Beyond Belief
Bach and Beer
Jan Kraybill’s got nothing against football. In fact, she’s come to love the Kansas City Chiefs. But you might say Kraybill fumbled the planning of her debut concert as principal organist at Community of Christ church in Independence, Missouri. [FLEX-CONTENT] It was not until about a month before the January 1999 concert, with promotions already…
Read MoreCalls for Peace, not Pacifism
It was dark and cold outside Saturday as celebrants filled the venue on Kansas City’s West Side. But this crowd was not gearing up for a party in the final hours of the year; it was instead a predawn gathering at the Rime Buddhist Center for the city’s 31st annual World Peace Meditation. [FLEX-CONTENT] By…
Read MoreSeminaries Part of Metro’s Secret Sauce
Religion in the United States has been in transition for decades, as the percentage of the population identifying as Christian shrinks — and particularly as the religiously unaffiliated population has exploded to nearly 25 percent. The effects have rippled through the Kansas City area’s several seminaries and colleges that offer religious education. “The cultural challenges…
Read MoreResurrecting A Neighborhood
As the early Sunday morning service at Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church let out recently, Deacon Roosevelt Hall was happy to explain the large round button pinned to his lapel. “I’m committed,” it read. Yes, Hall said, it was about the 121-year-old congregation’s recently launched building renovation project. But that’s not all Metropolitan’s members are committed…
Read MoreCommentary |Walls That Unite
One morning in June 2007, I stopped by the construction site of a Habitat for Humanity house in the 3700 block of Flora Avenue and noticed that work had come to a temporary halt. As I explained soon after that in a Kansas City Star column, someone at the site had noticed that something didn’t…
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