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Mexican Protestants and politics
Mexico’s popular culture is Catholic, but its politics and state are secular....
Rules, rules and more rules
It may seem odd that at the beginning of the 21st century our lives are so pervasively dominated by rules, big rules and small rules, rules that frame our interactions and rules that enter into the...
Sartorial inelegance
Wife Harriet claims to be able to tell whether we are at a meeting of the American Historical Association or the American Academy of Religion by looking at the kinds of tweed jackets men are wearin...
Go fast and live: Hunger as spiritual discipline
Recently some huge billboards along British Columbia’s major roadways showed black-and-white photos of car wrecks—gashed and mangled metal, clouds of steam and smoke—all illumined under the luridne...
The discovery channel: Sunday, March 11Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Luke 13:31-35; Philippians 3:17-4:1
Some grow in their faith by imitating the faithful. Some enhance their faith through study. But today’s lessons suggest that faith involves discovery....
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood
Canadian writer Margaret Atwood may be most familiar to religious audiences for her 1986 novel The Handmaid's Tale, which satirizes the religious hypocrisy of the right, the political pret...
Faster, by James Gleick
Only a generation ago the settled opinion was that work would soon occupy fewer and fewer of our waking hours....
Flawed leaders
Jesse Jackson is a complicated man. He has been right on most issues most of the time, though certainly not all the time....
Why not human clones? A problematic procedure: A problematic procedure
Last month two fertility specialists, an American and an Italian, announced plans to clone a human being in the next two years....
Summons to ministry
After a large Sunday dinner, family and friends gathered in the living room of my grandmother’s rambling house for the event that made me a Christian....
Mixed messages: Churches' witness on the family
Despite a mounting body of research showing that high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births pose serious threats to the well-being of children, mainline Protestantism has had remarkably little...
Marrying well: It's usually ‘for richer'
The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier and Better Off Financially, by Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher ...
Stories of exile: Children of divorce
The parable of the Prodigal Son is often used to illustrate the gracious and steadfast nature of God’s love....
True purpose
I have always envied people with a spectacular sense of call. I once had a job that involved reading applications for admission to a Methodist seminary....
Paying the piper
He who pays the piper calls the tune. This is reason enough to feel uneasy about the Bush administration’s program to transfer public funds into religious programs. No strings attached?...
Gimme shelter
The Martin Martys of Chicago are friends with the Martin Martys of Zurich, Switzerland. Decades ago the Chicago Martys had the Zurich Martys as house guests....
Easy affirmations: Sunday, March 4 Luke 4:1-13
Lent is the time when we prepare ourselves to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from death. So why do we begin by thinking about temptations?...
Flying arts
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), directed by Ang LeeYi Yi (2000), directed by Edward Yang...