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Friday digest
New today from the Century: Peter Marty on Christmas unvarnished, Carol Howard Merritt on Sandy Hook and public theology, more.
Censoring the Top 40
I was visiting friends in Ft. Wayne recently when a popular song came on the radio. I learned the lyrics from Chicago-based stations, so I was a bit shocked when Hot 107.9 censored “sex” out of the song’s hook.
Sandy Hook and public theology
One week after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school, there seem to be so many failures in the ways that our theology is playing out in the public sphere. And while quick responses, blog posts, sound bytes and tweets are important in this moment, as they emerge from varying political and evangelistic agendas they also expose some of Christianity's devastating aspects.
Saving the Soviets
Sunday Adelaja's story sounds like the start of a bad joke: "Did you hear about the African who tried to start a church in the Soviet Union?"
Outsiders bearing gifts
Christmas in the United States is such a mammoth economic phenomenon that when it comes to a crashing end on December 25 it feels like a total cultural collapse....
Stopping gun violence
In the wake of the Newtown shooting, political will is growing to do something about guns. People are moved to act—and we must act.
Churches under fire for using gun classes as outreach
PRYOR CREEK, Okla. (RNS) Pryor Creek, Okla., is gun country....
Report cites ways for IRS to curb lavish ministries
A special commission created by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability has called for clearer Internal Revenue Service guidance and greater efforts by donors to address “outliers” amo...
Contraception opponents hail DC court ruling
Foes of the federal contraception mandate are cheering an appeals court decision requiring the Obama administration to devise exemptions to the new rule for two Christian colleges....
No, the problem at Sandy Hook wasn't the lack of men
Megan McArdle thinks that gun-control measures wouldn't accomplish much but that training kids to run at a shooter instead of away might. That's a weird payoff at the end of a 4,500-word post, but it's not as offensive as Charlotte Allen's argument.
Thursday digest
New today from the Century: The editors on gun control, John Buchanan on the Magi, more.
A thousand shades of gray
Knowing I love the composer Morten Lauridsen, a friend posted Lauridsen’s setting of “Sure On This Shining Night” on my Facebook page....
Vatican works to stop Sunday shopping in Italy
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Roman Catholic Church, trade unions and small business associations have joined forces in a bid to save Sundays....
Listening to Buechner
Algebraic preaching—that’s Frederick Buechner’s term for preaching that may make sense on some abstract level but that depends on terms like “salvation,” “atonement,” “savior” and ...
Why should we take moral direction from Max Lucado?
In the whirlwind of words that have followed the Newtown tragedy, one prominent religious voice has been Max Lucado, a Texas pastor and best-selling author....
Wednesday digest
New today from the Century: Crude religious characters on subtle TV shows, Max Lucado's moral views on guns, more.
Faith in 2-D
It's the golden era of TV, and many shows explore moral and psychological issues with great nuance. Why not take religion as seriously?
Cosmic question: God in a world explained by science
We might still pray for rain, but we can account for thunder without invoking bowling gods. Is there still a place for God?
Unbelief is now the world's third-largest 'religion'
A new report on global religious identity shows that while Christians and Muslims make up the two largest groups, those with no religious affiliation—including atheists and agnostics—are now the th...
Use of death penalty grows rarer in U.S.
Though the number of death row inmates executed in 2012 remained unchanged from 2011 at 43, death penalty opponents say that capital punishment is on the wane....