Latest Articles
Obama’s religion: A hard question for Americans
Could President Obama have avoided incurring the mistaken views of a surprising number of Americans who say in surveys that they think he is a Muslim?...
Prominent Muslims make pilgrimage to Auschwitz
The scenario might have seemed unlikely: prominent Muslims and Jews from the United States trekking across the Atlantic in mournful, spiritual solidarity to visit two Nazi concentration camps&mdash...
Ways of giving: How churches think about money
Most fund-raising board meeting discussions, when stripped to the core, become one common, persistent question: "How can we persuade people to give more?"
Church of God says women can’t be bishops
The Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) has decided to permit women to serve on local church councils but to maintain its rule that they cannot be ordained as bishops....
Eavesdropping
I noticed a disheveled and unshaven man in his early fifties a few barstools down from me. Something about him seemed uninviting. Soon an attractive 40-something woman arrived in a crisp little black dress and perched on the stool next to him. She seemed nervous.
Study: Worship together aids marital relations
The old slogan "couples who pray together stay together" may be true especially for African Americans, a new study shows....
Jefferts Schori woos allies among Anglicans abroad
In contrast to what they say about Las Vegas, what happens in one branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion rarely stays there. And no one knows this more than the former Episcopal bishop of...
Conservative Lutherans organize new church body
Conservative Lutherans have a new church body that came into being following disagreements with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America over the ordination of gay clergy....
After public family feud, another Schuller steps up
Christian author Carole Lewis stands at the front of the congregation, sharing her tale of woe—bankruptcy, a daughter's death, a husband's prostate cancer, a home destroyed by a hurricane....
Baptists warned of Islamophobia
Christians and Muslims need to recognize that they are "spiritual siblings," said speakers at a recent global Baptist congress in Hawaii, even as they warned fellow Baptists against the signs of Is...
A review of How Enemies Become Friends
Countries, not individuals, are the enemies and friends that Charles Kupchan has in mind in How Enemies Become Friends, and beginning with the book's title, he sets himself against the most influential school of thought in international relations.
Church growth, Korean style
When the World Missionary Conference gathered in Edinburgh in 1910, it would have taken real optimism to identify Korea as a prospect for major Christian growth. Through the 20th century, though, Christian growth in Korea has been astonishing.
Cross and context
For seven splendid years (1953-1960) I studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Someone told me that visitors to the seminary were occasionally brought around to the tutors' office, where I worked as a graduate student, in order to glimpse "the Barthian"—of which species I was apparently the only one in captivity in that place.
What's a "top college"?
Maybe it’s because I need easily digestible print reading for my train
commute. Maybe it’s my inevitable post-20s loss of hipster cred.
Whatever the reason, I seem to be reading a lot less of the humor
writing at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and a lot more of Joel Stein’s Time column.
A review of Putting Away Childish Things
Being the Jesus scholar that he is, Marcus Borg certainly understands the power of a story. In Putting Away Childish Things he offers up a didactic novel that explores some of the thorniest theological issues facing the Christian community.
Focus on the Family staff nearly half of peak size
Focus on the Family has announced 110 job cuts in its latest round of layoffs, which the Colorado ministry attributes to the departure of founder James Dobson and the reduced financial support from donors.
A vote for Grant
Ulysses S. Grant never allowed alcohol to interfere with his responsibilities. His reputation as a corrupt, inadequate president is also wrong, or at least incomplete.
Songfest: Challenges for a hymnal committee
The struggle to choose the hymns for the small rural congregation I serve is a microcosm of the challenges faced by members of the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song (PCOCS) as it decides what hymns and songs to include in the next Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) hymnal and electronic resources.