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"Isn’t that an off-brand religion?” One of my son’s soon-to-be-relatives asked this question when he was introduced as having grown up in a Mennonite family. If Mennonites are off-brand to many Americans, then Pentecostals might be known as firebrands. The average person knows very little about either faith. Rhoda Janzen, who has moved from the former to the latter, brings awareness to both.

c. 2012 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) Most Americans do not believe Scientology is a real religion, according to a recent poll by 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair....

c. 2012 Religion News Service (RNS/ENInews) Ecumenical News International announced Monday (Oct....

At age 82, Bernice Mable Graham Telian doubts she’ll live long enough to see the name of her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother and ten others hanged in colonial Connecticut for ...

The psalmist knows loneliness. Even the most faithful believers have anguished over the fear that somehow God is not listening to their cries.

A recent episode of PBS’s American Experience explored how the massive number of deaths in the Civil War sent the nation into shock. The catastrophe—750,000 dead—was equivalent to the U.S. suffering 7 million deaths today. Besides evoking this ghastly experience, Ric Burns’s film Death and the Civil War (reviewed here in the New York Times), which is based on Drew Gilpin’s book The Republic of Suffering, offers a fascinating perspective on current political debates over the size and scope of the federal government.

New today from the Century: The Civil War and the role of government, Pulpit Freedom Sunday, Rev., more.

It has become an exercise in free speech and a challenge to the federal government. "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," the birth child of the group Alliance Defending Freedom, is designed to challenge the 50-year-old Johnson Amendment (501 c 3), which prohibits tax-exempt charities from publicly endorsing or opposing a candidate for office or working on their behalf. On Sunday, October 7, pastors who choose to participate will stand in the pulpit and endorse and/or oppose candidates for office—and no doubt focus on the presidential candidates themselves.

I feared that Rev. would reprise the saccharine sweetness of The Vicar of Dibley. Episode one set me straight.

Parallel Lives of Jesus: A Guide to the Four Gospels, by Edward Adams....

The question isn't who gives more and who receives more at a given moment. It's whether the use of tax dollars serves the common good.

My daily reading is tethered to the rhythms of the sun. In the evening, there is the slow burn of the substantial book beside the easy chair, which I savor in small portions. Early mornings are marked by a different pattern.

Today’s Gospel lesson, though not a traditional baptismal text, embodies the spirit of the sacrament: the ones bringing the children to Jesus are not necessarily parents; they are “people” moved to care for these little ones. This choice of language leads us to ask, if the adults bringing the children to Jesus are not their parents, then who are they? Why do these men and women stand up to the disciples for the sake of children that are not biologically theirs?

In Jordan, reports are mixed as to just how good relations are between the Muslim majority and the Christian minority. What's clearer is that the stronger divide is between native Jordanians and the many Palestinian refugees. The two locals we spent the most time with, our tour guide and our bus driver, represent both differences.

The daily digest posts return. New today from the Century: the editors on the 47 percent, Sam Wells reviews Jürgen Moltmann, more.

Here’s the thing about Jürgen Moltmann. Almost everything he says, you feel you’ve read somewhere before. Now there could be two explanations for this. One, that he’s a creature of fashion: that, like everyone, he speaks out on the environment; on the analogy between the discourse on human rights and the relation to soil, sea and sky; on justice for the oppressed; on God’s coming future. Or two, that he’s a creator of fashion.

c. 2012 Religion News Service (RNS) The Vatican's newspaper declared the controversial "Jesus wife" papyrus fragment "a fake" on Friday (Sept. 28). ...

c. 2012 Religion News Service...

Finally, Mom put the phone down. She took a large basin and placed our nicest guest towels in it. "Carol!" she yelled. "Let's go!"

Susan Nienber at Alban has some good thoughts about how not to communicate about conflict. But I'm puzzled as to why she frames her argument as the problems of e-mail in particular.