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Casualties of war: Nearly half of the 3,000 members of the U.S. military who have died in Iraq have come from towns with fewer than 25,000 residents, and one in five have come from towns with fewer than 5,000 residents. Nearly three-fourths of the casualties are from towns where the per capita income is below the national average, and more than half come from towns where the percentage of people living in poverty is above the national average (Chicago Tribune, February 20).

Just about every marketing card seems to be stacked against Amazing Grace. It’s not just that the film is a costume drama set in England at the turn of the 19th century, or that there are no big-name American actors in the cast. The real obstacle is the setting: it’s a movie about British politicians, in wigs, and the inner maneuverings of the British Parliament. Moreover, Amazing Grace speaks openly of Christian faith and the Bible’s demands for justice for all people—not a recipe for a blockbuster. Yet the film is genuinely inspiring.

After the evening service on Ash Wednesday, I was led off for coffee and conversation by a group of seminary students who wanted to air their frustrations about the recent meeting of Anglican prima...

The public university at which I teach has an ethnically and religiously diverse student body....

Pleading for patience from her church’s restive majority, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori urged the Episcopal Church to refrain from ordaining gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions “f...

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s decision to launch a new Justice Department “First Freedom Project” during a recent meeting of Southern Baptist leaders riled a number of advocates of church-sta...

A delegation of 13 officials of American church-related and peace groups who recently traveled to Iran and met with that nation’s president for more than two hours have urged members of Congress to...

A United Methodist pastor who has sheltered an illegal Mexican immigrant for over six months says he detects changing stances on immigration by some conservative churches as they see growing member...

Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, used what was billed as possibly his last major address to urge followers to unite and cooperate with other faiths....

In a decision being hailed as a major step toward female equality in the Islamic world, the grand mufti of Egypt has said that Muslim women have no obligation to prove their virginity to prospectiv...

Faced with declining membership, dwindling income and more demands to provide community services, Germany’s Protestants see an overwhelming challenge ahead of them....

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments February 28 in a case that, on the surface, is about technical issues but could end up having significant ramifications for the way courts handle church-state...

The five-year-old lay Catholic reform group Voice of the Faithful awarded retired Detroit auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton its “Priest of Integrity” honor February 24 in Washington....

During John Paul II’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2000, the frail pontiff visited the Western Wall, the remnant of the ancient Jewish Temple....

If, as John’s Gospel suggests, Jesus went regularly to the annual festivals of his people in Jerusalem, what was so different that last time that it resulted in his execution?...

Years ago, when I had just begun teaching and wondered what kind of contribution I might make to the great world of scholarship, I spoke with a teacher and scholar whose work I very much admired....

Former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack has abandoned his quest for the presidency because he could not raise sufficient funds....

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....

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...

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.