Latest Articles
NYPD did no wrong in secretly surveilling N.J. Muslims, attorney general report says
c. 2012 Religion News Service NEWARK, N.J....
Decoration Day
There's a danger in making veterans into secular saints. The saints don’t need us to give their deaths meaning; they died fully rewarded.
Ready, set, speak!
It was late and one chair sat empty when I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach....
The Nature Principle, by Richard Louv
In Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv sounded an alarm over the loss of outdoor experiences for children. Not only children, however, need to be outdoors.
Holy small talk
In the fellowship hall, theology becomes incarnational and takes on all the fleshly concerns brought to church that day.
Director of Vatican Bank resigns under pressure
c. 2012 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) In an unprecedented move, the board of the Vatican Bank on Thursday (May 24) forced its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, to resign....
Activists gather to plot defense of 'religious liberty'
c. 2012 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) U.S....
Applying the Golden Rule to gay marriage
As pundits and politicians struggle to divine the political fallout from President Obama’s sudden endorsement of same-sex marriage, one thing has become clear: the Golden Rule invoked by Obama to e...
Wink challenged ‘powers’ and taught nonviolence
New Testament theologian Walter Wink, noted for relating the biblical phrase “principalities and powers” to the dominating sociopolitical structures of the modern era, died May 10, leaving a legacy...
Our idea of heaven wrong, says N. T. Wright
An oft-clichéd notion of heaven—a blissful realm of harp-strumming angels—has remained a fixture of the faith for centuries....
Fighting for the world
I once went on a blind date. He was a law student, a friend of a friend, and I was a seminarian. We met for drinks.
He was nice, funny. He was a self-identifying Christian--the first one, actually, I had ever gone out with. We were talking about our chosen professions; he was, as many are, fascinated by the idea of a call to ministry. My call story is not exactly dramatic, but it has a social justice edge, forged on youth group mission trips and in researching poverty. “I want to make the world a better place,” I told the date.
The future lawyer looked at me and asked, “But isn’t the world a fallen place?”
Thursday digest
New today from the Century: Holy small talk, fighting for the world, more.
Let It Burn, by Ruthie Foster
Ruthie Foster has a powerhouse of a blues/gospel voice, which she never allows to overpower a song. If you’re not sold already, Foster made her newest album in New Orleans with the Blind Boys of Alabama and a cast of hotshot players. It wouldn’t have killed them to restrain the Hammond organ player once in a while, but that’s being picky: the project brings a truckload of soul and grit.