Articles by Mark A. Kellner
Spend a year — as I have just done — writing about a variety of religious beliefs and events for a major metropolitan newspaper, and one can be both inspired and depressed.
Published
January 23, 2014
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The 2006 funeral of Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and a Kabbalist who studied and taught Jewish mysticism, drew a crowd estimated at 200,000 by Britain's Guardian newspaper. Eight years after his death, Kaduri's life and, especially, a "last teaching" contained in a note allegedly sealed until a year after his death, are stirring some interest in decidedly non-Jewish quarters.
Published
January 16, 2014
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Three weeks ago in this space, you read about the difficulties with which Christians contend in nations around the world. This week, an international ministry that has long supported the persecuted church has released a "watch list" documenting even more issues.
Published
January 9, 2014
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Mitch Horowitz is right: the notion that changing one's thoughts can change one's life really is "One Simple Idea," and his engaging history of positive thinking in America, to be published next Tuesday is, in fact, a tour de force recap of what is a bedrock philosophy, also known as "New Thought" or even "New Age" in some circles.
Published
January 2, 2014
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No doubt about it — the man born Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the religious figure of 2013. Time magazine confirmed this by naming the Argentine cardinal now known as Pope Francis as Person of the Year, and a survey of Religion Newswriters Association members this month designated his election as the top religion story of the year.
Published
December 26, 2013
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Christmas is different things to different people it seems, and that's no surprise. For most, if recent surveys are correct, it's just a wonderful time to reconnect with family and friends, exchange presents, and, perhaps, consume too many calories. This week, the District-based Public Religion Research Institute reported "more than one-quarter (26 percent) of Americans celebrating Christmas this year will do so largely as a non-religious holiday."
Published
December 19, 2013
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New York City is known for many things, but a hotbed of religious activity might not be the first thing people think of in the "city that never sleeps." Nevertheless, that's where the Rev. David Jeremiah, the megachurch pastor from San Diego, headed for a celebration of the Bible on Dec. 5 at Madison Square Garden.
Published
December 12, 2013
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Is the Bible merely a holy book to be read during worship services and for personal devotion? Or can the Scriptures offer clues to better living?
Published
December 5, 2013
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I've been to Jerusalem five times, and each time I learned something new. On my most recent trip, in June 2012, I learned June may not be the best time of year to visit: it was monstrously hot, and, frankly, I suffered!
Published
November 28, 2013
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The seemingly intractable problems of the Middle East — and, indeed, the rest of the world where Christians, Jews and Muslims exist and sometimes collide — might have a simple solution: We need to listen to what everyone is saying so that we might understand each other.
Published
November 21, 2013
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On one level, "The Twible: All the Chapters of the Bible in 140 Characters or Less" might seem, well, just a hair short of sacrilegious: summarize each of the Bible's 1,189 chapters in the 140-character limit of a Twitter tweet. On another, it's just plain fun, which might well be one way to approach the overall themes of Scripture.
Published
November 14, 2013
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The 10-day ecumenical lovefest known as the World Council of Churches draws to a close Friday, leaving this South Korean coastal city little changed other than the bulging coffers of many restaurateurs, hoteliers and taxi drivers. I'm not sure whether it did all that much for Christianity, however.
Published
November 7, 2013
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There are many ways of measuring the impact of a church on its community and the world at large. Here's one you don't often see: A leading management authority cited Ebenezer's Coffee House, a project of Capitol Hill-based National Community Church, as a prime example of what organizations should do to connect with their neighbors.
Published
October 31, 2013
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It's difficult for people to be neutral about Joel Osteen. The television preacher seems either to be loved or hated by millions of people, many of the latter having never heard or read a word of his.
Published
October 24, 2013
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According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a parable is "a short story that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson." Andy Andrews, a writer who lives on Alabama's Gulf Coast, writes novels, not short stories, but he tells parables nonetheless. And, I believe they're parables worth reading — and heeding.
Published
October 17, 2013
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While much recent attention has focused on the fresh attitudes and media savvy of Pope Francis, now in his eighth month as bishop of Rome, another major denomination, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is also seeing its top leaders express a refreshing level of candor.
Published
October 10, 2013
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The release this week of a major new survey of Jewish Americans by the Pew Research Center revealed several intriguing points, but the one that caught my eye was that 42 percent of those polled assert that having a good sense of humor is essential to their Jewish identity.
Published
October 3, 2013
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American Christians have some "Unfinished" business, Rich Stearns asserts, and not just because that's the title of a book he recently released via Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Published
September 26, 2013
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He's been dead for 77 years, and Samuel Logan Brengle's influence was chiefly limited in his lifetime to the Salvation Army, a scrappy evangelical church as much as a social services mission, and to the relatively small cluster of evangelical Protestant congregations comprising the "holiness movement."
Published
September 19, 2013
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The unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney brought with it at least one potentially positive byproduct: a greater public examination — and perhaps more understanding — of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more popularly known as Mormons, after the church's Book of Mormon, which members consider "another testament of Jesus Christ."
Published
September 12, 2013
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