Latest Articles
Spirit and Flesh
If you want to understand how Christian conservatives think, act and interact, here is a balanced narrative combined wit...
Trusting and believing
A pair of British imports explores faith of different kinds. Millions, directed by Danny Boyle from a script by Frank Cottrell Boyce, is by far the slicker of the two....
Keanu to the rescue
Hell wants him, heaven won’t take him, earth needs him.” So proclaims the poster for Constantine. It sounds like an ad for a previous Keanu Reeves movie, the ridiculous Devil’s Advocate...
Beginnings: An early Lent
Those of us who spend a major portion of life in church keep track of time by the sequence of the liturgical or church year as well as by the calendar year....
Unlisted: Influential evangelicals
List-making is a peculiarly modern obsession. The top 20 basketball teams. The top ten best sellers. Ten ways to trim your thighs....
Century Marks
Acting out: Playwright Arthur Miller, who died last month, likened politics to acting....
Parochial politics: The religious divide in the Ukraine
Viktor Yushchenko’s 52-to-42 percent victory over Viktor Yanukovych in the December 26 election in Ukraine reflected not only the centuries-old schism between western and eastern Ukraine, but also ...
Star-spangled hoops: Not all schools salute the flag
At this time of the winter countless high school basketball teams are trying to dribble, pass and shoot their way to a state championship....
God willing: Lincoln on the divine mystery
In September 1862, Union troops were soundly defeated by Confederate forces led by Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee at Manassas Junction, Virginia....
House calls: A vanishing form of ministry
A church I pastored in Portland, Oregon, ran an after-school children’s program. One afternoon someone came to tell me that twin brothers, aged six, had pushed a little girl during a play period....
New Bible woos young adults, skirts critics: Inclusive language
When Zondervan published in 2002 an inclusive-language version of the New Testament by the translators of the older, best-selling New International Version (NIV) Bible, vociferous criticism poured ...
Bible verses compared: Improving clarity in contemporary English
The recently published TNIV, now with an Old Testament translation that continues the shift toward gender-inclusive language, also strives to improve clarity in contemporary English, judging by a c...
Former White House aide says Bush failed on "poor people stuff." "The White House gets what the White House really wants.": "The White House gets what the White House really wants."
A former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives says President Bush has failed to support the program as he had promised....
U.S. Jesuit forbidden by Vatican to teach as Catholic theologian: "Serious doctrinal error"
Following a five-year inquiry, the Vatican has forbidden an American Jesuit priest from teaching as a Catholic theologian because of what were called “serious doctrinal errors” in his work....
Abusive priest sentenced to prison: Case was part of cover-up scandal
Former Boston priest Paul Shanley has been sentenced to 12 to 15 years behind bars for raping a minor in a Catholic church....
Episcopal officials hopeful despite downturn in giving: Financial fallout from Robinson's election
The Episcopal Church is hoping the financial fallout from a gay bishop’s election will level off this year after a conservative-led financial boycott helped create a 12 percent drop in giving in 20...
Methodists plan another ad campaign: Increasing name recognition
Hoping to capitalize on an earlier $20 million ad campaign that raised name recognition of the United Methodist Church, the denomination will spend an additional $25 million on advertising to fill ...
Seminary president ousted over gay daughter's wedding: Kansfield officiated at ceremony
The New Brunswick Theological Seminary, one of the nation’s oldest schools for training mainline Protestant clergy, has retired its president and reprimanded him for officiating at his gay daughter...
Insiders steal big from unsuspecting churches: Churches urged to report embezzlement
When their priest, Brian Lisowski, was caught with an alleged prostitute last summer, parishioners at St....