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New today from the Century: Denise Frame Harlan remembers Robert Farrar Capon, Paul Gaffney on a feast for those at the edges, more.

I associate with a lot of liberals who are not people of faith. Few of them have any idea what churches are doing to serve their communities.

President Obama's speech last night was a strange one. The administration's strategy of speaking out of both sides of its mouth on Syria continues. (This is a narrow, punitive mission...motivated by broad, humanitarian concerns such a mission won't really address.) Stranger still was the fact that Obama gave the speech at all.

If you look closely, Jesus makes an important cameo appearance in the American Film Institute’s best movie of 2012, Silver Linings Playbook. Most of our attention goes to the bipolar Pat (dreamy Bradley Cooper) and the grieving Tiffany (sultry Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence). They jog, bicker, fanatically root for the Eagles, and dance in the most eyebrow-raising of ways. But one constant amid the family chaos is a framed image of Jesus.

New today from the Century: George Mitrovich on why churches need to tell their stories, Lillian Daniel reviews Helen Simonson and Courtney Sullivan, more.

Both Helen Simonson and Courtney Sullivan write tales of generational misunderstanding in which the elder's voice has the last, not very pretty word.

Before the jihadists fled Timbuktu in February, they burned the city's ancient manuscripts. Except all the ones the residents hid.

From RNS: Too much religion can harm a society’s economy by undermining the drive for financial success, according to a new study in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. . . . The study found that religious people in religious cultures reported better psychological adjustment when their income was low.

New today from the Century: A moderate Islamic legacy in Mali, religiosity and the economy, more.

The prospects for genuine democracy in Egypt are more remote than ever. But there are other models of Islamic politics in the region.

Exodus 32 is too monumental not to mention. And while the lectionary assigns 32:7–14, it’s important to include verses 1–6 as well. I suggest we stop calling this text the “golden calf” incident and begin calling it the “God changes God’s mind at the request of Moses” incident.

I have looked at the world a bit differently since meeting Dr. Kelly J. Baker. When I read that she was an expert on religion, race and zombies, I invited her out for coffee.