Latest Articles
At 50, Andy Griffith Show still providing wisdom
Say a group of immigrants want to build a mosque in Mayberry, right next to All Saints Church. WWAD: What Would Andy Do?...
How safe can we be?
Unlike in previous eras, when the majority of our risks came from natural sources, today the majority of our risks are "manufactured." We humans create them.
Catholic condemnation of Nobel Prize stirs Italian press reaction
Rome, 5 October (ENI)--Vatican authorities have strongly criticised the awarding of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Medicine to Briton Robert Edwards, stating that the scientist's work on in-vitro fertili...
Interfaith council condemns West Bank mosque burning
Jerusalem, 6 October (ENI)--The Council of the Religious Institutions of the Holy Land has expressed "grave concern" over the 3 October burning by militant Israeli settlers of a mosque in the West ...
Crying in church
I just spent the last three hours trying not to cry my eyes out in pastoral care class. The topic this week was funerals....
George Hunsinger's runners-up
Suppose someone who hasn't
been keeping up with theology for the past 25 years now wants to read the most...
A review of City of Tranquil Light
If Barbara Kingsolver's masterpiece The Poisonwood Bible has formed your image of Christian missionaries in the 20th century, you need an equal and opposite set of characters to round out ...
Mormons part of the mainstream conversation
Mormons have been making headlines across the nation lately—from HBO's Big Love to California's Proposition 8, from American Idol wannabe David Archuleta to Twiligh...
A different witness
Following the attacks of 9/11, the congregation I serve became aware that though it has a longstanding relationship with a nearby synagogue, it has had no ongoing connection with Muslims.
Theology for dark times: Rereading Letters and Papers
I have returned again and again to Letters and Papers in search of insight into what it means to do
theology today, especially in my own South African context. Whether my
interest and inquiry has focused on theological issues, on the renewal
of the church and its public responsibility or on history, literature,
art and aesthetics, this remarkable collection has always provided much practical wisdom for people living in tough and
uncertain times.
Facebook rules for pastors
Pastoral
ministry is a public calling, and in our social-media age this calling extends
to online identities and relationships. Since
becoming a pastor, I've adopted some different Facebook practices.
See
I'm beginning to think that Luke suffered from Macular Degeneration or
some other disease that slowly took away his ability to see. I have no...
A review of Washington Rules
No one has anatomized the misadventures of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with greater historical perspective or critical acuity than Andrew Bacevich....
Hijacking Bonhoeffer
For Eric Metaxas, polarization is a structural motif: his mission is to reclaim the true Bonhoeffer from liberals.
Most believers, secularists OK with faith expression in U.S. public schools
A majority of Americans—including those who do not practice a particular faith—think that students should be able to express their religion in public schools, a new poll by the Washingt...
Mormon paper irks readers on migrant stance
The Mormon-owned Deseret News has been taking a relatively liberal stance toward undocumented Latino immigrants whose cause is supported heavily by citizens of Hispanic origin....
Briefly noted
The number of people in poverty in America increased to its highest recorded point last year, and the poverty rate rose to its highest level since 1994, new statistics show....
Tackling intolerance: Muslims and the West
I travel to the Middle East at least once each year, often visiting
multiple countries. I belong to an evangelical-Muslim discussion group
which meets annually, and the participants include pious, brilliant,
generous Muslim scholars whom I count as my friends. When a topic like
"Islamophobic America" comes up, I share intense personal e-mails with
them. But I came away from my trip to the Middle East this past summer with some new concerns.
German president says 20 years later, Islam now part of Germany
Trier, Germany, 4 October (ENI)--Islam is part of a modern, changing Germany, the country's president, Christian Wulff, told the nation in an address on the 20th anniversary of the reunification of...
Soldiers against torture
Their stories are too little told—the stories of U.S....