Features
No shows: The decline in worship attendance
Many people assume that there has been a steady decline in worship
attendance for all the mainline denominations since the mid-1960s—the
era when most of them began to see their memberships decline. But
trends in attendance have actually followed their own
patterns.
No secret plan: Why you don’t have to ‘find’ God’s will for your life
The commandments and promises of God are easy to find: they're right there in the Bible. But my students have something else in mind when they refer to "God's will," though it's not easy to say what.
When the shooting stops: Criteria for a just peace
Those who have suffered through war are in special need of God's peace and justice, of reconciliation and restoration. After the smoke clears, Christians must work to foster and promote a just peace.
The Kids Are All Right
The Kids Are All Right has been on a roll since its premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It is directed (and co-written) by Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, Laurel Canyon),
a filmmaker who favors stories about characters who initiate change.
Sometimes this change is intentional, other times inadvertent, but by
the end the status quo is reshaped.
Books
A review of Nine Lives
For most of us, India is a country about which we know little....
A review of Things Seen and Unseen
Cunningham has been keeping notebooks for many years that contain quotes, anecdotes and other snippets from his reading and some of his own theological reflections that he hoped might someday find ...
A review of Contact!
Wouldn't it be great if one of the world's best travel writers, after
60 years and fortysome books, went back through her work and notes and
plucked out hundreds of haunting, revelatory, shimmering moments— brief
encounters that "have been sparks of my work," she might say, "if often
only in glimpses—a sighting through a window, a gentle snatch of sound,
the touch of a hand . . . fleeting contacts [that] have fuelled my
travels down the years, generated my motors, excited my laughter and
summoned my sympathies."
A review of More Perfect Unions
Eighty years ago marital counseling was a brand new profession. Today millions of married couples and 40 percent of all engaged couples
receive counseling.
How our minds have changed
Computers are changing the way we think. "Calm, focused,
undistracted, the linear mind is being pushed aside by a new kind of
mind that wants and needs to take in and dole out information in short,
disjointed, often overlapping bursts—the faster, the better." This is
probably not a good thing, says Nicholas Carr.
A review of The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse
"No whining!" the plaque on my study wall all but shouts. Steven D.
Smith does not whine as he invades a territory frequented by whiners.
Mapmakers for God
Three new books give fresh insights into the complicated history of
evangelical Zionism. Together they present a compelling argument that
the founding fathers of the modern state of Israel were not just
Theodor Herzl and his Zionist Congress, but American and British
evangelicals who exercised tremendous political and economic power in
the 19th century—power that modern-day evangelicals like Hagee and his
allies can only dream of.
Departments
On the road
So much seems possible when we are traveling. We encounter new people and get to know familiar people in new ways as we share meals, chores and adventures.
Sacred Heart Cross
Working with found objects of metal, stone and glass, Leroy E. Fresquez Jr. finds his materials in wrecking yards and demolition sites....
Intolerance in India
Religious freedom has
become a potent rallying cry. That is an excellent development—provided
we avoid turning the issue into a partisan weapon in the confrontation
between Christianity and Islam.
City prayers
Carlyle Marney said that each of us is like a house, with a
living room where we entertain and a dark basement where we store the
trash. And each house has a balcony with all the people
who have influenced and inspired us. The way to
celebrate All Saints Day, he said, is to step out onto the front lawn
and salute the people on your balcony. One of my balcony people
died recently.
Unfinished business
So was the Iraq war worth it? Sixty percent of Americans say no. The claims that originally bolstered the resort to war—that Saddam Hussein's regime threatened the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction and was aligned with al-Qaeda terrorists—were discredited early in the war.
News
Deaths
A memorial service was held in September at New York's Riverside Church for Ernest T. Campbell, the congregation's senior minister from 1968 to 1976. He died July 9 at age 86 in his New York home....
Hawking’s rejection of God unpersuasive, say faith leaders
Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have all rejected claims that belief in the divine has been disproved by British physicist Stephen Hawking, who recently asserted that science leaves no role for God in the creation of the universe....
Theologian Bloesch, 82, sought renewal in UCC while resisting literalists
Donald G. Bloesch, a theologian who as a United Church of Christ minister actively critiqued his denomination's liberal tendencies yet found faults with some forms of evangelical theology, died August 24 in Dubuque, Iowa....
Mormons, Jews reach pact on baptisms for the dead
Jewish and Mormon officials have announced that church policies preventing the posthumous baptizing of Holocaust victims have reduced tensions between them....
Judge dismisses ministers’ suit against hate-crimes law
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Michigan man and three Michigan ministers challenging the constitutionality of a federal hate-crimes law enacted last October....
Mexico City mayor sues Catholic prelate
Marcelo Ebrard, mayor of Mexico City, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, archbishop of Guadalajara, for his claim that Ebrard bribed the country's Supreme Court into backing a gay marriage law appr...
Muslims seek light amid political firestorm
The crowd-control barriers and TV satellite trucks left after a Florida pastor called off plans to burn 200 Qur'ans, but American Muslims say the political firestorm in Gainesville was more than a momentary flare-up....
Episcopal bishop resumes post in Philadelphia
The embattled Episcopal bishop of Philadelphia said he erred in not investigating his brother's sexual abuse of an underage girl 35 years ago, but he also brushed aside calls for his resignation, saying it is more "interesting" for him to remain i...
Political tensions mark 9/11 anniversary
The ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, was observed with prayers and services of remembrance, but also with demonstrations and arguments over plans for an Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York....
PCUSA cleric to appeal same-sex marriage rebuke
A retired California Presbyterian minister, rebuked by the church after being charged with violating her ordination vows by performing marriages of same-sex couples, plans to appeal the ruling, which she said sent contradictory mess...
Anglican priest imprisoned for 360 sham marriages
An Anglican vicar has been sentenced to four years in prison for conducting hundreds of fake marriages as part of a fraud helping illegal immigrants set up permanent homes in Britain....
Lectionary
Sunday, October 17, 2010: Psalm 119:97-104; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
In his love for the law, the psalmist is effusive and sensual; with a few word changes, verse 103 could be said to a lover.
Sunday, October 10, 2010: 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19
The lepers all received healing. What a happy shock that must've been! But only one, a Samaritan, returned and thanked Jesus.