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Literal forbidden fruit
I have lived in the U.S. for nearly three years now, and there is so much to love: the beauty and the grandeur of the landscape, the welcome and hospitality I’ve found in one city after another, and so many new friends.
But there is one thing I don’t love so much.
The Good Lord Bird: A Novel by James McBride
The Good Lord Bird is a tale of the antebellum South like none you’ve heard. A young slave is liberated by John Brown, who will later try to ignite a revolution.
Vatican lets public see excavated Roman cemetery
In the first century BC, a grassy hillside just north of what is now St. Peter’s Square was used as a burial place for local Romans....
Re-forming church
It's hard to categorize the various energies shaping new and renewed congregations. But it's clear that a new kind of church is in the making.
This Lent, preach sin—and the Old Testament
I've been enjoying CCblogger Rachel Hackenberg's Lenten sermon series posts. She offers several, separate ideas: on the question "Who do you say that I am?" (following the Narrative Lectionary's readings from John), on prayer practices, on "Lift High the Cross," on the paintings of Anneke Kaai.
But my favorite is Hackenberg's series on the Revised Common Lectionary's Old Testament readings.
A particular story
A year ago last June, my husband and I traveled to South Dakota to help celebrate the centennial of one of the three churches I pastored back in the 1990s. ...
Other people saying things
"It seems like the worst kind of anti-Judaism to posthumously declare someone to be a Christian."...
Tempo Antico, by Newpoli
The eight musicians who compose Newpoli take on a host of southern Italian folk songs on this project, playing traditional instruments....
Pope’s words twisted, says cardinal
As Pope Francis led the world’s cardinals at talks in Rome, a senior American cardinal took to the pages of the Vatican newspaper to reassure conservatives that Francis remains opposed to abortion ...
Well done, Governor Brewer
Well, good for Jan Brewer. Yesterday, the Republican governor of Arizona vetoed a bill allowing business owners to discriminate against customers on religious grounds. The bill wasn't explicitly, exclusively aimed at gays and lesbians, but come on—it was aimed at gays and lesbians, part of a multistate effort to create broad protections for people who don't want to serve same-sex couples.
Circles of love
There are moments when I can see the walls melting away, short seasons of shalom when I catch glimpses of blessed unity. Then, even in places where unity should be most possible, the walls go up again, the circles draw in tighter.
The depth of our dividedness baffles me. How can I love my enemy when that enemy deflects every overture of interest, denies any possible middle ground, demands agreement on an endless list of positions (political, theological, economic) before discussion can begin?
The New Mind of the South, by Tracy Thompson
Thompson is trying to update Wilbur Joseph Cash’s classic 1941 work The Mind of the South....
Free on the inside
Joshua Dubler shows up at a maximum-security prison as a budding ethnographer. He becomes a man captured by friendships.
Oleksandr Turchynov’s Baptist faith may help defuse Ukrainian crisis
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Update: Bob Jones University rehires firm hired to investigate sex abuse
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Being Christ's body
Years of experience don’t ease the journey toward a family waiting in an ICU. We pastors feel terribly inadequate, and at the same time incredibly grateful that the vocation allows us into the most intimate situations.