Latest Articles
The gift of infertility: From despair to celebration
Infertility—a gift!? Poison and a curse—that’s how this unexplained infertility of ours felt to me for what seemed like an eternity....
Open season: Surviving church conferences
Here is a recommended summer reading list: Robert’s Rules of Disorder, Extreme Boxing, No-Rules Gladiatorial Games, Cockfighting, The Laws of Rugby Football...
End of days: NBC's 'Revelations'
Theology geeks with whom I’ve discussed the NBC miniseries Revelations are usually indignant that it does not engage in a scholarly, historically aware study of the book of Revelation....
Crusades revisited: 'Kingdom of Heaven'
Thousands of medieval Christians answer the spiritual call of the pope, take up arms, and travel to the Holy Land to defend the faith against a barbaric and militaristic Muslim foe....
Qur'an abuse story roils Islamic World: Anti-American riots
If a Qur’an is accidentally dropped on the floor, the person who dropped it makes a contribution to charity in atonement. Copies are never placed at the bottom of a pile of books....
Anti-Muslim incidents up 49 percent in U.S. Harassment, violence, discrimination: Harassment, violence, discrimination
The largest U.S. Islamic civil rights organization has reported that acts of anti-Muslim discrimination increased by 49 percent last year....
UCC delegates to consider divestment: Economic pressure
The United Church of Christ will vote in July on whether to pull invested church money from U.S....
Bush cites scripture to Calvin College grads: "Love your neighbor as yourself"
In a commencement address at Calvin College, President Bush urged graduates of the Christian college in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to serve others as the Bible commands....
Advocacy group ends long Disney boycott: Cause lost on "crowded cultural battlefield"
Citing other challenges in a “crowded cultural battlefield,” the conservative American Family Association announced that it has officially ended its boycott of Disney theme parks and products initi...
Can we be friends? Pastor-parish relationships: Pastor-parish relationships
Now concerning the love of brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another . . ....
Holy contention: The freedom to raise questions
It is not clear whether Thomas Reese was forced, pressured or strongly encouraged to resign as editor of the Jesuit weekly America....
Slave wages: Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42
We are still free to choose whose slaves we will be.
Dying to live: Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39
"The walking dead.” These are the words of African-American soldier Leon Bass as he described the horror he saw when Americans liberated prisoners in the Buchenwald prison camp in April 1945. Today some call confirmed drug addicts “the walking dead.” Then there’s the book/film Dead Man Walking—which describes many of us spiritually.
Sound alternatives
Day of ColoursReal World Records, World music/QawwaliRizwan-Muazzam QawwaliThe brothers Rizwan and Muazzam, nephews of the late Sufi singing great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, deliver a majestic album. Imagine the droning power of Gregorian chant melded with the expressiveness of blues shouters. With the simple instrumentation of harmonium and tablas, Colours addresses spiritual themes central to the Qawwali tradition. “Light of My Life,” a Persian song in praise of Allah, is particularly arresting.
Space opera finale
In creating Revenge of the Sith, the third (chronologically) and final (cinematically) installment in the six-film Star Wars saga, George Lucas confronted a writing challenge unpreced...
Setting it right
When Paul speaks of God “justifying” the “ungodly” Abraham when he believed God, Paul does not mean that Abraham was morally “wicked.”
Telling your own story
I recently gave a seminar on memoir at a public library in Talladega, Alabama....
Catching Light
If the increasing number of book titles and Web sites devoted to the subject is any indication, discourse about religion and film ha...