Latest Articles
After deadly Al Shabab attack, questions about Kenya's approach
(The Christian Science Monitor) The militant Islamist group Al Shabab attacked a bus in northeastern Kenya Saturday and murdered the 28 non-M...
Uproar as Israeli mayor bans Arab workers
(The Christian Science Monitor) The mayor of a southern Israeli city sparked a national uproar by barring Israeli Arab construction...
The other woman
Hagar’s story has often been read as if it explains some inevitable animosity among the Abrahamic faiths. We should try reading it differently.
Mockingjay and monitoring minors
My daughter came home from school—elementary school—reading a book that she absolutely could not put down. Then she starts telling me the plot. “Kids kill one another.”...
God's slow anger
Isaiah 64:5 speaks to God, saying, “You were angry when we sinned; you hid yourself when we did wrong” (Common English Bible).
It took me a long time to come to terms with the idea of God’s anger. In my own faith, the most helpful idea here is that God is slow to anger. If we forget that God is slow to anger, then God is reduced to a cruel monster out to get us. If we forget anger altogether, then God is reduced to a puppy dog who wants to lick our face no matter what terrible things we continue to do. Both God-the-monster and God-the-puppy-dog are idols: images of God that don’t match what the Bible says.
Pressing where it hurts
I had a massage from an excellent massage therapist recently, and discovered my body is full of knots. What was supposed to be a relaxing experience became a confrontation with unaddressed pain, as I discovered that I am in pretty bad shape.
Pope Francis: ‘We have paid too little heed to those who are hungry’
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Pastor on two wheels: The winter I gave up my car
How would I get to nursing homes, or respond to emergencies? What would I do when it snowed? I hoped the answers would come as I pedaled.
Parade of joy
Years ago, I preached a sermon I still regret: a rambling, ill-focused, and sneering screed of a Palm Sunday sermon in which I took cheap potshots at parades....
Finding compassion in a trying land
(The Christian Science Monitor) The first bureaucratic triumph upon our arrival in Jerusalem came at the Ministry of Interior, when a surly woman peeled off our newly minted residency visas and pressed them into our passports.
“We are prisoners of thanks,” my husband and I said, mustering an antiquated Hebrew phrase of gratitude. “Bye,” she replied, with all the feeling of a desert rock.
True and Holy, by Leo D. Lefebure
Engagement in serious, respectful conversation with other religious traditions is important and urgent. Leo Lefebure details why it’s also difficult.
Welton Gaddy retires from Interfaith Alliance, continues as pastor
c. 2014 Religion News Service...