Latest Articles
Reign of Christ Sunday (Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Psalm 95:1-7a; Matthew 25:31-46)
Does our discomfort over God’s judgment come from the fear of taking sides? Or the fear of being found on the wrong one?
Renewing spaces: Designing distinctive churches
Houses of worship have certain physical characteristics that appeal to the senses. Building materials are often precious and placed with care....
Science under siege
Chris Mooney has written a stinging indictment of the Republican Party’s attitudes toward science, focusing particularly on the manipulative and di...
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
Good social analysis, like good theology, should provide at least two things for readers....
Indecent exposure
Whenever Hollywood has tackled the subject of Joseph McCarthy and the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee, the results have tended to be fatuous if not downright embarrassing....
Staying power: Heim at the helm
The congregation I serve recently surprised me by publicly recognizing the 20th anniversary of my arrival....
Court choices: Roe and Republican strategy
President Bush has had two chances to install on the Supreme Court a hard-core conservative pledged to overturn Roe v. Wade at the first opportunity....
Century Marks
Leap of imagination: Christopher Herbert, the Anglican bishop of St. Alban’s, is troubled by strident Christian voices. “There is a noisy, almost angry, literalism around desires to define and codify who is, or who is not, a ‘real Christian,’ and what seems to accompany this is a plodding, narrow biblicism which is punitive in tone and joyless in character.” Apprehending the beauty and truth of God, which involves paradox and apparent contradiction, takes faith, but also playfulness and imagination (Anglican Theological Review, summer).
Devil in the details: When faith is ruled by fear
People say ‘God is dead.’ But how can they say that when I show them the devil?”...
Unsafe sex: Still watching 'Sex and the City'
My husband and I have acquired the somewhat embarrassing habit of settling down on the couch to watch reruns of Sex and the City....
High tea: When law and religious practice conflict
What are the limits of religious freedom? The Supreme Court has taken up a case involving O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, a small sect that blends Christianity with South American spiritism. As a central act of their faith, UDV members ingest a tea called hoasca, brewed by mixing two plants unique to the Amazon basin. The practice has landed the UDV in trouble with the U.S. government because hoasca contains one hundredth of 1 percent of dimethyltriptamine (DMT), an illegal hallucinogen.
Bush courts evangelicals for nominee support: President cites Miers's church membership
Before John Roberts was approved by the U.S....
High court debates assisted suicide law: Oregon law at stake
Epitomizing what is at stake in the battle over a replacement for retiring justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a skeptical Supreme Court heard arguments early last month in a case involving Oregon’s assis...
Campaign opposes 'intelligent design' DefCon mobilizes: DefCon mobilizes
Hundreds of clergy, scientists and academics have launched a grassroots campaign to oppose religious conservatives, beginning with concerted opposition to the teaching of “intelligent design” in pu...
Episcopal leaders nix Mideast divestment: Positive investment and corporate engagement instead
The Episcopal Church has flatly rejected a church-based movement to pull investments from Israel, instead choosing a strategy of “positive investment” among Palestinians and “corporate engagement” ...
Ex-senator Danforth slams harsh rhetoric: Hefty cost of using religion to fuel political agenda
As a three-term U.S....
Relief agencies add quake, floods to list: "An incredible emergency year"
Religious relief agencies, already faced with numerous disasters in the past year, have begun assisting survivors of a massive earthquake in South Asia....
Air Force Academy sued by graduate: Mikey Weinstein challenges proselytization
Mikey Weinstein, an Air Force Academy graduate who has been a sharp critic of the school, has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the air force from encouraging what he considers to be unconstitu...
Mennonite manager resigns after his bankruptcy surfaces: Presidency lasts just eight weeks
Less than a week before he was announced as the new president of Mennonite Mutual Aid, Terry “Skip” Nagelvoort filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, unbeknownst to those who selected him for the position...