Latest Articles
Monday digest
New today from the Century: The politics of Israeli archaeology, the trouble with requiring churches to interview a female candidate, more.
Monsieur Lazhar
Movies about education are seldom convincing; their depiction of what goes on in the classroom hardly ever tallies with our own experiences. So the sweet and poignant Quebecois film Monsieur Lazhar is a rare pleasure.
The seeker next door: What drives the ‘spiritual but not religious’?
It’s tempting to dismiss SBNRs as salad-bar spiritualists concerned primarily with themselves. But many assumptions about this group are off target.
Church that stood up for gay rights faces closure
c. 2012 Religion News Service (RNS) The small stack of envelopes that arrives at Grace Community United Church of Christ in St....
PCUSA unit refuses to rebuke Jane Spahr over same-sex marriages
In an unprecedented act of defiance, a California region of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has rejected a ruling from a church court to rebuke a pastor who wed same-sex couples....
Faculty at Baptist college resign rather than sign required morals statement
More than two dozen faculty members have resigned from Shorter University, a Baptist school in Georgia, after it required them to sign a “personal lifestyle statement” that condemns homo&...
Queen Elizabeth favored as Church of England head
Nearly three-quarters of people in England believe that Queen Elizabeth II should retain her position as titular head of the Church of England, according to an opinion poll....
The judge
Like most churches, we occasionally receive requests for money from people in our community. I suspect I am not alone when I say that I have come to dread these calls....
Learning to love Jesusy love songs
I grew up on evangelical praise choruses. I cut my musical teeth playing them at church....
Friday digest
New today (and yesterday) from the Century: Misconceptions about the spiritual-but-not-religious, the editors on why eliminating food deserts isn't enough, more.
A Wasteland Companion, by M. Ward
M. Ward’s solo albums reveal that he surpasses his more-famous collaborators (Conor Oberst, Zooey Deschanel) on all fronts. His sound has a sepia-toned timelessness; it’s both inventive and a whole bunch of kinds of old-fashioned.
Church softball league calls a foul on bisexual pastor
c. 2012 St. Louis Post-Dispatch ST. CLAIR, Mo....
Junk food epidemic
Eliminating food deserts isn’t enough. The nation’s diet problem calls for sustained community attention--and better federal policy.
Life after life after death
While Christian scholars have long questioned body-soul dualism, it remains common in church circles. This may finally be changing.
Stories of life and death
As I reflected on the value of stories last week, I realized it’s also important which stories we tell....
Talking about incarceration
In a recent interview with the Century, Michelle Alexander, the civil rights lawyer and author of The New Jim Crow, wonders about the stigma in many churches attached to people who have been recently released from prisons. “The deep irony,” she says,” is that the very folks who ought to be the most sensitive to the demonization of the ‘despised,’ the prisoners, have been complicit and silent.”
But the kinds of conversations that Alexander’s book seems to demand are very difficult to have--in churches and outside them.