Minnesota Independent » Faith-based

Obama taps Minnesotan for faith-based council

Andy Birkey — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:19:30 +0000

The White House on Monday released names of individuals appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and one Minnesotan will help steer the direction of the White House on faith-based issues.

The Rev. Peg Chemberlin will join the council. She’s ran the Minnesota Council of Churches for 13 years and is currently the president-elect of the National Council of Churches. Chemberlin is a member of the clergy of the Moravian Church in America-North, and has included poverty as one of her top issues as a religious leader.

Another Minnesotan, former football coach Tony Dungy, is being considered for Obama’s faith-based council, but has been criticized for his statements about gay marriage.

Salvation Army leader suspended for not marrying Army woman

Andy Birkey — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:34:44 +0000

The leader of the Oshkosh, Wis., Salvation Army was suspended from his job last week because he is marrying a woman who is not a member of the faith-based charitable organization. Capt. Johnny Harsh lost his wife, a fellow Salvation Army officer, to a sudden heart attack earlier this year. He recently became engaged to a woman who is not a part of the organization, and for that, he will likely lose his position there.

“I am not to attend any Salvation Army services. I am not to have anything to do with any of the staff, officers, volunteers — anyone from the Salvation Army,” Harsh told WBAY-TV.

Salvation Army officials have told reporters that all employees sign a statement saying that they will not marry outside the organization. It’s the same rule for every chapter in the world.

A regional board will make a final decision on whether Harsh will be ousted from the Army, which includes loss of his job and his home.

The Christianity-based Salvation Army receives about $100 million in taxpayer funds each year to provide services to the poor.

Public schools take volunteer help on faith

Chris Steller — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:18:29 +0000

Picture this: a clutch of Minneapolis Public Schools students scooting to a church across from their middle school for after-school activities derived from a Bible-based curriculum. That image comes courtesy of Here’s Life Inner City, an organization of the Campus Crusade for Christ, who say they’ve taken the Bible study out of their S.A.Y. Yes! (Save America’s Youth) program. S.A.Y. Yes! is only one of many such church partnerships in the school district’s “new and growing faith-based initiative,” reports Scott Russell at the Twin Cities Daily Planet, who notes that most of the district’s faith-based partners are Protestant and evangelical (the kind of Islamic school that alarmed the Strib’s Katherine Kersten [Commentary response] isn’t yet a part of the mix in Minneapolis). Meanwhile, the Minnesota Monitor observes the district’s retreat from its tough stance early in the 2000s barring the Boy Scouts of America. The district’s lawyers have told the school board, in view of the Minnesota Human Rights Act‘s “creed” protections, they can’t single out the BSA for a ban on the grounds of their religious oath requirement, and that therefore the board must allow BSA flyers to be distributed in the schools.