Faith News Network

Lee University’s plan for establishing a School of Nursing got a big boost recently when its two accrediting agencies gave approval for a fall 2014 start date.

I’m stunned. I’ve never had a flight attendant congratulate me before. In mid-flight somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, I made it. “Diamond Medallion” status. Not in a lifetime. Not in a decade. Nope. Not me. I did it in less than a year.

A regional appeals committee of the United Methodist Church has reinstated the clergy credentials of a former pastor who was recently defrocked for performing a same-sex union ceremony. Frank Schaefer refused to henceforward respect the church’s policies forbidding such ceremonies. Schaefer’s Eastern Pennsylvania congregation experienced rapid decline and tumultuous division before his removal from the pulpit late last year.

Almost every day conservative Christians are told that if we don’t become more enlightened and progressive, we will become irrelevant to society as our numbers continue to decline.