional and semi-professional sacred music groups as in Kansas City. “It’s stunning to me how many such groups we have…
Retreat Centers Serve as Oases from Stressful Times
Stress — including that caused by our nation’s current political turmoil — is such a common experience that people have devised many ways to describe it, including the simple exclamation “I’m stressed out.” There’s also the phrase you’re likely to hear only in parts of New England: “I’m right out straight.” Sometimes people under age…
Ministering to Children With Disabilities
When Michael Palacio was born 18 years ago this month, he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, tuberous sclerosis, which causes epilepsy and autism. And Michael now has both. As his parents began to respond to Michael’s needs — and continue to parent Michael’s two older siblings — one issue that arose quickly was…