Each week, we bring you interesting stories from around the web. Here’s what caught our eye this week!
INVESTIGATION
Ghost whisperers
With Halloween around the corner…Do the dead remain among us? Paranormal investigators are determined to prove what science rejects, Christianity scorns — and half of Canadians believe…Read Full Article
From ucobserver
RELIGION
More than 250 female pastors and growing
More than 10 percent of ordained pastors in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) are women, and nearly all the church’s 24 dioceses ordain women for the ministry of Word and Sacrament.
ELCT’s Northern Diocese recently celebrated 25 years of women’s ordination in a colorful ceremony attended by over 170 female pastors, including 34 from the diocese, and students of theology. Past and present diocesan leaders were among speakers at the seminar and festive worship, attended also by guests from other parts of the country…Read Full Article
From The Lutheran World Federation
ENVIRONMENT
Hurricane Matthew Leaves Hundreds Dead In Haiti; Homes And Crops Are Devastated
Haiti’s interior minister says the death toll in his country from Hurricane Matthew has jumped significantly to more than 280.
Officials and aid workers are finally being able to get in to parts of the country that were slammed by Matthew on Tuesday. It made landfall in Haiti as a Category 4 storm and was the most powerful to hit the Caribbean nation in more than 50 years….Read Full Article
From npr
SPIRITUALITY
Stop Snacking on Scripture McNuggets
A Bible expert diagnoses the bad habits that keep us from feasting on God’s Word. We use the Bible as a manual or answer book. We look to it as a talisman or horoscope. We proof-text, cherry-pick, and impose our own biases. The sins against Scripture are numerous and, according to Glenn R. Paauw of the Institute for Bible Reading, endemic. And don’t get him started on what the Good Book has suffered at the hand of translators and publishers.…Read Full Article
From Christianity Today
HEALTH
When ‘clean eating’ becomes unhealthy
Over-zealous adherence to a ‘clean’ diet is leading to increased numbers of orthorexia nervosa, an eating disorder that obsesses over eating ‘righteously.’…Read Full Article
From treehugger
I read a lovely benediction by Diana Butler Bass this week, in which she concluded that “All Shall Be Well.” In my most recent book for Woodlake, I try to argue the same thing. Sacraments have been interrupted by technologies, social change, fear, bullying and more. Sacraments are also as important as they have ever been. All will be well. All will also change! As an American, I find myself in a state of pre-election disenchantment. I am so glad for the chance to write and think and read. All will be well.