VOA双语新闻:美国新兴教会吸引大批会众
时间:2018-12-19 作者:英语课 分类:VOA双语新闻 2011年3月
It's Sunday morning at the Jammin Java cafe in Vienna, Virginia. A group of people have gathered in the back - to pray. The sticky floors and low lighting 1 are not exactly inspirational. But this is no ordinary church. It's a new kind of worship that has sprung out of Evangelical Christianity and is being called the Emerging Church.
星期日早晨,维吉尼亚州Jammin Java咖啡馆里,一群人聚集在咖啡馆里面祷告。黏糊糊的地面,灰暗的灯光无法让人感到振奋。但是,这不是一个普通的教堂。它因为采纳了从福音派基督教发展而来的新式敬拜,因此被称为新兴教会。这个教会的名称是“同一桌”。
This particular group calls itself the Common Table. Mike Stavlund, one of the organizers, cradles his baby in his arms as he talks about why dozens of people are gathered here.
迈克·斯塔夫伦德是组织者之一。他一边怀抱他的婴孩,一边解释几十个人来到这里聚会的原因。
"I think people are seeking a personal interaction with the Christian 2 tradition," he says, "so they want to have something they can participate in, something they can feel free to understand and misunderstand."
他说:“我认为,人们寻求的是能够和基督教传统有个人的接触。他们要的是一种能够参与其中、而且有理解和不理解自由的信仰。”
Only a generation ago, Evangelical Protestants were flocking to so-called megachurches with congregations that numbered in the thousands. The worshippers were fundamentalists, including Evangelicals, who view the Christian Bible as the literal truth. The churches were often led by a charismatic pastor 4 who gave fiery 5 sermons against abortion 6 or homosexuality.
福音派基督徒和其他基要派基督徒认为,圣经是千真万确的真理。仅仅二、三十年前,他们还涌入上千人的教会。
Now, a new generation of Evangelical and other Christians 7 is seeking a more personal experience with a different political tone. They are meeting in more intimate settings, like the corner cafe, and no one is told what to believe.
但是,新兴教会的作法完全不同。在“同一桌”教会,没有人被告诉应该信仰什么。
On this particular Sunday, worshippers discussed civil rights. They wrote confessions 8 on papers that were read out anonymously 9.
在这个星期日,敬拜者谈论的是民权问题。他们把忏悔词写在一张纸上,由祷告小组领袖匿名宣读。
"I'm haunted by race issues," one of them said. "I stumble over words whenever I meet black people."
Stavlund says it's okay to question anything - even the most basic tenets of Christian belief.
斯塔夫伦德谈到,他们可以对任何事情提出质疑,甚至基督教的基本教义。
"To me it feels like an honesty, when we have doubts to say we've got doubts, when we've got faith to say we've got faith, but in all of it to be able to be accepting of everybody else," he says.
他说:“对我来说,这是一个诚实的问题。我们有疑问,就承认自己有疑问,我们有信仰,就承认自己有信仰,但是,还要能接纳所有其他的人。”
Many Common Table members are just starting families and searching for a way to practice their faith differently from how their parents did.
“同一桌”教会很多成员刚刚开始组成家庭,并在寻找一个与他们父母不同的信教方式。
Having a woman lead the service is one way Common Table is different. After administering the sacrament, Amy Moffitt says that rightwing politics turned many people here off to megachurches.
由妇女来带领聚会就是一个不同之处。艾米·摩菲特说,右翼政治驱使这里的很多人脱离了超大型教会。
She grew up in Virginia when the Christian Right became influential 10 in Evangelical Christianity.
"When I think of the politicization of this church, I think of the political structure of the institutional church that inevitably 11 leads to power struggles and issues around money. And what's really important to me in the Emergent Church is that we avoid that," she says.
“它使人们失去兴趣。我想到教会的政治化,就想到机构教会的政治结构,它最终会导致权力斗争以及金钱方面的问题。新兴教会对我来说非常重要的一点就是我们回避这个问题。”
Still, the Emerging Church movement is treading on ground that traditionalists call unorthodox, if not heretical.
但是,新兴教会运动所走的路即使不被传统派看作是异教,也被看作是非正统的。
Rob Bell, an Emerging pastor from Michigan, has drawn 12 criticism over his new book. It argues that people of all faiths can go to heaven - something many Americans believe but Evangelical theology rejects.
一位新兴教会的牧师因为在一本新书中称所有信仰的人都可以上天堂而遭到猛烈抨击。虽然很多美国人都相信这一点,但是福音派神学反对这个观点。
Mark Caleb Smith is a political science professor at the conservative Christian Cedarville University in Ohio.
马克·加勒·史密斯是俄亥俄州传统基督教斯德维尔大学的政治学教授。
"If I had to guess, I would say you're going to start seeing splintering among Evangelicals, and people are going to start to choose sides," he says. "And if you know your church history, this isn't unusual."
他说,人们会开始选择站在哪一边。但是如果了解教会的历史,就知道,这并不是什么非同寻常的事。
Indeed, Christianity in America has a long history of schisms 13, and there are hundreds of Protestant denominations 15.
美国的基督教确实有很长的分裂历史,基督教新教有好几百个不同的教派。
But young Americans are increasingly shunning 16 them. One study found that adults aged 17 18 to 29 who say they don't identify with any denomination 14 have more than doubled in the last two decades.
但是,美国年轻人越来越回避参加这些教派。一项研究显示,18岁到29岁的年轻人中,表示不认同这些教派的人过去20年增加了两倍多。
One of the authors of that study, David Campbell, at Notre Dame 3 University, says he expects American Evangelical Christianity will adapt to the younger generation, though Emerging Churches will not necessarily be the next big success.
"Just as the Megachurch as we know it today recreated what it meant to belong to a church and gave people a sense of community in a period where other civic 18 institutions were failing, there's going to be some style of religion - maybe it's this Emerging Church, maybe it's some other movement - that will reach these young people."
- The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
- The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。
- They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
- His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。
- The dame tell of her experience as a wife and mother.这位年长妇女讲了她作妻子和母亲的经验。
- If you stick around,you'll have to marry that dame.如果再逗留多一会,你就要跟那个夫人结婚。
- He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
- We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师:教会的事是由五位执事管理的。
- She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
- His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。
- She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
- A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。
- Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
- His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。
- It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- The manuscripts were submitted anonymously. 原稿是匿名送交的。
- Methods A self-administered questionnaire was used to survey 536 teachers anonymously. 方法采用自编“中小学教师职业压力问卷”对536名中小学教师进行无记名调查。
- He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
- He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。
- In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去,毫无疑问是会散伙的。
- Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。
- All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
- Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。
- The firm is still operating under another denomination.这家公司改用了名称仍在继续营业。
- Litre is a metric denomination.升是公制单位。
- Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
- The service was attended by Christians of all denominations. 这次礼拜仪式各教派的基督徒都参加了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- My flight was more a shunning of external and internal dangers. 我的出走是要避开各种外在的和内在的威胁。 来自辞典例句
- That book Yeh-yeh gave me-"On Filial Piety and the Shunning of Lewdness"-was still on the table. 我坐下来,祖父给我的那本《刘芷唐先生教孝戒淫浅训》还在桌子上。 来自汉英文学 - 家(1-26) - 家(1-26)