Latest Articles
Other people saying things
"The guillotine is barbaric. But to me, that's a point in its favor."...
North of Hope, by Shannon Huffman Polson
After Huffman Polson’s father and stepmother were mauled and killed by a grizzly bear, she retraced their steps in the Arctic region....
Amid widespread discimination, he ministers to Nairobi’s gays and lesbians
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Kenya’s new polygamy law bad for families, Christian leaders say
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
When science and faith collide, faith usually wins
Believers don’t buy the big bang, godless evolution, or human responsibility for global warming. Actually, neither do many Americans....
Resurrection by inches
It’s been seven years, and I cannot access Jesus' word of peace. The tears still sting and slosh over my pail of remorse.
What makes a clergy group work?
I’m meeting this week with The Well, my yearly cohort group. I laugh more during this week of “preacher camp” than I do any other week of the year. This year has been heavier than normal, with several concerns for friends, loved ones, and ourselves. This has made the mirth all the more necessary and sweet.
Many colleagues have wished for their own preacher camp.
Is it missing the point to take offense at Sarah Palin's reference to baptism?
So, Sarah Palin said this thing the other day about waterboarding and baptism. I wouldn’t bother bringing it up just to say that I, like so many others, find this disgusting.
What’s more interesting to me is the diversity of people who are similarly appalled.
REPORT: State Department should double list of worst religious freedom offenders
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Is the church helping? Christians and the conflict in South Sudan
Churches helped usher in a new era of South Sudanese politics. As the conflict continues, leaders are again seeking to be peacemakers and prophets.
Prisoners and the least of these in American Protestantism
American evangelicals and mainliners often seem worlds apart when it comes to engagement with social issues. Take prisons as a case in point. The rhetoric diverges along the lines that one might expect: mainliners rail against the American mass incarceration system, the new Jim Crow that locks away minorities and the poor and is sustained by in-prison private labor and for-profit facilities. They want to fight this sinful system through activism (protests and petitions), academia (lectures and scholarly books), and artistic endeavors (photo essays and poetry).
Evangelicals seek inmate conversion.
Never Pray Again
In the early days of blogging, when it seemed like a mere handful of people were conversing on-line, I encountered Doug Hagler, Aric Clark, and Nick Larson (also known as Two Friars and a Fool)....
Why you come to church
I don't know why you come to church on a particular Sunday, or why you don't. Sometimes you show up; sometimes you don't. When you don't, maybe it's because you are sick or out of town or your alarm clock didn't go off or you just can't bear to be in a room with those particular people on this particular day. Maybe you are caught between wanting your kids to experience God and a faith community, and the reality of what it's really like to be a part of a faith community.
Gratitude, by Peter J. Leithart
Peter Leithart’s book can be seen as one long act of ingratitude. Sometimes, he seems to be saying it is more blessed to reject than to receive.
Paging God, by Wendy Cadge
Wendy Cadge asks, What happens to religion when hospitals, many of them founded by religious groups, are secularized or otherwise constrained to serve patients beyond their founding communities?
One more time, evangelicals head to Hill on immigration reform
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Sunday, May 11, 2014: Acts 2:42-47
Luke’s report of the church’s economic sharing interrupts our reading of what might otherwise be an easy passage.