Latest Articles
Pope Francis declares Oscar Romero a martyr, moves slain archbishop toward sainthood
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
China cracks down on Protestants
(The Christian Science Monitor) Prospective Communist Party members in the region of China where Christianity is growing the fastest m...
England debates legalizing in vitro technique giving baby DNA of three parents
England could become the first country to allow the creation of human embryos from the DNA of three people to try to eradicate a type of genetic disease that has caused the deaths of thousands of b...
Paying for seminary: M.Div.s in debt
Schools rely on tuition and are reluctant to turn students away. But if debt keeps students from following their call, schools will have failed at their mission.
How Selma helped me appreciate organ pipes
Sitting beside my best friend, we tensed as policemen clubbed civil rights protesters. We teared up as Martin Luther King Jr. marched alongside James Bevel, as Coretta Scott King talked with Malcolm X, and as the leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee strained to relate to their elders. Selma was an experience: visceral, soulful, inspiring, and shocking.
A visual image that struck me was based in sound: microphone before King, organ pipes behind him.
Flexibility and strength, at the gym and church
Evidently being able to bend over and touch the palms to the floor isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And here I thought I had received high marks for my excellent flexibility. Why did I not learn this until I was 50? To make a long story short, here is my learning: flexibility is great, as long as it is matched by strength. The opposite is true, too—strength is great as long as it is matched by flexibility. So my chiropractor tells me I’m not allowed to stretch anymore, not until I’ve built up some strength.
I think this might be true for church, too.
Why do so many people think vaccines should be voluntary?
Our normally fractious media and political world has reached an item of consensus: vaccines against deadly diseases are good, and kids should get them. As the Disneyland measles outbreak has brought new attention to the issue of vaccine refusal, prominent politicians have been asked to state their views for the record. Most have obliged with unambiguous statements that vaccines—including the MMR shot, which was linked by a totally discredited study to the incidence of autism—are safe and should be universal.
One outlier was Rand Paul, the libertarian senator from Kentucky, who has a tendency to shoot from the hip in just such situations.
God’s Planet, by Owen Gingerich
Stephen Jay Gould regarded science and religion as addressing different kinds of questions. Owen Gingerich goes a step farther with a more nuanced approach.
Sunday, February 15, 2015 | Transfiguration Sunday: Mark 9:2-9
Let’s build shrines, Peter says. He doesn’t know how to respond to a mystical mountaintop experience, and he’s afraid.
Measles outbreak: Why do some parents choose not to vaccinate?
Why do some parents choose not to vaccinate?...
Religious college presidents see challenges to their schools' religious freedom
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Syngman Rhee, Presbyterian and ecumenical leader, dies at 83
Syngman Rhee, 83, a former North Korean refugee and leader for more than five decades in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and in ecumenical circles, died January 14 in Atlanta shortly after being d...
Young life together: Bonhoeffer as youth minister
From 1925 till the war broke out, it is nearly impossible to find a period when Bonhoeffer was not working with children or teens.
Engaging hate online: Respond & reframe
When pastors make the news, it’s often bad (e.g. murderous DUI, sexual abuse, or curious stunts). It was particularly interesting, then, to read the positive coverage of #usemeinstead—initially positive, at least.
Faith at Sundance
2014 has been described as the year that Hollywood found faith. But if the first-ever panel on faith and film at the Sundance Film Festival is any indication, the discovery of theological depth is still quite a ways off.
Controversial Koch brothers give big (again) to Catholic University
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Why Texas Muslims remained calm in face of angry hecklers
(The Christian Science Monitor) Every other year since 2003, hundreds of Muslim Texans— families, young students, community leaders—ca...
Saved from the German ‘death march,’ he returned to thank his Polish rescuer
c. 2015 Religion News Service...