Latest Articles
Israelis reverse stand on Robertson: Response to Robertson's apology
Israel ended its brief suspension of relations with Pat Robertson after the controversial religious broadcaster apologized for suggesting that Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was divin...
Mayor regrets 'God's will' remark: Nagin apologizes
Faced with howls of protest, Mayor Ray Nagin apologized January 17 for claiming that a vengeful God smote New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina because of heavenly disapproval of America’s involvement...
Filipino churches seek global Christian help over assassinations: Church workers and human rights activists in danger
Filipino churches seeking justice over the summary killings of church and human rights workers are looking to the international Christian community to pressure the government in Manila to put a hal...
School district pulls ID course after suit: Philosophy course dropped by California district
Just days after being sued, making national news as a result, a California school district agreed to stop teaching a “philosophy” course that critics said promoted creationism and intelligent desig...
Vatican newspaper rejects ID as science: Editorial lauds Dover decision
The Vatican has moved to clarify its position in the intelligent-design debate, publishing an article in its newspaper that dismisses ID on scientific grounds and embraces a recent court ruling in ...
Briefly noted
The Florida Supreme Court has overturned that state’s school-voucher program, saying it violates the Florida Constitution....
Dose of forgiveness: Isaiah 43:18-25; Psalm 41; Mark 2:1-12
In the play A Thousand Clowns, by Herb Gardner, a character named Murray discovers that he can offer a simple apology to almost anyone—even a complete stranger—and he or she will forgive hi...
No good divorce: The children's perspective
In a marriage, two people with different backgrounds and often different values come together and work to merge their two worlds into some kind of unity. When they divorce, however, the job of making sense of their two worlds and the conflicts that arise between them gets handed from the adults to the child. Now the child is on his own to negotiate the different beliefs and values and ways of living that he finds in each parent's world.
Fractured family: A review of The Squid and the Whale
A cynical teenager, backpack slung over one shoulder, sighs to his buddy who’s just announced his parents’ divorce: “Joint custody blows.” So begins The Squid and the Whale, the Kramer vs...
Walking in place: A decision to quit the journey
Here at the beginning of the New Year, I have resolved to quit the journey. What journey is that, you may ask. Judging by the language I both use and hear, it is the linear journey of life. Day by day, I wish people well on their journeys, as they wish me well on mine. Sometimes we offer to go with one another at least part of the way. When this is not possible we offer each other provisions for the journey—a book, a pocket cross, a mantra. But recently have I begun to notice how believing in the journey interferes with giving myself fully to the life I have right now.
Bonhoeffer for us: Asking the key questions
For the first time in the United States,” said the book blurb, “a number of Christian thinkers gathered to analyze Bonhoeffer’s theological achievement for publication.” So eight of us claimed—I wa...
Healed, not cured: 2 Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 30; Mark 1:40-45
They both were angry, and they had a right to be angry. Judy’s mother was chronically ill, and would be for the rest of her life. As an only child Judy felt responsible, and she did her duty, caring for her mother without assistance. She counted the cost all the way, exhausting people around her by eliciting sympathy from them, and then moving on to others. Judy talked often about what kind of help she needed, but she never actually looked for help. She had decided that God had willed her a difficult life, and that nothing would be good again until after her mother died and Judy was relieved of her burden.
Not a slam dunk
The myth that sports are racially redemptive makes for formulaic movies. Glory Road feels a lot like Remember the Titans....
After divorce
Elizabeth Marquardt’s book sat on my shelf for many weeks. I really wanted to read it....
After the loving
The central message of Stephanie Coontz’s history is that marriage is in big trouble....
Augustine on the couch
For Catholics and Protestants alike, Augustine’s views of grace and freedom have set the theological agenda....
Lost in the Forest
To keep his two-year-old son amused during long family dinners, a father invents a game: he tells the story of a little boy who finds himself in a scary, dange...
Masked man
Adopting the approach of most movies made about the life of the notorious pleasure seeker, Lasse Hallström’s Casanova isn’t a biography but a free-form embellishment....