Latest Articles
Unnecessary roughness: The moral hazards of football
A sociologist might see in football a society's need to control and ritualize violence. The church fathers, however, weren't much for sociologists.
Evangelicals seek a future for thousands of frozen embryos
c. 2012 Religion News Service (RNS) The embryo was frozen in liquid nitrogen when Gabriel and Callie Fluhrer found it....
Released: Pastor in Iran, teen in Pakistan
Religious rights activists are hailing the release of an Iranian pastor accused of apostasy and a Pakistani girl who was charged with blasphemy....
Monday digest
New today from the Century: The moral hazards of football, social media and social change, more.
Social media and social change
Social media can reduce activism to a fad—something that we take part in because a particular Twitter hashtag is trending, a video has become viral or a Facebook cause has become popular. It can ignore the hard work that has been taking place over decades and discount a long-term strategy that a community might have.
Saying and doing
Recently, a friend and I were talking about how disturbed and saddened we’ve been by the hateful and decidedly unchristian words spoken by self-proclaimed Christian leaders in recent years. The examples are too numerous to cite, and each has its own agenda of hatred and division. I complained that it was so deeply unfair that such intolerant and offensive perspectives were being allowed to speak for me and all other Christians.
My friend offered a profound and simple response: “Chris, they only speak for you if you don’t speak for yourself.”
Playing the mom card
I always feel like using the mom card highlights some sort of gender defect. My husband was a work-at-home dad for three years, and he has been just as involved in the diaper changing, sick days and parent/teacher meetings as I have. But I always have a feeling that when a guy uses the parent card, people think, What a great dad. But when women use it, people think, What an inept worker.
Lament for small places
If agriculture survives at all on the Great Plains, it will be very limited. What will take its place? Not many people, that's for sure.
Pakistani girl accused of blasphemy is granted bail
September 7 (ENInews)--A Christian girl in Pakistan who has been in custody for two weeks on charges of defaming Islam was granted bail on 7 September by...
Time and space in Mark
Mark has been a constant puzzle to me. I didn’t much care for it for a long time. His sense of urgency and spareness of narrative left me feeling I was reading the Cliff Notes of scripture....
Friday digest
New today from the Century: Lament for the plains, Stephen Hawking biography, more.
Grand theory
Kitty Ferguson's biography of Stephen Hawking is an important book for anyone interested in who and what we are—and where we're going.
Disagreeing in love: A congregation discusses same-sex marriage
I knew I had to talk to him. This longtime church elder would soon see my newsletter article, and he wasn't going to like it.
Muslim delegates at Democratic convention quadrupled since 2004
c. 2012 Religion News Service
(RNS) The number of Muslim delegates attending the Democratic National Convention has quadrupled since 2004, according to a Muslim advocacy group.
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Leader of Nuns on the Bus calls GOP budget immoral
Sister Simone Campbell, who led the summertime Nuns on the Bus tour for social justice, called the GOP budget plan “immoral” in a spirited speech at the Democratic National Convention....
Another Cranmer fan
"The more we read," writes James Fallows, "the more we see reminders that experiences or perceptions we thought were distinctive to us are in fact widespread, even banal." And here I thought I was the only one who ever noticed that!
Fallows has in mind his admiration of the Book of Common Prayer.
Equal opportunity praying
New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan has been a harsh critic of the Obama administration, but he is blessing Democrats and Republicans equally by giving the closing prayer at both parties’ conventions.
The Republicans invited him first, and his acceptance raised questions about whether Dolan, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was lending the authority of the Catholic hierarchy to the GOP. But then the Democrats shrewdly invited him to pray at their convention too. Dolan shrewdly accepted.