Latest Articles
The streets of Baghdad: Rebuilding neighborhoods
I knew Baghdad was in bad shape, but I didn’t expect the vast expanse of urban slums that sprawl across the flatlands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers....
Will Democrats get whacked on religion? Bush has wide lead among religious voters: Bush has wide lead among religious voters
General Wesley Clark says he is a Methodist turned Baptist turned Catholic who attends a Presbyterian church....
Robertson: Bush wins in a 'blowout' Says God told him so
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said he believes God has told him President Bush will be re-elected in a “blowout election” this fall. ...
Pastor calls Dean a 'principled' member: Candidate donated tax rebate to ministries for poor people
Robert A. Lee, the pastor of the First Congregational Church (UCC) in Burlington, Vermont, says that Howard Dean is a supportive member “with strong principled views.”...
Mainliners are swing voters, scholars say: A shift toward the political center
Although mainline Protestants have traditionally voted Republican and their declining numbers have supposedly reduced their impact on elections, a political scientist who has studied church influen...
War on terroism erodes Bush's hold on Muslim vote: Dean and Kucinich poll strong
The result was hardly a surprise, noted Salam Al-Marayati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council....
Bush gets award from Methodist men: For leadership following 9/11 attacks
President George W. Bush has been awarded the highest honors from the United Methodist Men society for his leadership following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks....
Sex trafficking runs rampant, expert says: Forced prostitution
Catholic Sister Clare Nolan stood before a packed audience at the City Club of Cleveland and asked her audience to think about some numbers: Somewhere between 700,000 and 2 million women and girls ...
Europeans warned on female trafficking: Churches urged to step up efforts to fight practice
Churches in Europe are being urged to step up efforts against trafficking in women, a problem estimated to affect hundreds of thousands of women every year....
Relief groups respond to Iran quake losses: Generous international aid needed
Pope John Paul II called for generous international aid to “our Iranian brothers and sisters” even as a range of religious relief organizations began to respond to an earthquake that claimed more ...
Most dioceses comply with sex abuse rules: Audit results in
Exactly two years after the sexual abuse scandal erupted in the Catholic Church, 82 percent of local dioceses have implemented reforms intended to protect children from predatory priests, U.S....
Briefly noted
New Jersey has become the second state to allow embryonic stem cell research after its governor signed a law that has drawn criticism from religious and ethical groups that oppose abortion....
A little hope: In the promises of God
Now and then I take off the shelf Charles Péguy’s Mystery of the Holy Innocents, a book-length poem I first read as a newly minted Ph.D. in 1956, the year it was published....
A more perfect union: Reservations about gay marriage
We have a bumper sticker on our car: “Keep Vermont Civil.” The sticker is a bit tattered, since it goes back to the controversy about “civil unions”—the Vermont law passed in 2000 establishing vari...
Foolish gifts: For gifts to have meaning they must matter to both giver and receiver
My last column was on gift-giving, and I cannot refrain from writing another on the same subject. A recent “Reading File” in the New York Times (Jan....
Singing of sex: Rereading the Song of Songs
Some exegetes and preachers have tried to persuade us that the Song of Songs is an elaborate allegory about the love of God for Israel or of Christ for the church....
Reconciled in worship: An accidental ecumenism
When my wife, Darrah, and I met Andy in the Los Angeles airport, we thought we would never have a real conversation with him....
An outbreak of Easter (Luke 5:1-11)
By Luke 5 Jesus is master not only of the word of God, but also of fish.
Crisis of identity: A clash over faith and learning
It is often said that academic squabbles are so nasty because the stakes are so low. But at Baylor University the squabbles are nasty because the stakes are so high....