Latest Articles
Members only?
When the church was under siege, passing the peace was important to members meeting in secret. Today, it’s a part of the service I dread.
Leading man
In the holiday movie blitz, one live wire unites two very different films: Christian Bale, who plays the lead in both Out of the Furnace and American Hustle.
Obedient faith
Jesus descends into the baptismal waters as an opening act of messianic obedience. Obedience may not be the most glamorous of the Christian virtues, but it’s the one that I’d like to highlight in this Sunday’s account of Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan.
Cycles of violence
Paula Huston’s novel follows Eva, a tough young American photojournalist, as she searches for her brother Stefan, a priest who has gone missing into the Lacandon jungle, a hotspot of gue...
Congregations turn to compost for lessons on life, death and the environment
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Breast-feeding, on the rise, remains an issue in pews
Jesus was breast-fed. It’s a point often made by mothers who want to breast-feed in church but know others would prefer that they retreat to the nursery or find an out-of-the-way bench....
The young and the generous
We've been told that millennials are selfish, greedy and narcissistic. But the young adults I know don't fit this stereotype.
The way things work
I recently spent part of a morning catching up on some reading on “leadership” for a conference call later in the day....
Small-Town America, by Robert Wuthnow
Robert Wuthnow's stories occasionally confound his data. But he lets the contradictions sit—producing a rich tapestry of small-town life.
Rift grows for United Methodists
A deep divide within the United Methodist Church over how to minister to gays and lesbians has led a Washington, D.C., pastor to suggest the denomination should not wait until its 2016 General Conf...
Conviction reversed in case of clergy abuse cover-up
A post-Christmas court decision that freed a senior Catholic cleric in Philadelphia who had been jailed for shielding an abusive priest was a symbolic setback for victims’ advocates and one with a ...
Same-sex marriages rose rapidly last year
By mid-December 2013, gay and lesbian couples could count eight states that had approved same-sex marriages through court rulings or legislative action that year....
Capitol spectacle
I was prepared to enjoy the theological heart of Catching Fire. But my moviegoing experience was bizarrely affected by all the ads.
Stanley and friends
There will never be another like Hauerwas. His piety-free personality guarantees that.
Children’s right to die affirmed in Belgium
A long-running debate over a child’s right to die is coming to a head after the passage of a bill by Belgium’s upper house of parliament agreeing to extend the country’s euthanasia law to children....
Why are clinics for the uninsured expanding under Obamacare?
The Affordable Care Act is intended to reduce the number of people who are without health insurance. Then why are clinics for the uninsured and underinsured planning to expand?...
Power of naming
When we work with others or with ourselves, we cannot let the diagnosis define us, as humans. We need to resist the temptation to identify one another by our sickness or defects--even though the act gives us a certain power over one another. Looking beyond the label to the context forces us to think theologically about people.
An Illustrated Guide to the Holy Land for Tour Groups, Students, and Pilgrims, by Lamontte M. Luker
This pocket-size book is a good aid for anyone visiting the sites in Israel and the West Bank with biblical significance....
Report: 8 countries on UN Human Rights Council restrict religious freedom
c. 2013 Religion News Service...