Latest Articles
Century Marks
Plague on their house: People tend to think of strangers as the spreaders of contagion....
Storm clouds gathering: Lutherans face sexuality issues
This was to be a relatively calm year for Mark S. Hanson, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America....
Gender choice: Is it playing God? Designer children
Don’t get Lizette Frielingsdorf wrong. She loved her three boys—Jordan, Justin and Jake....
Data bite: Capital punishment
The United States ranks third, behind only China and Iran, in reported executions, according to Amnesty International’s annual report on the death penalty....
Bush, Kerry virtually tied for Catholic vote: Kerry leads among Hispanics
President Bush and his presumed Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry, are in a virtual dead heat among American Catholic voters, according to a poll released in mid-April by Georgetown Univers...
Study says evangelicals waver on amendment: Federal Marriage Amendment
A landmark study of American evangelical Christians has determined, among several noteworthy findings, that evangelicals oppose gay marriage but are lukewarm in their support for a constitutional a...
Lutherans settle in Texas sex abuse case: ELCA admitted no wrongdoing
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has reached a settlement with 14 people who filed civil charges against a former pastor in Texas who has been convicted of use of child pornography and se...
Paul: Female hair too sexy to go unveiled: Considered sexual equivalent of male testicles
The apostle Paul wanted women to cover their tresses while praying because he—like the rest of Hellenistic culture then—believed that the long hair of adult females was the sexual equivalent of mal...
Christian Science cuts 125 headquarters jobs: Worst financial situation in a decade
Faced with its worst financial situation in a decade, the Boston-based First Church of Christ, Scientist has undertaken a series of painful belt-tightening measures, including the elimination of 12...
Israel not renewing visas, Catholics say: Government refusal precipitates crisis
The Israeli government’s refusal to renew visas to Christian clergy in the Holy Land has precipitated a crisis with the Vatican and the entire Christian world, say Catholic representatives....
Ugandan faith leaders win Niwano prize: Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative
The Japan-based Niwano Peace Foundation says it will for the first time award its annual prize to an African group—the Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative, which seeks social justice and the...
Fine arts majors most religious, survey finds: Sociology majors least religious
Are biology majors a bunch of godless evolutionists and business students cold-hearted capitalists? Are art and music students the ones truly in touch with their spiritual sides?...
Muslim group partners with temperance body: "A sacred campaign"
The Islamic Society of North America, a leading Muslim umbrella group, is partnering with the National Temperance and Prohibition Council to work on reducing alcohol consumption....
Briefly noted
Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ movie about the death of Jesus earned $17 million over the Easter weekend, making it the eighth-highest grossing film of all time....
Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? Second in a series
In late 2003 President Bush said, in response to a reporter's question, that he believed Muslims and Christians "worship the same God." The remark sparked criticism from some Christians, who tho...
Stand and deliver: Holy words that fly off the page
When I was 12 and far more interested in horses than high culture, my father dragged my sisters and me to a student production of The Pirates of Penzance in the gymnasium at the University o...
Brutal blunder: U.S. supports extrajudicial killing
When the United States vetoed a proposed UN Security Council resolution criticizing Israel’s March 22 assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, it was the 24th time since 1983 tha...
Rambo Jesus: Spiritually, Armadeddon is already here
The American nation . . . is engaged at this very hour in an attempt . . . to Christianize every phase of a righteous war waged to save the life of democracy,” Lieutenant George Stewart Jr....
Video shootout: The games kids play
My Minnesota hometown is the sort of place where neighbors look in on each other and leave the doors unlocked. As in Lake Woebegon, the children are all above average....