Latest Articles
Room for religion: What's allowed on government property?
Though the Supreme Court reached different results in two cases challenging government displays of the Ten Commandments, the court’s message was quite clear: in deciding such issues, context is eve...
Muslim moderate? Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan: Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan
Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan
Not by sausage alone: An open Bible in a farmer's rough hand
When I was in Croatia this past May I went on a hunt for kulen, a specialty sausage found in a region of Northeast Croatia called Slavonia. You can’t buy kulen in any store, of course. To get it you’ve got to have friends in very high places—in backwater villages of Slavonia where people raise their own pigs and prepare kulen according to recipes passed on in families for generations.
Lost rites: Godless funerals
Having read Selwa Roosevelt’s review in the Washington Post weekly edition (June 20-26), I intend to read Being Dead Is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the...
World without Roe? The politics of abortion: The politics of abortion
Gearing up for a battle over the next appointment to the Supreme Court, groups like NARAL Pro-Choice America and the National Organization for Women have been warning of the imminent collapse of ...
West coast witness: Matthew 16:13-20
As some friends and I ate a picnic lunch, we fell into a rambling conversation about politics, real estate values in an earthquake zone and the virtues of sauvignon blanc over chardonnay. Then I mentioned offhandedly that perhaps I viewed something or other the way I did because I was a Christian. This revelation did not strike me as a big deal. After all, they had been talking about Buddhist meditation, Sufi parables and personal spiritual rituals.
Dogging Jesus: Matthew 15:21-28
A kneeling woman does not have far to fall, and by all rights Jesus' insult should have floored her on the spot.
Beautiful words: The St. John's Bible project
Bibles are cheap. In their zeal to make scripture accessible to everyone, Protestants have manufactured Bibles in almost every language and made them available for startlingly small sums....
Change agents
Although Muslim reform may seem like an oxymoron to those who see Islam only through the lens of graphic violence, Muslim reformers have been in the sights of jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda for years. Their increasingly bold public stance has made them the natural enemy of those who seek to squeeze followers of Islam into a tight-fisted sectarianism at war with the entire infidel world.
Unfinished business
We live in a new racial time in the U.S., and we still lack adequate language to d...
Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places
For an author who celebrates a sabbath pace of life and ministry—he once wrote commending the “unbusy pa...
When Children Became People
Abortion. Pederasty. Homosexuality. Christian schools. The sacraments....
On gays, American Baptists keep 'paradox' Maintaining an open stance: Maintaining an open stance
Resisting efforts to eliminate organizational havens for congregations that welcome gays, American Baptist leaders and delegates meeting in Denver maintained an open stance on homosexuality—even if...
Repenting: Public laws and public actions
The Supreme Court pleased no one entirely with its mixed decisions in the Ten Commandments cases....
Positive influence: The gospel of reward fills a mainline vaccum
The article in the previous issue on megachurch pastor Joel Osteen set me to thinking about the members of my congregation who are wa...
Century Marks
Malcolm Gladwell, author of the popular book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, was born in Canada to an English father and a Jamaican mother. He did not look black until he let his hair grow out Afro-style. With the Afro he started getting “stopped and frisked on the streets of America for no other reason than looking like a black American.” This experience of racial profiling was the inspiration for his most recent book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, which delves into the psychology of the “unconscious mental processes we all use to size up a person or a situation with just a few telling details” (Black Issues Book Review, July-August).
Others unlikely to follow UCC lead on gay marriage: Activist credits delegates with courage
Members of the United Church of Christ, like their freedom-loving forebears in New England, cherish their local sovereignty and penchant for independent thinking....
UCC synod affirms Jesus as Lord, rejects Israel-linked divestment: Outcomes contrary to expectations of some
Contrary to some expectations, the United Church of Christ convention over the Fourth of July weekend in Atlanta reaffirmed traditional Christian claims and rejected financial divestment tactics ag...
Activists set for justice nominee fight: Sandra Day O'Connor announces retirement
The surprise was palpable in the nation’s capital when Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a crucial swing vote in many of the Supreme Court’s most controversial decisions of the past 24 years, announced ...