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Teaching Plato in Palestine, by Carlos Fraenkel
Fraenkel taught philosophy to Palestinian youth, Muslims in Indonesia, Hasidic Jews in New York, teens in Brazil, and indigenous people in Canada....
Tired of being targeted, America's Sikhs are standing up for their faith
(The Christian Science Monitor) At the Gurdwara of Los Angeles, a small group of Sikh temple-goers move quietly between prayer and com...
InterVarsity leaders back Black Lives Matter efforts during student conference
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an evangelical college ministry, issued a call to support the Black Lives Matter movement at its yearly student missions conference....
Bargaining with lesser gods: Jephthah's story and ours
We pastors are not likely to encounter Jephthah. But we might encounter someone like the young man who sought me out after a stint in jail.
People who want to be included
I've always assumed that the revelation here is that Jews should let the gentiles into the community. But perhaps the revelation is at least as much the fact that the gentiles want to be included.
The most-read Century book reviews
Here are the Century book reviews that got read the most online this year.
On writing memoir
I met with my writing group as they looked over the pages of Tribal Church. I had written about my experience as a teenager traveling to China as a short-term missionary....
God in weakness
Elizabeth Gandolfo's first book is not just an anthropology. Its more daring and abidingly important gift is a statement about God.
To counter Islam's critics, imam says Muslims need to relearn faith
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Helen Berhane, Eritrean gospel singer and torture survivor, tells story
Gospel singer Helen Berhane found new life in Europe after fleeing Eritrea, where she was locked in a shipping container and tortured for her faith....
Ed Dobson, onetime Moral Majority leader, dies at 65
Ed Dobson, a onetime architect of the religious right who later spent a year “living like Jesus,” died December 26 after 15 years with Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis....
Questions at the door
One Sunday, I invited people to talk to us pastors about whatever troubled them. So after the service, I had no one to blame but myself.
Japanese prime minister, party leaders seek policies that revive Shinto religion
(The Christian Science Monitor) Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s deep adoration for the Ise Grand Shrine, the most sacred Shinto s...
Marvin McMickle and James Forbes Jr. speak at first-ever cross-racial gathering to tackle racism
Marvin McMickle, president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, was one of the speakers at a conference that brought together more than 300 clergy and community leaders to address race rela...
The poem I need most this time of year
It’s that time of the year: the time when I need to carry my favorite poem in my pocket and read it frequently....
The most-read Then & Now posts
Here are this year's most-read posts from Then & Now, a weekly blog edited by Edward Carson, Beth Shalom Hessel, and John D. Wilsey and presented in partnership with the Kripke Center of Creighton University.
Du Bois's lesson we still haven't learned
Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy shot in Cleveland by an officer in training, suffered death. According to an Ohio grand jury, the case is closed.
Elsewhere in these United States, presidential candidates have and will continue to laud America as exceptional.
Borderline, by Stan Goff
The media have been ablaze with stories of police brutality, campus rape, military conflict, and mass murder. Stan Goff insists on a single thread: masculinity.
January 10, Baptism of the Lord: Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
When our collective symbols and stories no longer make sense in our reality, we question who we are. After exile and liberation, the ancient Israelites were so devastated that images of overwhelming waters and fire speak to them.