Features
Limits of welcome: The Sunday I told someone to leave
I told her she was upsetting people with her message of accusation and fear. She responded by telling someone nearby that they were going to hell.
Ready for communion: Living in holy space
Sacramentality is the breath of Christian life—life that springs from the sacraments and life that yearns to return to them.
Pulp inequality: How popular culture exhibits the class divide
As the climb of upward mobility has grown steeper, our rags-to-riches entertainments have grown more garish, random, and humiliating.
Heirloom apple trees: Notes from the farm
My favorite heirloom fruit tree nursery sent an e-mail about a sale. With scarcely a thought, I ordered a bucket of trees.
Death without killing: The inhumanity of life without parole
The death penalty is undergoing a welcome decline in the U.S. But the policy that's replacing it isn't much better.
Books
One story, three ways
Robert Gregg traces five scriptural stories as they were later understood by commentators—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim.
Saving the Original Sinner, by Karl W. Giberson
Karl Giberson offers a cultural history of the Bible's first human. It's an intriguing and unsettling story.
Biblical Prophecy, by Ellen F. Davis
Ellen Davis is full of surprises. Some are delightful, others raise questions for further study, and still others throw up stumbling blocks.
Departments
The Canaanite Woman, from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (15th-century Book of Hours)
A non-Israelite woman (in Mark, a Syrophoenician; in Matthew, a Canaanite) approaches Jesus, begging him to heal her daughter. Jesus replies that it is improper to give the “bread of the children” (Israelites) to the “dogs” (gentiles)....
Born again and again
When I told my parents about the altar call, my mother patiently explained that for some of us conversion is an ongoing process.
Revival without tents
I can still smell the wet canvas and sawdust of my father's revivals. He believed that any self-respecting revival was held in a tent.
Misfits in the suburbs
"Why go to the city?" asked one of Bec Cranford-Smith's seminary professors. "There are enough new churches there."
Action plan
Most white people now say race relations are bad and getting worse. Black people overwhelmingly agree. Will we stop talking and do something?
Return of Han
Augustine said the lesson's content is not as important as the teacher's desire. Passion is what instructs—and I'm teaching my children Star Wars.
News
Kim Morrow, Lennox Yearwood Jr., among climate leaders receiving White House award: People
From a zero-waste synagogue to global development work after natural disasters, environmental projects by faith leaders are being hailed by the Obama administration as examples of exemplary leadership on climate change....
Qur'an fragments may be world's oldest
What could turn out to be the world’s oldest fragments of the Qur’an have been found at the University of Birmingham, in the United Kingdom’s second-largest city, which has a 28 percent Muslim population....
Matthew Becker, pastor and theologian, ousted from LCMS
Matthew Becker, 52, an outspoken pastor and professor of theology, has been ousted from the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. He remains on the faculty at Valparaiso University, an independent Lutheran school in Indiana....
U.S. Jewish groups donate to help church in Israel recover after arson
Two American Jewish organizations are among those helping an Israeli church recover from an arson attack....
Mass grave monuments in Ukraine honor Holocaust dead, reopen chapter of local history
Ludvika Sarah Leah Schein, who survived the Holocaust, hadn’t been to her hometown in 70 years. But she still vividly remembers the day Germans came to Rava-Ruska....
'Hands off my church' petition plays on fears French have of Islam
More than 40,000 French signed a petition denouncing a Muslim leader’s remark that some of France’s many empty or underused churches could be turned into mosques....
Activist who took down Confederate flag from statehouse drew on faith, civil rights awakening
As she prepared for her mission—scaling the 30-foot flagpole outside the South Carolina statehouse to bring down the Confederate flag—Bree Newsome reread the biblical story of David and Goliath....
Lectionary
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)
We love to look at people and judge them on the basis of what we see. We looked at Lance Armstrong and saw a guy who beat cancer and won Tour de France titles. We saw Bill Cosby as a barrier-breaking comedian and father figure.
August 23, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time: John 6:56-69
In our Gospel text, some of Jesus’ disciples find his teaching hard. Eating his body? Drinking his blood? I didn’t sign up for this. Couldn’t I just pray for you?