Latest Articles
Massive protests, faith leaders, oppose harsh steps against illegals: Demonstrations nationwide
Rallying against a bill passed in the House of Representatives that would accelerate deportations, increase border security and treat illegal immigrants as felons, masses of immigrants appeared in ...
We were aliens: Effects of prayer found to be neutral
It’s a profound, if unanswerable, question for many who ask God to heal the sick: Can prayer actually help another person recover from disease?...
Chasing Jesus: North American Baptist Covenant approved
In a quickly organized meeting, leaders of Baptist conventions and networks comprising more than 20 million adherents in North America explored “additional opportunities for fellowship and cooperat...
SBC totals down? No, just a glitch in reporting: SBC grew, but more slowly than population
The Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, the annual “bible” of data and details on national church organizations, noted in its recently published 2006 edition a 1.05 percent ...
The Jesus diet: He "inspired a generation of young people to challenge injustice"
When William Sloane Coffin Jr....
Don't be ridiculous: No plagiarism or breach of copyright
Britain’s High Court has ruled that author Dan Brown did not plagiarize and breach the copyright of an earlier book in writing his best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, published by Random ...
Iliff seminary names new president: David G. Trickett takes helm
A United Methodist seminary in Denver has named a new president, nearly two years after it became embroiled in charges of racism after its first-ever Hispanic president abruptly stepped down in 200...
Briefly noted
A coalition in Arkansas of community groups and religious bodies led by United Methodist pastor Stephen Copley celebrated their victory for working families April 10 when that state’s govern...
God's time, our time: An interview with Robert W. Jenson
Robert W. Jenson recently retired as senior scholar at the Center for Theological Inquiry in Princeton....
Confirming Erik: The gift of hospice care
There was nothing particularly unusual or newsworthy about my father-in-law’s death at age 84....
Opening act: Uniting church and state
That’s ridiculous! So spake the brilliant, productive, acerbic federal judge Richard Posner....
Seeing things: John 15:1-8
I loved Denny Spear, my first pastor, because he knew my name and greeted me weekly. What I didn’t know was that Brother Spear, as I called him, was a man of great conviction....
Ties that bind (1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18; Acts 4:5-12)
A church in Oregon has a rule: no one in its membership will be in need.
At Ground Zero: Homosexuality and the message of Isaiah
Christians of good heart and good faith sincerely disagree about whether or how biblical passages regarding homosexual behavior relate to the current debates. Exegesis is not solving the problem.
What to do? One way is to seek help from a parallel situation in the Bible, like the one Israel faced following the exile. The question was how to reconstitute the nation. With its institutions shattered, how would Israel move forward?
Parking lot palms
Toward the end of Zadie Smith’s shrewd and entertaining novel, Kiki Simmonds gets into an argument with her husband, Howard Belsey: “All you ever do is rip into everybo...
Blind spots
Eugene Boring and Fred Craddock have endeavored to remake Barton Warren Johnson’s The People’s New Testament with Notes, a classic of...
Saints and sinners
If you know about Jane Addams, you probably know the Jane Addams of Hull House, the Addams who worked for social justice, wom...
Widow's walk
Among the inside-the-beltway commentariat, it goes without saying—although the commentators frequently say it anyway—that the U...