Latest Articles
Snake-handling pastor excused by grand jury
An East Tennessee serpent-handling pastor’s legal woes are over for now....
Mentors: Essays by readers
In response to our request for essays on mentors, we received many compelling reflections. Here is a selection.
A man died on the steps of my church Sunday night
Sunday night, a homeless man died on the steps just outside the entrance to the men’s drop-in shelter at Grace Episcopal Church in Madison, WIsconsin, the church I serve....
Why I hate "hipster Christians"
Referring to age or style just isn’t helpful, any more than referring to a woman as “the one with the great legs” would be in a professional setting. It diminishes people. We have different identifiers for Christian authors—reformed, social-gospel, neo-orthodox, liberal, evangelical, progressive, social justice, etc. But none of them reflect Rauschenbush’s clothing or Barth’s haircut.
An Irish peacemaker
Alec Reid’s heroic story sounds as if it comes from a Catholic suspense novel. But it really did happen—in Belfast in 1988.
My father's map
My father once sat me down on the couch and placed a map of Central Europe in my lap. He pointed to two major cities and said, ”We have five months to get from London to Copenhagen....
Architecture of thought
Our intellectual architecture is being dismantled. But it is also being reassembled. I use the architecture metaphor because I believe that what we are creating will be in place for many decades to come.
The selfie and Sojourner Truth
Little did tennis star Andre Agassi know that he was speaking prophetically when he declared in 1990s Canon camera commercials that “image is everything.” The truth of his marketing statement seems everywhere today. Pope Francis was not only Time’s “person of the year.” He was also Esquire’s “best dressed man of 2013.” The new pope is what he says, does and wears.
2013 was also the year of the “selfie.”
At-Risk, by Amina Gautier
The power of Amina Gautier’s stories is in the way they portray the undertow of danger that pulls at African American youth in a Brooklyn housing project.
Sunday, January 19, 2014: Isaiah 49:1-7; John 1:29-42
My father-in-law said that when he began ministry six decades ago, pastors were expected to visit the sick, preach and do a little teaching in the congregation....
Satanists release design for proposed Oklahoma State Capitol monument
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Premarital wisdom: How pastors are counseling same-sex couples
Same-sex couples present clergy with particular challenges. Yet many ministers say this work illuminates their understanding of marriage generally.
Why I'm still holding onto Christmas
While others have been making—and maybe even already breaking—new year’s resolutions or choosing their one word...
Animated stories
StoryCorps has for ten years been producing an oral history of America, recording the voices of everyday people telling about their families, jobs, trials and relationships....