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Race lies behind the widespread belief that Obama is a Muslim, was born outside the U.S. and is something other than a genuine American.

On September 9, when many of our members return from Labor Day vacations or summer travels, the gospel text from Mark and the sacrament of communion might be a powerful combination to welcome folks back to the gospel-centered community. Whether she knows it or not, the Syrophoenician woman’s reference to the table is a persuasive image for her audience. The table stands at the center of Jesus’ ministry.

I felt embarrassment for ...

New today from the Century: The election and race, poetry and politics, more.

Whenever I preached a dense sermon or used too many references, a missionary friend would gently remind me to proclaim the gospel simply.

Tom Stoppard’s wonderful play Rock N’ Roll covers the period between 1968, when Soviet tanks rolled into Prague, and 1990, when the Rolling Stones played the city. It’s Stoppard at his near-best: warm and funny, romantic and revolutionary, dedicated to ideas.  At the heart of the play is the reluctant dissident Jan. In Prague, says Jan, “there is only one agent of truth. That is not human—humans disagree with each other.”

In a few weeks, my partner Daniel and I will celebrate five years of marriage. Since we live in Minnesota, where same-sex marriage is not legal, it was not something recognized by the state....

New today from the Century: Gospel and pith, Pussy Riot and the Plastics, more.

Here are some things I read recently but didn't get around to blogging about: Occupiers and Tea Partiers together, David Brooks being funny, the women of the internet being even funnier, more.

Ever since Westerners discovered Asian cultures they have been intrigued by possible relationships between Christianity and Buddhism.

c. 2012 Religion News Service (RNS) The Taliban in Afghanistan shocked the world this week (Aug. 27) when they beheaded 17 people, allegedly for the crime of dancing at a mixed-gender gathering....

c. 2012 Religion News Service NEW YORK (RNS) The Rev....

By naming devout, conservative Catholic Paul Ryan to be his running mate, former governor Mitt Romney, once a Mormon bishop, did more than ensure that the U.S....

Mitt Romney said recently that one of the reasons he’s distressed about disclosing his tax returns is that everyone would see how much money he and his wife Ann have donated to the Mormon church, a...

Two U.S. regional groups of the Seventh-day Adventist Church have women pastors and are moving faster than the worldwide church on the issue....

Writing in the New York Times Book Review, Richard Posner ...

James Bennet's post from earlier this week made an important and timely point. First he observes that a lot of political reporting has taken a turn from the destructive banality of he-said-she-said false equivalency stuff and toward playing an explicit fact-checking role. (I'm among those who welcome this enthusiastically.)  Then he poses this somewhat chilling question: "What if it turns out that when the press calls a lie a lie, nobody cares?" Bennet was talking about the Romney campaign's ads misrepresenting the Obama administration's policy on welfare-to-work. But his post seems all the more relevant today, in the wake of Congressman Ryan's speech at the RNC last night.

New today from the Century: Jesus and the Buddha, work and leisure, more.

Upton is an award-winning poet, novelist and critic who here writes about the writing enterprise....

Photographer Noel Vicentini captured the end of the Shaker paradise, Eden going to seed. He seemed especially interested in places of joining.