Latest Articles
Nigeria delays elections as it fights Boko Haram
(The Christian Science Monitor) The decision by Nigeria’s electoral commission to postpone the general election until March 28 because...
Chilembwe’s rising
A century ago, a period of stunning Christian growth began. Africa's independent churches claim John Chilembwe as a symbol of a new native Christianity, free from its paternalistic and missionary roots.
A woman's guide to getting coffee
The workplace responds differently to the ways women work, and especially when it comes to staying late and helping others. This is particularly true for our work in the church. Being a pastor can be a helping profession in the most beautiful sort of way. We are servant-leaders. But for many women, having a servant’s heart can undermine what we’re trying to accomplish as leaders.
Reporting trips and ego trips
Reporting from Iraq or Afghanistan, Darfur or Haiti, can be alluring and exciting. But the minute some people put on that flak jacket, something happens.
Obama’s God is loving. Is this God just?
At the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, President Obama urged humility about “a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith” to the point where we commit atrocities, like slavery and Jim Crow, in the name of Christ. Critics quickly denounced Obama’s comments as un-American, while supporters defended their accuracy. But few have asked why Obama did not also link Christian conviction to the campaign against slavery and racial injustice.
His theology is telling.
Silence, the way home
The 14th-century Sufi poet and mystic, Rumi, wrote, “Return to the root of the root of yourself.” His words remind me that I often live on the periphery or circumference of life, disconnected from the root of my being and existence. To “return to the root of the root” of myself ultimately means returning to God.
For me that returning necessarily involves intentional silence.
Incurable condition
Not every ailment can be fixed—or should be. Atul Gawande thinks we need to talk about this.
February 22, 2015, First Sunday in Lent: Genesis 9:8-17; 1 Peter 3:18-22
There’s a reason that flood stories are so universal: we fear wiping ourselves out through our own violence.
Pope Francis faces a big week in his effort to reform the Vatican
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Amid criticism, Nigeria postpones presidential election, citing ongoing violence by Boko Haram
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Why I went to seminary: A senators theological education
Long before I sat in Senate hearing rooms listening to witness testimony, I sat in lecture halls at Yale listening to professors dissect Paul.
Obama's entirely mild prayer breakfast speech
Chuck Todd may be right: Obama doesn’t like the National Prayer Breakfast, so he uses his speech to stir up trouble there. I don’t like it either. But it’s astonishing that this counts as trouble.
Can these dry bones become a movement?
Langston Hughes challenged our consciousness by asking, “What happens to a dream deferred?” What results when hope, aspirations, callings, and promises are delayed, put off, postponed, or thwarted? Were they flawed expectations? Do such deferred dreams become burdensome desires that fade and never manifest, forever haunting us?
Six months after Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri—where I serve as a pastor—there are families still wrestling with the question, “What would have happened if...?”
Mission trumps size
Many of us might assume that a church with only 32 members automatically qualifies as a “struggling church,” or even a dying church. But in the case of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Keansburg, New Jersey, many of us would be wrong.
The ‘spiritual descendants of Vikings’ take their turn in the spotlight
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
With full Houthi takeover of Yemen, civil war looms
(The Christian Science Monitor) Yemen’s Houthi rebels have declared political control over the fragile country, disbanding parliament ...
Canadian court strikes down niqab ban for new citizens
(The Christian Science Monitor) A controversial Canadian ban on wearing face veils during citizenship swearing-in ceremonies tested th...