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On his talk show, Mike Huckabee had the following to say about the shooting in Aurora, Colorado (that link goes to the Fox video; there are excerpts in print here): Ultimately, We don’t have a crime problem or a gun problem – or even a violence problem. What we have is a sin problem. And since we ordered God out of our schools and communities, the military and public conversations, you know, we really shouldn’t act so surprised when all hell breaks loose.

New today from the Century: Suzanne Guthrie on LA's cathedral, Debra Bendis on new family planning funding, more.

A Penn State VP felt pressured to leave because she didn't understand the "Penn State way." It's a way that's not limited to Penn State.

Jesus and Elisha perform great miracles. What do we modern westerners do with this? It’s possible you come from a church background in which the obvious takeaway is to pray for God to do the same thing in our lives here and now. Or maybe you believe such events are still possible, but less probable. In any case, most of us preachers want to avoid suggesting that the difference between then and now is our lack of faith.

New today from the Century: Stopping child abuse, talking about guns, more.

Writer-director Todd Solondz is the patron saint of schlubs and schlemiels. From his award-winning debut film Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996) through a series of low-budget projects, he casts an empathic eye on outsiders who can’t catch a break, no matter how hard they try.

America's problem with guns is multigenerational and multilayered. It has to do with our origin myths, myths grounded in redemptive violence.

Air travel—perhaps paradoxically—tutors us in patience, a practice in short supply in today's world.

It was a hard time. I was not sure of a direction, and felt like my movement was blocked at every turn. I felt like I had made many mistakes, and was not sure yet if they were fatal mistakes....

I grew up with the Onion—before it was national, it was a Wisconsin thing—and I've long been especially fond of the "Point/Counterpoint" columns....

New today from the Century: Rodney Clapp on flying and spiritual disciplines, Diane Roth on not wanting to "have a prayer," more.

I used to picture humility as a door I was afraid to open. I never thought of it as an itinerary to holiness.

The nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination has decided not to redefine marriage as a contract between “two persons” instead of between a woman and a man....

Liberation theologian José Míguez Bonino died July 1 in Buenos Aires at the age of 88....

The disgraced Legion of Christ religious order needs to rethink its identity before going forward with its internal reform, the papal envoy in charge of the group’s overhaul told priests and lay me...

Poland’s Roman Catholic Bishops Conference has denounced a Council of Europe convention prohibiting violence against women and urged the country’s liberal government not to sign it....

Conditions in the Dadaab refugee complex in northeastern Kenya are worsening one year after thousands of Somali migrants flocked to the settlement, according to relief agencies, which include churc...

In a recent interview with the Century, historian David Hollinger talks about his preference for the phrase “ecumenical Protestants” to describe non-evangelical mid-20th-century American Protestants, instead of the more frequently used terms “liberal” and “mainline.” “Ecumenical” refers to a specific, vital and largely defining impulse within the groups I am describing. It also provides a more specific and appropriate contrast to evangelical. The term evangelical comes into currency in the mid-century to refer to a combination of fundamentalists and Holiness, Pentecostals and others; ecumenical refers to the consolidation of the ecumenical point of view in the big conferences of 1942 and 1945. I appreciated this shift in vocabulary because I have long disliked both the terms “liberal” and “mainline” to refer to whatever-kind-of-Protestant it is that I am.

I posted recently about how the rhetorical category “the middle class” seems to keep growing (even as the actual middle class is shrinking). Then I read Jon Ronson’s article in this month’s GQ. Ronson profiles six people—actually, five individuals and one family—who represent different spots on the U.S. income scale, giving a glimpse of “how to live on $____ a week.” It’s a solid premise, and Ronson approaches his subjects with empathy and a dose of righteous indignation. But I was startled by his methodology.

New today from the Century: Escaping pride, renaming the mainline, framing the middle class.