Latest Articles
All the things we allegedly are
Attention mainline Protestants: a conservative Christian candidate for president would...
Tuesday digest
New today from the Century: Rodney Clapp praises snow, Casey Thompson's lectionary column, more.
Idol smasher
Christopher Hitchens was an unrelenting unbeliever to the end. But Ross Douthat claims that everything about Hitchens points to an embrace of life and a refusal to give in to despair.
Getting behind Jesus—again
Two of Merlyn's daughters,
members of our church, asked me to visit their mom as the end of her five-month
battle with cancer drew near. Merlyn was 72, and her life had not been easy.
She was widowed at 43 and raised her four children by herself.
When I came to see her, she was
alone, lying in bed by the window in the back room of the house. One of her
daughters introduced me and left.
The internet kills community! Except when it doesn't.
Two articles crossed my screen recently about the Internet and its effect on community.
Monday digest
New today from the Century: Tom Long on Christopher Hitchens, Lauren Winner reviews Elizabeth Clark, more.
Founding the Fathers, by Elizabeth A. Clark
In this deeply researched and illuminating monograph, Elizabeth Clark examines the development of early church history as an academic field in the U.S.
In Cameroon, faith leaders fear expansion of extremism from Nigeria
Yaounde, Cameroon (ENInews)--The campaign of violence in
Nigeria carried out by the Islamist sect Boko Haram has raised fears of...
Richard Dawkins says he's not entirely sure God doesn't exist
c. 2012 Religion News Service
LONDON (RNS) A controversial Oxford University professor billed by many as...
Re-branding a religion is hard to do, and not always successful
c. 2012 Religion News Service
NEW YORK (RNS) Did leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention hurt their
missionary cause by opting not to change the denomination's name to...
NYPD's Muslim surveillance extended well beyond New York
c. 2012 Religion News Service
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) The report was stamped top secret.
Inside was a confidential dossier compiled by the New York Police...
Repairs, funds are slow-going at quake-damaged National Cathedral
c.2012 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) It took 83 years to build the iconic Washington National
Cathedral, but a rare East Coast earthquake last summer took just seconds...
Out of the shadows: Isabel Castillo, immigration activist
"I met an activist who said, 'You should go back to Virginia and start to organize.' It took me about three months to send out the first e-mail."
Let Lin be Lin
Last
weekend, ESPN fired an editor who posted
a racially offensive
headline about NBA player Jeremy Lin; the
network also suspended an anchor who used the same term. And taking the Lin
coverage as a starting point, SNL produced a parody mocking a media double standard: stereotypes about Asian
Americans are acceptable, but stereotypes about African Americans are
offensive.
The
Lin media storm exposes the myth of a colorblind society. As much as we want to
believe in meritocracy, equality and individuality, we rely on racial
assumptions to make sense of the world and those around us. In many cases, the
assumptions carry real consequences.
Friday digest
New today from the Century: Interview with an immigration activist, art by Bertha Servín Barriga, more.
Links? Links.
Here are some things I read recently but didn't get around to blogging about.
Catholic Priest resigns over new Mass translation
(ENInews)--A pastor in Belleville, Illinois, has become the first Catholic priest to resign over the new translation of the Mass, which was introduced throughout most of the English-speaking world ...