Dr. Joerg Rieger, Wendland-Cook Professor in Constructive Theology at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, will host a transforming event, “Changing The Church ... Changing The World”, on Septemper 9, 2010, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM.  Featured presenters will be Gill and Inez Dawes, and Friedrich Gehring.

We are often told that there is no alternative to the way things are, and that real change is impossible. Gil and Inez Dawes and Friedrich Gehring, however, tell us a different story, based on extensive experience in both church and world.

As a pastor in Germany, Rev. Gehring has fought against the latent fascist tendencies he sees, against the widespread misuse of power in the name of religion, and for the common good. Rev. Gil Dawes has demonstrated a compelling commitment to the core values of the gospel through his pastorate, including a long-standing concern for labor and religion that has been rare in the United States in recent decades. Inez Dawes now spearheads the Iowa Methodist Federation for Social Action, and has previously advocated at the State Capital for social justice issues and worked with justice ministries for immigrants.

All three presenters provide compelling evidence that another church and another world are possible. When a changed church and a changed world work together, transformation can occur. Prof. Joerg Rieger will moderate the event and will highlight transformations occurring in Dallas now and what the future could hold.

Have our country’s “places of worship” become hot-beds for exploitation, oppression, propaganda, and cruelty masquerading as sincere faithfulness to religious and spiritual values? 

A Louisiana state representative from Haughton, Louisiana, a town with a population of less than 3,100 people and 40 churches, introduces a bill that was signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal allowing guns in places of worship.  What’s really behind this bill?  The New Orleans Times-Picayune offers some information for thought in a recent article, “Gov. Bobby Jindal signs bill allowing guns in church.”

An article posted in The New York Times, July 1, 2010, reveals information about the long struggle of sexual abuse among Catholic priests.  An office led by Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “had actually been given authority over sexual abuse cases nearly 80 years earlier, in 1922, documents show and canon lawyers confirm. But for the two decades he {Cardinal Ratzinger} was in charge of that office, the future pope never asserted that authority, failing to act even as the cases undermined the church’s credibility in the United States, Australia, Ireland and elsewhere.”  How many young lives could have been spared the trauma of sexual abuse by priests had action been taken?  New York Times writers Laurie Goodstein and David M. Halbfinger offer insight to the concern in their article, “Church Office Failed To Act On Abuse Scandal.”

So often is the case, a tactic of diversion is implemented to distract from what is really destructive in the Church, and spotlights an easier target that the Church has abused and oppressed for thousands of years – Women!  Sister Joan Chittister’s FROM WHERE I STAND, and a recent article by Thomas C. Fox from The National Catholic Reporter reveal the truth regarding the doctrinal investigation of women religious.

And if all this isn’t disturbing enough, click on the following link for a real experience of “Tea-Party-Jesus’ “ love thy neighbor.