Latest Articles
Home church: Gratitude for Ascension Lutheran
The Martys move their residence and parish membership every 43 years, so every 43 years I should devote a column to my parish, Ascension Lutheran in Riverside, Illinois....
Bones of contention: The nature of the resurrection
An old joke has a graduate student giving the news to the great theologian Paul Tillich: “They’ve discovered the bones of Jesus!” To which Tillich replies, in his thick German accent, “So he really...
At a distance: Luke 23:1-49
Several years ago I attended a museum exhibit featuring the works of Vincent van Gogh. It was not an altogether pleasant experience because there was a man in my group who had a peculiar way of taking in each painting. He would stand about an inch away and then move slowly from one side to another, examining each strand of canvas, each dollop of paint. After he had scanned the entire surface of the painting, he would turn and make his way back across with his right ear about an inch away from the canvas. He examined every single painting in this manner.
Unnatural event: Luke 24:1-12
Chances are that your world is either experiencing or anticipating an awakening earth after months of winter slumber. Grass is turning green, azaleas are splashing the landscape with brilliant reds, dogwoods are sprouting pink and white blooms—little Easter catechisms shaped like crosses and complete, each one, with a crown of thorns. When the birds begin their morning songs these days, and the bees their carpentry, we imagine that the sounds they make are Easter music served up by nature, as the church’s most important holy day coincides with the renewed activity of creation.
Capital virtues
There has always been an uncomfortable connection between Sunday-morning and Monday-morning Christianity....
A Nation by Design
North Americans are fond of saying, almost reverentially, that the United States is an immigrant nation....
Second-class soldiers
Nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign-language film, Days of Glory has received plenty of praise for its sometimes stirring story of North Africans fighting for France during World...
The 'I' in sermons: Breaking old rules
I am never quite sure what postmodernity is, but I was struck by Pamela Fickenscher’s delightful essay on postmodern ministry (Off-ro...
Fleeing Iraq: Christian targets of sectarian violence
One of the lesser-known calamities of the Iraq war is the flood of refugees it has produced....
Century Marks
Made in Japan: A Japanese Christian women’s leader has joined opposition political groups in urging the country’s health minister to resign because he said that women are “birth-giving machines.” “We Christian women cannot tolerate the idea that life is produced with machines. We believe that life is created by God and that we receive it,” said Junko Matsuura, chair of the Women’s Committee of the National Christian Council in Japan (Ecumenical News International).
Family reunion: Christian Churches Together
The multidenominational Christian Churches Together in the USA has just about got it together—enough at least for a small celebration....
Unsportsmanlike conduct: The canned-hunt industry
Canned hunts constitute a burgeoning industry, in part because old-fashioned hunting in the wild has become more difficult—a consequence of diminishing ranges and herds and the encroachment of suburbia and exurbia. At present there are at least 1,000 canned-hunt operations in the U.S. (if bird preserves—which release birds just in time for the hunter to shoot at them—are included, the number is closer to 3,000).It is also a highly profitable industry. Here’s what the hunter pays: Axis deer, $1,350; Aoudad sheep, $1,500; buffalo, $3,000; elk, $3,500 and up; red sheep, $4,500.
Presbyterian dissidents find church refuge: Evangelical Presbyterian Church invites them in
Dozens of church representatives of a movement of people unhappy inside the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have voted unanimously to pursue possible refuge within the conservative Evangelical Presbyt...
Conservative, evangelical, charismatic-friendly: Evangelical Presbyterian Church established in 1981
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which is offering a refuge for breakaway PCUSA churches, began 26 years ago with 12 churches and currently has 182 congregations in eight geographic presbyterie...
Ruling to remove gay pastor may rekindle Lutheran debate: Committee removes him while calling for reinstatement
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America may be asked to change a ban on practicing gay and lesbian clergy after a disciplinary committee voted to remove an openly gay pastor but suggested that t...
Bible scholar–translator Bruce Metzger dies: Was general editor for the NRSV
Bruce Metzger, a preeminent New Testament translator and textual critic, died February 13 at his Princeton, New Jersey, home at age 93....
Haggard's cure claim greeted by skepticism: Experts on both sides of debate doubtful
Claims by one of Ted Haggard’s spiritual overseers that he is now “100 percent heterosexual” should be taken with a significant grain of salt, according to experts with differing opinions on the va...