Latest Articles
Taking vouchers to school: May not help inner-city education
Imagine a state-run voucher program that allows parents to use their vouchers at any public or private school—a Montessori-style school, say, or a John Dewey–inspired “progressive” school, or an av...
Iraq:Don’t go there: Attack would violate 'just war'
"Wars are not won on the defensive,” asserts Vice President Dick Cheney....
Just war divide: One tradition, two views
Speaking at the U.S. Military Academy in June, President Bush offered an expansive statement articulating a doctrine of preemptive action against rogue states and terrorist groups....
Moderates unite? The future of Southern Baptist dissidents
Should moderate Baptists, now fragmented into various groups, consolidate their forces into a full-fledged national denomination and try to provide a compelling alternative to the conservative Sout...
Take this job: Satisfactions of ministry
"Ministry a satisfying vocation.” Headlines like this one appeared in newspapers, church periodicals and elsewhere this past spring, as Duke’s (Lilly-funded) Pulpit and Pew Project reported the ini...
Bombing a peace plan: Sharon: man of war
Before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict plunges even further into its cycle of violence, we should pause to examine one day in July when peace almost broke out....
Looking smart: Visible wisdom
Fifty-five years ago an eccentric and rather egocentric seminary professor called my roommate into his office and asked him to exchange eyeglasses....
SBC hints of leavingBaptist WorldAlliance: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship seeks BWA membership
An 11-year conflict between the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Southern Baptist Convention reached the international stage in Spain....
Gays and theBible: A response to Walter Wink
The tone of Walter Wink’s review of my book The Bible and Homosexual Practice is a disheartening reminder of how mean-spirited...
A reply by Walter Wink: A conversation on gays and theBible
Robert Gagnon’s treatment of my own work in his book The Bible and Homosexual Practice is anything but irenic....
Unforgiven: Matthew 18:15-20; Romans 13:8-14
Jesus knew forgiveness would always need special emphasis.
A questionable God: Exodus 3:1-15; Matthew 16:21-28; Romans 12:9-21
When a rabbi was asked, “Why is it that you rabbis put much of your teaching in the form of a question?” the rabbi replied, “So what’s wrong with a question?” The rabbi may be on to something....
Suicide bombers: The 'just war' debate, Islamic style
Tucked away in an account of the Jewish resistance to Antiochus Epiphanes is the story of a hero’s sacrifice. The Book of 1 Maccabees describes the prebattle scene....
Ivory Towers on Sand, by Martin Kramer
This bombshell of a book indicts the American academic Middle East studies establishment as guilty of minimizing and ignoring the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and of thereby failing to anticipate...
A priest's tale
The Morebath whose voices are chronicled in Eamon Duffy's narrative is a remote and tiny sheep farming community in England's West Country....
Sunshine and shadows
If there were such a thing as an American moviemaker laureate, the title would go to writer-director John Sayles....
Dames and dragons
At the center of Lovely and Amazing is a dysfunctional family of mostly women....
All church is local: Behind the statistics
One of the reports the stated clerk makes to the General Assembly of my church when it gathers for its annual meeting is about statistics: how many members we gained and lost, how many infants were...
Rumor of war: Alternatives to invasion
The U.S.’s stated plan to take out Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is deeply troubling....
Praying for Sarah: When death is a blessing
Recently, I prayed for someone to die. She wasn’t an enemy. She was the beloved teenage daughter of two exceptionally fine church friends....