Latest Articles
Young adult realities
Christian Smith offers a way between the idea that young adults are the great hope of our nation and the idea that they are crazed idiots.
The Dutch Bible Belt
The persistence of a rigorously orthodox Protestant area in the Netherlands must make us rethink our
generalizations about the state of religion
in Europe.
U.S. Christians rally around Iranian pastor
WAHSINGTON (RNS) Religious freedom advocates rallied Wednesday (Sept.
28) around an Iranian pastor who is facing execution because he has...
Mother cares for her son's Amish victims
LANCASTER, Pa. (RNS) Terri Roberts was eating outside with a co-worker
on a bright October day when an ambulance wailed nearby and a helicopter
swooped overhead.
...
Supreme Court to weigh churches' hiring rights
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Supreme Court on Wednesday (Oct. 5.) will hear one
of most important religion cases in decades, centered on the degree to...
Is there a death penalty-sized hole in Catholicism's `seamless garment'?
(RNS) Is Catholic opposition to the death penalty losing traction as
opposition to abortion, gay marriage, contraception and other causes...
‘Protestant ethic’ still sways dreams of wealth
Back in 1905, Max Weber's landmark treatise, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, argued that a Calvinist belief in God's plan for the saved was crucial to the rise of c...
UMC bishops warned of clergy planning to bless gay unions
A United Methodist group of large-church pastors, joined by hundreds of petition-signing clergy and laity, are urging the denomination's bishops to issue a collective warning to some 900 "defiant" ...
Hungary returns churches, but most are in bad shape
A Hungarian church leader has welcomed the fulfillment of state pledges to restore church properties to religious communities six decades after they were confiscated by the country's communist regi...
Churches lose fight over Alabama immigration law
A federal judge jolted the national immigration debate by approving
most parts of Alabama's aggressive immigration law which some religious...
Rapture humor
Several years ago, I was interviewed by Linda Wertheimer of
National Public Radio about the then extraordinarily popular Left Behind...
Christian unity in Germany
Pope Benedict to the top Lutheran bishop in Germany (paraphrased): Have you heard about these new "evangelicals"? Scary stuff—and they're growing.
Preaching for a decision
Proclaiming good news ought to in some way lead to a response. Otherwise it can be an exercise in cheap grace.
New Jersey leads U.S. in till death do us part
(RNS) Poor New Jersey -- derided for "Jersey Shore," aggressive driving
and talking too fast. But when it comes to happily ever after, the
Garden State is No. 1....
Report says trends for U.S. churches mostly pointing down
(RNS) American congregations have grown less healthy in the last decade,
with fewer people in the pews and aging memberships, according to a new
Hartford Seminary study.
...
To lectionary or not to lectionary
In the church where I did my internship (and spent three years) we used the...
The wealthy are not self-made
This week, a former Google
executive asked President Obama to raise his taxes so that more people will
have the chance to succeed as he has. It was nice to hear the president defend
the idea that individual wealth is built in part by collective investment--even if he didn't state it as forcefully as Elizabeth Warren, and even if he mostly
avoided the word "taxes" itself.