Latest Articles
Across Latin America, the number of Catholics drops, Protestants and unaffiliated increase
In just one generation, Latin America has seen the number of people who identify themselves as Catholic plummet, with more people becoming Protestant or dropping religion altogether, a new report s...
Secret holes
Every family has more people at the table than you can see. If we set the right number of plates, we would have to build way bigger tables.
A life of broken pieces
“This is not the life I’d want!” It’s a declaration I hear often as a pastor.
It’s something I’ve said about my own life too.
Libertarians in the mainline
Last week while I was away, Tobin Grant linked to something interesting: new research, based on 40 years of General Social Surveys, that echoes Grant's own parsing of Pew's Religious Landscapes Survey.
Blow, Louis Prima Jr. and the Witnesses
Is it rock? Swing? Boogie-woogie? Louis Prima Jr. (son of the famous comic swing artist) melodiously mixes all of the above....
Mapping Exile and Return, by Alain Epp Weaver
Alain Epp Weaver offers a new conceptual bridge to explain the Israel/Palestine conflict to U.S. readers and to suggest a way forward.
Tensions rise in Jerusalem over site of Temple Mount and Dome of the Rock
A site holy to both Jews and Muslims, the Temple Mount—known as the Haram al-Sharif to Muslims—is at the center of an intense debate....
Imperial missionaries?
Like it or not, the world’s religious landscape owes much to the long history of European imperialism. But the story of empire and missions is more complex than we might assume.
Evangelicals, gender, and anxiety
A recent meeting of the Conference on Faith and History featured a paper session titled “20th century evangelicalism.” Surprisingly, all three papers focused on conservative Protestant gender ideologies in the years since World War II.
Just a few years ago, I would have expected studies of evangelicalism to emphasize political influence. Is gender the hot new topic?
The prosperity gospel in black and white
Last winter, I wrote a somewhat contrarian blog post on the prosperity gospel. I never did endorse it, but I was trying to talk about the fact that for those on the lower economic margins that happen to think about money, they are more willing to talk about finances and how this relates to their walk with God.
Defrocked, by Franklyn Schaefer with Sherri Wood Emmons
Schaefer’s story of being tried and defrocked by the United Methodist Church for having performed his gay son’s marriage received wide coverage....
Sex in the lab
On Masters of Sex, the wired-up naked bodies are not nearly as titillating as the melodramas that unfold when the characters are fully clothed.
Reign of Christ Sunday (Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Ephesians 1:15-23; Matthew 25:31-46)
God has put "all things under his feet." Shouldn't we be worried about such a portrayal of absolute power?
Bonds of affection: How do we love when we disagree?
Of the four kinds of love, affection is most linked to place. It arises among those who share a common life not by choice but by circumstance.
U.S. Catholic bishops grapple with adapting their agenda to Pope Francis’ priorities
c. 2014 Religion News Service...