Latest Articles
How to find a church: Don't skimp on the coffee
I keep getting e-mails from people who say, “Your church sounds nice. I wish I could find one like that.” ...
Favorite poems
When George Herbert (1593-1633) was near death, he asked that the manuscript later published as The Temple be passed on to his friend Nicholas Ferrar....
Help wanted
A mere two years after publishing an absorbing study of anger, Garret Keizer has produced a probing work on an even thornier subject....
To the Mountaintop
If salvation for the United States means the flourishing of nonviolence, racial integration...
Sons of Mississippi
One picture has become a symbol of white resistance to James Meredith’s 1962 entrance to the University of Mississippi as its ...
Scholarship and Christian Faith/Educating for Shalom
In higher education discussions about ho...
The abortion lady
Writer-director Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake is about a real-life figure jailed in England in 1950 for administering abortions. The film’s point of view is pro-choice....
Poor priorities: Making poverty a nonnegotiable issue
The Call to Renewal’s “Rolling to Overcome Poverty” project is attempting to convince religious people to start talking about poverty again....
Muzzling a Muslim: The revocation of Tariq Ramadan's visa
Most Americans, including most American Christians, are woefully ill-informed about Islam....
Century Marks
Something about that wall: In 1996 writer William Zinsser and his spouse met with Duong Tuong Tran, a writer, poet and Vietnam’s most influential art critic....
Vicious cycles: The anxious congregation
As I travel around the country visiting and consulting with congregations and clergy, I find that many are caught in vicious cycles. The vicious cycles seem more common than the virtuous ones....
Episcopal Church chided but not sanctioned: Controversial proposals
The Episcopal Church should apologize for stirring disunity, but will not face serious sanctions for allowing an openly gay bishop, an Anglican church panel said in long-anticipated recommendations...
Campaigning for civility, compassion: Three initiatives
Pastor Jay Geisler had grown weary of fellow Christians squabbling over political ideology. He wanted issues put in the context of the poverty and hopelessness in neighborhoods near his St....
UCC official urges new fairness doctrine rules: Countering personal attacks
The plans of Sinclair Broadcasting to show an anti–John Kerry documentary days before the November 2 election “demand restoring the personal attack rule and the Fairness Doctrine,” urged Gloria Tri...
Methodist bishops open D.C. office: Across from the Capitol
The United Methodist Church bishops have opened their first permanent office in Washington with retired Bishop Roy I....
Belated Democrat bid in religious outreach: New Web site for religious voters
Less than a month before the national election, the Democratic National Committee unveiled a new Web site for religious voters, as well as a new director of religious outreach, after some earlier c...
High court to hear Commandments cases: Cases from Kentucky and Texas
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear two cases related to ongoing questions about the constitutionality of displays of the Ten Commandments in public places....
Divestment plan could harden Israel's stance, warn peace groups: Might be the wrong strategy
If mainline Protestant church groups divest from businesses operating in Israel, as some say they might, it could actually harden rather than soften Israel’s stance toward Palestinians, warn promin...
African woman wins Nobel Peace Prize: Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai
Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, whose tree-planting movement defied political leaders, was praised by Samuel Kobia, the World Council of Churches’ general secretary—and a fellow Kenyan—fo...