Latest Articles
Talking about Trayvon at church
On Sunday I visited a church that's majority white but not overwhelmingly so. After worship, I stuck around for a planned conversation about Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. Here the demographics were flipped: a slight majority of African Americans.
But the white folks did their share of the talking.
Prayers of a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke
Rilke is best known for Letters to a Young Poet, which encourages readers to “love the questions [of life] themselves . . ....
Dying in community: The black church and hospice care
The American hospice movement is thriving. But its growth has tended to neglect African Americans.
Sunday, August 4, 2013: Luke 12:13-21
Ken Pyle was in his final year at Louisville’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1966 when he met Sheila....
Ignorant but interested
If Americans of a certain age know anything about Puritanism, it is probably because they read something by the (atheist) historian Edmund S. Morgan, the great Yale scholar who died July 8. His book The Puritan Dilemma—which used the life of John Winthrop to describe the Puritans’ religious and political project in America—was widely assigned in high schools and colleges.
I had the good fortune decades ago to take a graduate class from Morgan on American colonial history.
Operation Streamline
They are brought into the Tucson, Arizona, courtroom 70 at a time. Brown-skinned people, mostly men. Dusty jeans. Faded t-shirts. Calloused hands. Muscled arms. Weary faces....
Tuesday digest
New today from the Century: Amy Frykholm on African Americans and hospice, Joanna Harader on Operation Streamline, more.
Same old slander
In this world of constant change, one thing remains predictable: the WSJ will never miss an opportunity to bash mainline churches.
Humanists want a military chaplain to call their own
c. 2013 Religion News Service
(RNS) If Jason Heap has his way, he’ll trade his Oxford tweeds for the crisp whites of a newly minted U.S. Navy chaplain....
Reformist priest sees potential ally in pope
An Austrian priest who’s been banned from speaking at Roman Catholic churches during his three-week U.S....
Meredith Gould: Social Media Gospel
I always savor the chance to speak with Dr. Meredith Gould. She is a sociologist who has written nine books. She is also deeply in love with the church....
Answering with thanks
Deo gratias. That’s what the sign in my office says. It’s not fancy, just two words laser-printed on office paper and tacked up over the computer monitor so I can read it dozens of times a day.
The phrase—which means “Thanks be to God”—is the traditional Benedictine greeting that monks offer visitors.
Just preach the Lord's Prayer?
There is a running joke among preachers that if the lessons seem too tough to tackle, you can always “preach the collect” or, in the absolute worst case scenario, “preach the Lord’s Prayer.” I’ve preached the collect a time or two, but never have I been so bold as to preach the Lord’s Prayer.
Monday digest
New today from the Century: Bashing the mainline, preaching the Lord's Prayer, more.
Eat with Joy, by Rachel Marie Stone
When Rachel Marie Stone offers homilies of food redemption rather than damnation, it may feel like a lovely if disorienting kind of grace.
Words for grieving
It has been a season of losses. I've been reminded of the importance of knowing how to respond, and how not to.
Religious groups face uphill fight in House on immigration reform
c. 2013 Religion News Service...
Redemption
I wished that Hosea and Philemon were not in the lectionary. My reasoning? I don't like that the books uphold the notions of people being bought and sold as property.
Putting "illegals" on "probation"
Greg Sargent reports on how those GOP House members who want to pass comprehensive immigration reform intend to get enough of their caucus on board to do it. He includes their re-exploration of this doozy: keep the rough outline of the Senate’s path to citizenship, but require people to admit their guilt—and instead of calling the middle category “legal status,” call it “probation.” Problem solved: we’re still Tough on Crime!
Friday digest
New today from the Century: John Buchanan on grief, Carol Howard Merritt on bad biblical metaphors, more.