Latest Articles
Ugandan Anglican bishop defends rebel commander accused of war crimes
In its heyday, the Ugandan rebel force known as the Lord’s Resistance Army was accused of killing more than 100,000 people, abducting 60,000 to 100,000 children, and displacing more than 2.5 millio...
Richard McBrien, outspoken liberal theologian and Notre Dame scholar, dies at 78
Richard McBrien, 78, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame and liberal commentator, died January 25. He had been in poor health for several years....
Renewal from the grassroots
January is a month that signifies new beginnings, new resolutions. There is an individual as well as collective effervescence of renewal.
Catholics enjoyed a similar period of renewal, of collective reimagining, in the aftermath of World War II.
What kind of a pastor does your church really want?
About six months ago I started a new call as the senior pastor of a church in New Hampshire. I truly loved the congregation I previously served, but with a wife who had just graduated from seminary herself, and a feeling that God was nudging me to something new, I began the long discernment that comes with a pastoral search process.
Unlike my first search process, where I sent my profile (the UCC version of a pastor’s resume) to just about every church that was searching, I was more selective.
Poverty's price tags
A report released today by the Children’s Defense Fund details how the U.S. could reduce child poverty by 60 percent.
Specific targets are important in anti-poverty work, and this is an ambitious one (though less ambitious than the report’s title, Ending Child Poverty Now). CDF’s policy proposals include a larger Earned Income Tax Credit and (not or) a higher minimum wage, along with expanded housing subsidies, child care subsidies, and food stamps. Add some more generous rules for tax credit refunds and child support recipients’ federal benefits—along with a new subsidized jobs program—and the whole thing starts to sound pretty expensive.
Not religious, not spiritual
Publishers see SBNRs as a key market, while preachers either court them or put them down. As for Nancy Ammerman, she isn’t sure SBNRs exist.
Sunday, February 8, 2015: Mark 1:29-39
If you’re Jesus, demons will interrupt your mission of proclaiming the message of transformation and hope—even if they have to tell the truth to do it.
A mosque rebounds, fighting extremism in coastal Kenya
(The Christian Science Monitor) Musa Mosque reclaimed its name January 23, declaring it was back on track after an eight-month takeove...
Business of the kingdom
The New Testament offers two compelling models for our relationship with money. When translated into a vision for a whole society, each is flawed.
On the Century's relationship with James Wall
James Wall is listed on the Christian Century masthead as a “contributing editor” along with other former editors and staff members....
What does "middle class" mean?
Dionne Searcey and Robert Gebeloff do a nice job crunching some numbers on what sorts of people are part of the middle class, and how they’re doing (the short version: not great). This caveat of theirs, however, is an important one.
The gift of Ordinary Time
I have a sneaking suspicion this is what matters most.
Not the anticipation of Advent, the celebration of Christmas, the long journey of Lent, or the exuberance of Easter. But the everyday of Ordinary Time.
British churches to celebrate Magna Carta’s 800th birthday by reasserting its Christian heritage
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
In Israeli election, ultra-Orthodox women push to be on party lists
(The Christian Science Monitor) A group of determined ultra-Orthodox women are rejecting the male monopoly on politics in their commun...
Believe it or not: My struggles with the creed
When the congregation starts reciting the creed, I do one of two things: argue with it in my head, or zone out and stop listening.
Prophetic creativity
In the wake of Michael Brown's shooting by Darren Wilson and the subsequent protests in Ferguson, Lauryn Hill posted a song called "Black Rage."