Latest Articles
Muslims cheer shutdown of NYPD spying unit
Muslim and civil rights groups welcomed the news that the New York City Police Department’s Demographics Unit will disband but said they still fear they may be targets of warrantless surveillance.<...
Central African Republic clergy urge faster UN deployment of peace force
Religious leaders, playing an ever expanding role in the troubled Central African Republic, are urging reinforcements for an existing peace mission, even as the United Nations prepares to roll out ...
Take & read: Spring books
Our spring books issue includes scholars' recommendations of the best recently published books in Old Testament, theology, and ethics.
Fine doorstops
Donna Tartt’s novel The Goldfinch connects to both head and heart, while Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit tells of Theodore Roosevelt, an endlessly fascinating figure.
Ministry myths
In a recent interview, someone asked me, “What did you write in Tribal Church that you regret? Is there anything that you would change?” The question reminded me of the fact that we’re always predicting and observing things that may not prove to be true a few years later. Here are three myths that I often hear about ministry that I question.
Conversations at the hospital
This week I’ve spent some time with my five-month-old daughter in the lounge outside a hospital’s intensive care unit. It looks like the person we’re here to see will make a full recovery. But hanging out here means rubbing shoulders with other people whose loved ones are not so fortunate.
The default position is to respect other people’s privacy, but some people want to talk.
What about the 50 days of Easter?
In many of our traditions we observe the 40 days of Lent. But we don't seem to be very good at observing the 50 days of the Easter season.
Yes, we pull out all the stops in worship on Easter Sunday, but then we seem to immediately go back to business as usual.
Jewish thought
Contemporary Jewish Theology: A Reader, edited by Elliot N. Dorff and Louis E. Newman. Here is an introduction to Jewish thought in bite-size pieces....
Protestant, Jewish leaders seek to mend their rift
Prominent mainline Protestant and Jewish leaders are trying to revive an interfaith group that dissolved 18 months ago over a letter the Protestants wrote to Congress about Israel....
A different way to pray
Maybe this is your real prayer for others and for yourself. “Make this trial and tragedy a glimpse of your glory, a window into your world.”
Years of the evangelicals
Long before Sarah Palin met CPAC and the Duck Dynasty clan discovered A&E, George Gallup Jr. famously declared 1976 the “Year of the Evangelical.” Subsequent commentators often pluralized “evangelical.” They might have done the same for “year,” too. In many years hence—1980, say, or 2004—it was 1976 all over again, to judge from the headlines. Those election years highlighted the Christian Right, a force that was not on Gallup’s radar screen back when Jimmy Carter was the prototypical evangelical in public life.
The years of the evangelicals were not only about campaign politics, however.
New study by sociologist Mark Regnerus suggests religion can predict sexual behavior
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Nigerian Christians begin three-day fast after schoolgirls kidnapped
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Church explores other scouting groups after Boy Scouts revoke charter
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Sunday, May 4, 2014: Luke 24:13-35
Our eyes drink in the world around us, but our brains develop filters. I imagine Cleopas and his friend sifting carefully through what they have seen.