Latest Articles
Gay and mainline: The success of the MCC
Callers to the California headquarters of an odds-defying denomination—one that worldwide has 300 churches made up largely of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons—are greete...
Map-reading skills
Two friends were driving to a conference at Kirkridge Retreat Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania....
Left behind: The education challenge
A week or so after President Bush assured the nation that education would continue to be one of his top priorities and that no child would be left behind, I had an extended conversation with the pr...
Sullivan travels again
There was an innocent spirit in the movies that Preston Sturges made during World War II....
To Make Our World Anew, edited by Robin D. G. Kelly and Earl Lewis
This history of African Americans is a quintessentially American history....
Greed, by James M. Childs Jr.
Americans suffer from a debilitating disease that deadens the senses and causes people to panic and hoard. Persons of faith aren't immune to it....
Brothers’ odyssey
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), directed by Joel and Ethan Coen Chocolat (2000), directed by Lasse Hallström...
A vocation to save life
Christianity has a long tradition of encouraging people to meditate on the lives of the saints....
Judging Pius XII: What the pope didn't do
In the debate over Pius XII’s response or lack of response to the horrors of Nazi Germany, very few writers have been able to overcome the temptation to depict him either as “Hitler&rsq...
Expanding mystery
Many years ago, when I was struggling to balance the demands of divinity school and the need to produce a weekly sermon for a congregation that sat patiently and graciously through the efforts of i...
Charitable choice: A closer look
What do faith-based groups and social agencies really make of President Bush’s effort to try to expand the role of faith-based groups in addressing social needs?...
Faith-based action: Different groups have different agendas
President Bush has quickly followed through on his promise to preach the message of faith-based solutions to social problems....
Search engine
I think of this column as a kind of search engine. Mention a puzzling item here and you’re sure to get a response....
Gospel sound track: Sunday, April 1 John 12:1-8
One Saturday afternoon, my wife and I escaped to the movies....
Surprise party: Sunday, March 25 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Maybe it’s just my imagination, but has the parable of the prodigal son become something of a bore lately? I know, I know, this is one of the most beautiful stories of grace in the Bible....