Latest Articles
Religion said to be key to combating female genital mutilation
The one thing that Afrah Farah will tell you about her genital cutting experience is that it happened. She doesn’t want to say how old she was, where it happened or who was or wasn’t with her....
On sex, Muslims and Hindus practice what they preach
With their “True Love Waits” jewelry, conferences and T-shirts, Christians may be the face of the abstinence movement, but Muslims and Hindus are more likely to abstain from premarital sex....
Visiting my dad
I got a call recently to visit someone in the hospital. I didn't know her well, but I recognized her name, and when I got to the hospital, I remembered her husband....
Tuesday digest
New today from the Century: Rodney Clapp's personal soundtrack, Diane Roth on visiting her dad at the nursing home, more.
More evidence that the agricultural system is a mess
Critics of the food movement's emphasis on organic, smaller-scale and local/regional agriculture tend to point out that feeding the world requires large-scale, conventional farming. But we're already producing more food than we need. The problem is drastic inequalities of access.
A new report from Oxfam (pdf) highlights one particularly egregious force behind these inequalities: foreign speculators buying up farmland in poor countries.
Short shrift in a long campaign
The presidential campaign has been an exhausting marathon. Yet it's hardly touched on some major issues facing the nation.
Pre-election themes for All Saints
Many churches, including mine, will mark All Saints Day this Sunday. Of course, politics will also be on everyone’s mind. At first it seemed to me that the two have little in common, but then several connections occurred to me.
Monday digest
New today from the Century: The editors on topics the campaign avoided, Martin Copenhaver reviews Anthony Robinson and Robert Wall, more.
Links? Links.
Here are some things I read recently but didn't get around to blogging about: A prayer for Hurricane Sandy, end the town-hall debate, more.
Called to Lead, by Anthony B. Robinson and Robert W. Wall
In 2006, New Testament scholar Robert Wall and pastor Anthony Robinson coauthored Called to Be Church, a study of the book of Acts....
Saints and doubters
Are faith and doubt opposites? Thérèse of Lisieux and Virginia Woolf are part of the same history.
Deep acting at 35,000 feet, and in the grocery-store line
My friend Jan recently uninstalled the Disaster Alert app on her phone. Her hope was that the app would move her to pray and respond to natural and human-inflicted disasters as they happened. Instead, the app overwhelmed her and stressed her out.
What I'm learning from grief
We have seen a lot of death around here lately. Last summer, our neighbor came by to tell us he was throwing a block party. Two weeks later, he had a heart attack and died....
Friday digest
New today from the Century: Stephanie Paulsell on saints and doubters, MaryAnn McKibben Dana on deep acting in ministry, more.
Faulty assumptions
I entered divinity school assuming that Christians ought to believe something is seriously wrong with the world. But I also loved the world.
Neither Obama nor Romney? Some Christians vote for 'None of the Above'
Is it a sin not to vote? Or perhaps a virtue?...
Billy Graham faces backlash over Mormon 'cult' removal
The Rev. Samuel Wynn admired Billy Graham and his evangelistic association for decades, joining its spiritual crusades and urging fellow Christians to do the same. But no more....
Mormon missionary applications soar by 471 percent
Mormon apostle Jeffrey R. Holland predicted that lowering the age limits for young Mormon missionaries would trigger a "dramatic" uptick in their numbers....
Family Research Council shooter charged with terrorism
WASHINGTON (RNS) A federal grand jury added terrorism to the list of charges faced by the Virginia man who was indicted in the shooting of a security guard at the conservative Family Research Counc...
DNA experiment yields great promise and high ethical risks
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) Future generations could be stripped of mutations like hereditary blindness or maternal diabetes, after a breakthrough study at Oregon Health & Science University....