Black Church Rumor

In 1992, Jet published “James Cleveland Infected L.A. Youth with HIV, $9 Mil. Lawsuit Claims,” which detailed how the Chicago-born gospel musician had not only allegedly sexually abused his foster son, Christopher B. Harris, but had also “[given] him the AIDS virus.” This article takes this incident of rumor or accusation as a critical opportunity to think about the archival reality of Black queer sexuality, on one hand, and sexual violence in Black gospel music history on the other. Using the legal documents from Christopher B. Harris v. Irwin Goldring as Special Administrator of the Estate of James Cleveland and commentary from Cleveland's contemporaries, it exhumes Cleveland from dusty church closets for consideration in the history of HIV and AIDS in African American Protestant church and gospel communities and in Black queer studies, ethnomusicology, and gender and sexuality studies. Further, it theorizes “Black church rumor” as a lens for Black queer religious studies and argues that Cleveland's perceived queer sexuality distracted from Harris's allegations of sexual abuse. Thus, it situates Cleveland—the person, the preacher, and the gospel legend—in the literature on “down low” sexuality and explicates the implications of Cleveland's legacy and role in Black gospel music production.

Śladami pierwszych misjonarzy protestanckich w Himalajach

The Moravian Brethren formed a very particular community within the Protestant Church. Above all, they had a distinct understanding of the Christian ministry and, consequently, their group had a disctinct missionary character. They were the first to undertake Protestant missions among peoples living far from the centers of civilization and administrative power. This paper describes the author’s encounter with the Himala- yan cultures and traces of Moravian missionaries’ work in the area, discerned over many years of research focusing on the past European activity, its contexts and the durability of cultural solutions it promoted.

Contextual Theology as Heritage Formation: Moluccan Culture, Christianity, and Identity

This article uses the case of Moluccan Protestantism to argue that contextual theology is not merely a postcolonial theological movement, but in some cases also can be understood as part of a larger post-independence political nation-building project of heritage formation. I show how in two key political periods the interests of the Moluccan Protestant church (GPM) and the Indonesian government coalesced. The word ‘heritage’ is central to the Moluccan contextual discourse, and the development of contextual theology resembles practices of heritage formation, being a controlled political process of careful selection of cultural forms, aimed at a sense of ‘authentic’ local identity. The development of a Moluccan contextual theology partakes in the socio-political effort of preservation of Moluccan cultural heritage. At the same time, and paradoxically, the heritage frame in which Moluccan contextual theology is embedded, also hinders the theological goal of contextualization. This article is based on anthropological research into Moluccan theology. Its innovative contribution and relevance lies in the interdisciplinary postcolonial perspective, that understands Moluccan contextual theology as both a theological exercise of inculturation and as a religious expression of Indonesia’s heritage politics.

Jenő Ádám’s Church Music Compositions

"In the present study I intend to present the church music compositions of Jenő Ádám. I will analyze the choral works of the composer that were based on the melodies of Protestant church hymns. The composer was also active as a conductor, but his name is primarily known in the field of music pedagogy. He played an important role in the elaboration and implementation of the Kodály method. In his works pertaining to church music, he adapted the melodies of the most representative church hymns of different ages. He uses both homophonic and polyphonic approaches with his works that have strophic structure or are through-composed. Keywords: Genevan Psalter, Protestant hymn, Kodály method, strophic form, through-composed works, homophonic and polyphonic approaches in composition."

Skisma dalam Gereja Protestan, Warisan yang dapat ditolak

All the differences among the church, the religious differences and those that were largely cultural or political, came together to cause the schism. It evoke when people or things are separate or become separate from other people or other thing. Opinions concerning the nature and consequences of schism vary with the different conceptions of the nature of the church. In the 20th century the ecumenical movement tried to worked for reunion among churches. The big result of the cooperation between Roman Catholics and Protestants after the second Vatican Council (1962–1965) has resulted in more flexible attitudes within the churches concerning the problems of schism. Then, in the Protestant church, schism is a rejectable legacy.

Protestant Church of Maluku Ecclesiology: From Calvinism to Fuse to Become Pancasilaism

This article aims to explore the concept of ecclesiology of the Calvinist-based Protestant Church of Maluku, which fused into Pancasilaism with a contextual approach. This is based on the identity of Maluku and the awareness of being Indonesian ingrained in the life of the Maluku Protestant Church, and this becomes very anomalous if the characteristics and dynamics of life of the unit of observation that are later discovered and displayed are actually westernized. The results of this article are first, to encourage writing down that imagination, which is still in the form of tacit knowledge, as explicit knowledge in books; second, to make theological beliefs the basis for developing imagination; third, to sew sociological facts together with theological premises in one narrative..

THE GOSPEL OF LUTHER

The article deals with the main Reformation ideas of Martin Luther that later influenced the building and formation of the fundamental humanitarian values in Europe and further on in the whole world. The main of them are freedom, justice, autonomy, fairness and responsibility, as well as the value foundations of personal identification, which are closely connected with the problem of free will and choice. They were forged in the process of shaping principles of a new faith by Martin Luther, whereon the new Protestant Church was built with its new ethic dissolving all life spheres of its adepts and building a new type of European rationality. Luther is considered a personality that embodies a significant era in the development of Europe: he did not only demonstrate with his own example what the real faith meant, he set a new direction for the development of society based on the new principles of the Protestant Church. The author of the article analyzes social and geopolitical circumstances under which Luther the Great Reformer lived and formed a new Protestant theology.

Konflik dan rekonsiliasi antarjemaat: Sebuah analisis teologis

Conflict and reconciliation are a reality in the life of congregations. Generally, conflict emerges in the life of the congregation because of non-theological reasons. Principally, congregations involved in a conflict have the responsibility to overcome the conflict. So do the Elpaputih and Samasuru, two congregations in the Protestant Church in the Moluccas involved in a conflict. This research aims to discover the potential reconciliation between these congregations. Through interviews and focus group discussions, the researcher discover that forgiveness is an essential bridge to reconciliation. At the end of the research, the author emphazise that reconciliation is a must because it is a church calling. For this case, the land as the source of the conflict must be a place for reconciliation when perceived as belonging to God and God’s gift. AbstrakKonflik dan rekonsiliasi adalah kenyataan yang sangat sering dijumpai dalam kehidupan berjemaat. Umumnya, konflik yang terjadi dalam kehidupan jemaat didorong oleh faktor-faktor non-gerejawi. Pada hakikatnya, jemaat-jemaat yang berkonflik itu memiliki tanggung jawab untuk menyelesaikannya. Demikian juga dengan jemaat Samasuru dan jemaat Elpaputih; dua jemaat di Gereja Protestan Maluku yang berkonflik. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan potensi-potensi di dalam jemaat-jemaat ini untuk membangun rekosiliasi di antara mereka. Dengan melakukan wawancara dan focus group discussion, penulis menemukan bahwa pengampunan merupakan jembatan menuju rekonsiliasi. Rekonsiliasi perlu dilakukan karena itu merupakan panggilan jemaat, di mana tanah sebagai sumber konflik dapat menjadi tempat rekonsiliasi, ketika tanah itu dilihat sebagai milik dan pemberian Tuhan..