Latest Articles
An uncomfortable time to be Muslim in France
The vast majority of Muslims in France hail from former colonies in Africa. Of all of the relationships, the one with Algeria is the most fraught.
Other people saying things
"Charlie Hebdo's biggest problem isn't racism, it's punching down."...
Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
I was in a museum not long ago gazing at a painting of Jesus washing Peter’s feet, a familiar scene to most of us, and wondering why it seemed very wrong. What was wrong was that Jesus was pictured as a mature but young man while Peter was very old and gray. We forget that, if Jesus was in his early thirties, it is likely that his disciples were no older and probably younger by several years.
Page down Facebook until you come to the inevitable shot of a group of young adults in their mid-to-late twenties having a good time, and that’s more like it.
The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert
For Elizabeth Kolbert, the human story reads like a Greek tragedy. Near the end, we realize too late that we brought about our own demise.
Catholic groups rally against climate change amid church debate
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Rumi followers fight to keep tourism industry from cashing in on mystic’s legacy
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
After murders, France seeks unity
Heads of state and religious leaders joined millions on the streets of Paris in a January 11 march for free expression and to remember victims of the shootings at the satirical magazine Charlie...
Anti-Islam protest and counterprotest
(The Christian Science Monitor) In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, the weekly anti-Islam march in Dresden, Ger...
Egypt president Sisi bans offensive images, urges religious moderation
(The Christian Science Monitor) Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi issued a decree January 13 allowing his government to ban an...
African church leaders oppose female genital mutilation in hospitals
International rights groups, churches, and activists are escalating campaigns against female genital mutilation now that girls are checking into hospitals to have the procedure....
Episcopal bishop charged with manslaughter, driving under the influence
An Episcopal bishop in Maryland is accused of killing a bicyclist while driving drunk and texting....
A letter to Thomas Merton
It’s been 100 years since your birth and almost 75 since you entered the abbey. You died with your story unfinished.
Why do people cheat?
Several of my friends found inspiration in Katherine Willis Pershey’s recent encomium to fidelity in the Century. But I felt a strong aversion to the article, a reaction that’s led me into a period of self-examination. Upon reflection, I have almost no objection to the actual content of the article. It’s what Pershey doesn’t say—stuff she is not obliged to say—that has my attention.
The church on fire
Recently I visited a nearby country church with a tumultuous history. Built in a berg called Klondike, it was originally a Catholic church. In the ’90s, the building was hit by lightning. The volunteer fire department bravely climbed up into the attic and put the fire out, at some risk to their own lives. Repairs were made and the church went on.
But a few years later, in 2005, the diocese closed the church, and its members migrated to another nearby parish.
Visions of Amen, by Stephen Schloesser
Stephen Schloesser considers Olivier Messiaen and his music through the lens of a broad-based cultural history. This is fitting and welcome.
British Jews concerned about future in Europe
More than half of British Jews (58 percent) question whether they have a future in Britain or Europe, according to a survey conducted by the Campaign Against Antisemitism....
Christians in slavery
Many scholars have traced the intra-Christian conflicts over slavery. Less noticed are the situations in which Christians were themselves enslaved.
Why Gulf Coast Catholics aren't looking to the pope on climate change
When Pope Francis thinks of climate change, he thinks of social justice. In his 2013 inaugural homily as pope, Francis implored “all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political, and social life” to “be ‘protectors’ of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment.” Speaking at an Italian university a year later, Francis announced, “This is our sin, exploiting the Earth and not allowing her to give us what she has within her.” In 2015, Vatican-watchers expect Francis to produce an encyclical that situates climate change within the framework of Catholic social teaching.
Francis’s position on the injustices of climate change is not new to the Roman Catholic Church.