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"I do question whether belief is a productive framework for this story, because it suggests faith in something that lies outside the bounds of human knowledge. To put claims of rape in this category is to buy the idea that rape reports are by nature ambiguous, and that feelings override facts."

Vanier is a man of wisdom who writes profoundly and with clarity....

c. 2014 Religion News Service...

c. 2014 Religion News Service...

It is not as though Mary and Joseph have a choice.

It is not as though Mary and Joseph have a choice.

I got a phone call and it made me angry. It was a follow-up call from a local agency that helps people in trouble in our community. I had phoned them a while back, hoping for some context, some background on a particular couple who was asking our church for material assistance. But they hadn’t had time to respond and a decision had to be made. The people I was talking to were desperate. They couldn’t wait.  “Yeah, we know all about _______,” they said.

Like Simeon and Anna, I had a rough Advent.

I was baptized in a swimming pool in my childhood pastor’s backyard. I was seven. Asked to make a confession of faith, I mumbled something incoherent through chattering teeth....

Several high-profile editors resigned at the New Republic magazine last week after owner Chris Hughes announced he was moving the magazine toward becoming a “vertically integrated digital media company.”   For many observers, the rebellion signaled not only the demise of TNR but the inevitable eclipse of thoughtful journalism at the hands of media gurus like Hughes, who purportedly value only the number of links clicked and webpages viewed.

Pop culture often reduces men to testosterone, with little room to acknowledge themselves as God’s image bearers. But there are glimmers of hope.

Chuck Colson turned seven months behind bars into an opportunity to start over. Now the Justice Department is looking to his example as it tries to reform the federal prison system....

Church leaders say attacks by Somalia’s al-Shabaab militants in the northeast region of Kenya are increasingly taking on an anti-Christian tenor, including targeted executions of non-Muslims....

The dirty river in Jesus' neighborhood and the one in mine

Once again, the epic drama of slavery and freedom is upon us. No, I’m not referring to Ferguson, although others have written extensively on links there to the nation’s history of bondage, legal violence, and avoidance of justice. While others protest, this weekend millions of moviegoers will behold Exodus: Gods and Kings. “Let my people go” will square off against law and order. The fish will die; so will the first born males. The Red Sea will separate, for a time, and then its crashing waters will destroy an army. Exodus has been with Americans since the nation’s birth.

Recently I went to an ordination. I got to be present when a new pastor made her vows, promised to be faithful, put on her stole. I was thinking about how tired I get, sometimes. I was thinking about how everyone says the church is declining, on its way out. I thought back to the weekend before. It had been a busy Saturday at church.

Last Saturday was a stay-at-home-and-read-a-book-with-a-cup-of-something-warm-in-your-hands sort of day. It was the kind of damp cold that goes straight to your bones and chills your toes so that they don't get warm for the rest of the day. It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a good parade-watching day. And yet, there we were, lined up outside the library on Church Street, umbrellas in hand, peering down the street and waiting for the sirens to indicate that the parade had started.

In The Deconstructed Church, Gerardo Marti and Gladys Ganiel give us a comprehensive and revealing ethnographic study of the worldwide phenomenon known as the emerging Christian movement.

God’s word to Nathan and Gabriel’s word to Mary hold a tension that’s at the heart of biblical faith.

(The Christian Science Monitor) For a select group of students at the University of Notre Dame, a typical course load may include Human Biolo...