Michael Bates: August 2025 Archives

Mainline Protestantism's Fall? - Juicy Ecumenism

Mark Tooley writes: "The membership of Mainline Protestant denominations has declined by millions, and thousands of churches have closed. Many more thousands of churches, some barely surviving with a dwindling number of elderly members, will close soon. But thousands of Mainline congregations endure. Some are vital. A few are growing. And nearly universally they have very few members who care about their denominations. These members simply like their congregations....

"Some Mainline clergy are stuck in old habits and still pretend we are in 1985. Their churches will fade along with the denominations. But others are wiser. I recently lunched with a young Episcopal cleric whose church is near ours. The parking lot is full on Sundays. He told me when he came there during the pandemic while the church was physically closed the old congregation melted away. The nearly 200 people there now are young and overwhelmingly indifferent to the Episcopal Church. Some are Southern Baptists. Many have children. They like having a local church with ministries for their families. He is meeting their needs. This Episcopal priest is not conservative, but he declined a liberal parishioner's demands that he be politically outspoken from the pulpit. He knows that will not work. And it does not interest him."

Sounds of the NBC Chimes | The NBC Chimes Museum

History of the network's three-note signature with clips of its use over the years and its predecessors. The first clip on this page is of an announcer in 1924 reading a long list of network affiliates, like KSD St. Louis, WGY Schenectady, and WFAA Dallas. The page includes the use of the "fourth chime" -- the final note, repeated -- as an alarm to summon news staff to headquarters and to alert affiliates to imminent breaking news.