Confession of a Nazarene

Thursday, February 25, 2010
By Julia Duin

I can't say I've run into too many Nazarenes in my life.

Nazarenes belong to an evangelical Protestant denomination that was founded in 1908 and affiliated with the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition from the 19th century. They are based in Lenexa, Kan., and have 1.9 million members worldwide, including 769,470 in the United States. People who are — or were raised — Nazarene include Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, politician Gary Hart and author Ann Kiemel Anderson.

But they are not known for focusing on the sacramental, which is why I was surprised to find a recent book by a Nazarene college journalism professor on some of the traditional seven sacraments of the Catholic Church: baptism, confirmation, confession, marriage, ordination, anointing of the sick and last rites. the rest