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God Complex Radio hosts Frank Schaefer
Rev. Frank Schaefer is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church where he ministered for 20 years....
Churches vary in response to refugees
Europe’s refugee crisis has inspired faith communities across the continent to open their doors to the newcomers and advocate for more state and private help, but the urgency of their calls and the...
Soup-kitchen church
One day, a soup-kitchen guest named what was happening: church, a worshiping community distinct from the larger congregation.
Amelia Boynton Robinson, Selma march organizer, dies at 104
(The Christian Science Monitor) Amelia Boynton Robinson, one of the organizers of the first march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, d...
Jimmy Carter returns to his hometown in new time of challenge
(The Christian Science Monitor) Jimmy Carter, 90, returned to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, after a recent diagnosis that cancer ha...
John C. Dorhauer begins work as UCC president
John C. Dorhauer began work in Cleveland on September 1 as the United Church of Christ’s general minister and president....
The essay I never wrote
I plopped the baby on the ground beside me, mail already scattered across the grass like clumsy confetti. He lunged for the letters; I snatched them up and sighed. A long, muggy summer afternoon; too-hot kids whining about everything under the sultry sun and still hours to go before dinner.
The baby grabbed the envelopes again. I gave in. Junk mail; who cares, he was happy. So I reached for the magazine instead.
Stop blaming debt on debtors
The typical American lawsuit isn't filed against McDonald’s by someone scalded by coffee....
A Philosophical Walking Tour with C. S. Lewis, by Stewart Goetz
Stewart Goetz’s book is provocative and carefully argued. But I am puzzled as to why the ordinary reader of C. S. Lewis would be worried about the road not taken.
Israeli Christian schools strike to protest cuts in public funding
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Abortion foes brace for battle as Planned Parenthood hearings begin
(The Christian Science Monitor) Congressional hearings on Planned Parenthood began today, the first hearings since anti-abortion group...
Another prophetic pope
A new pope arrives in the United States. Expectations are high for this different type of papacy that brings fresh air from a land that has never given Catholicism a pope before. He comes to America as a media star, having energized not only Catholics, but many of other faiths or even no faith at all. His charisma and direct contact with people in the pews contrast starkly with the remoteness and intellectualism of his predecessor as pope. Catholicism has been in the doldrums for more than a decade, but his unexpected election has sparked excitement and curiosity. He gives voice to many who haven't been heard and have been yearning for leadership.
Starting seminary? How not to screw it up
Classes started this week at Luther Seminary following a service complete with presidential sermon and abounding in Harry Potter robes....
Delight in preaching
My sixth-grade sex ed teacher held up a worksheet and apologized: “I know this is sort of unromantic.” Books on preaching can leave us similarly cold.
Pope Francis announces most radical annulment reforms in centuries
(The Christian Science Monitor) The Vatican announced Tuesday the most radical reforms to Roman Catholic marriage annulment ...
In ‘nonreligious’ Japan, shrines still exert a pull
(The Christian Science Monitor) Yasunori Ueda may visit the Ise Grand Shrine every summer to pray to for his family and good health, b...
Ordinary 25B (Mark 9:30-37)
This week’s Gospel may be the second Passion prediction, but being told that Jesus will be killed is no easier on the second hearing. Maybe the disciples don’t ask questions because they’re afraid it could be true.
Belonging or not: My life as a nonjoiner
When I was baptized at 12, I refused what Baptists call “the right hand of fellowship.” I wanted the water but not the fellowship.