Latest Articles
Come and help us
It’s every evangelist’s dream come true: the stranger who comes right out and pleads for our help...
No devil in the details
Learning to read isn’t finished by the time you’re eight and you know how to sound out the words on the page. It’s a practice that grows along with the years....
A bill about life: The larger moral picture
In the end, the issue of abortion did not derail health-care reform. But that’s what would have happened had the U.S....
Century Marks
State of poverty: Bread for the World has an online resource providing state-by-state information on hunger and poverty (see “State Hunger Facts” in the resources section at offeringofletters.org)—a great comparative tool. In Illinois, 11.1 percent of households struggle to put food on their table, compared to 17.4 in Mississippi and 14.6 nationally; 12.2 percent of households in Illinois live below the poverty line compared to 21.2 in Mississippi and 13.2 nationally.
Briefly noted
About 2,000 Canadian members of a breakaway Anglican group and a small group of U.S....
Gift of $200 million is Baylor's largest ever: Donation to benefit school of social work
Baylor University has announced the largest gift in the Baptist school’s history—an estate provision estimated at $200 million from an anonymous donor....
At small Georgia church, ex-president still a draw: Maranatha Baptist
With its aging storefronts and small train depot, its graceful pecan trees and clipped fields of peanuts, cotton and hay, peace still seems possible in the tiny town of Plains, Georgia....
Study says religion blogs offer cross-fertilization: Self-reflective and collaborative
Blogs are a growing but still relatively underutilized influence on today’s religious discourse, according to a study of the religious blogosphere by the Social Science Research Council....
Clergy, White House talk about immigration reform: Care for the neighbor
On the heels of a rally on the National Mall by advocates of immigration reform, religious leaders met at the White House on March 22 to plot strategy, despite a packed election-year political cale...
Election of lesbian bishop 'regrettable,' says Williams: Archbishop of Canterbury discusses implications
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has called the confirmation of a second openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church “regrettable” and said it will have “important implications” for the U.S....
Did Ratzinger mishandle Wisconsin case? Accused priest continued to work with children: Accused priest continued to work with children
American victims of clerical sexual abuse protested at the Vatican after a New York Times article detailed letters and documents suggesting that Pope Benedict XVI, before becoming pope, pers...
German Protestant church issues apology for sexual abuse by clerics: "We ask the victims for forgiveness"
The Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, the second largest Protestant Church in Germany, is the latest church body to apologize to victims of sexual abuse in their institutions....
Churches weigh in on health-care reform: Legislators and their churches differ
United Methodists serving in the House of Representatives opposed the historic passage of the health-care reform package 26 to 18, with five Democrats joining 21 Repub licans in voting no....
Treasure box: A beloved monk's collection
When I was a child I knew all the dips in the asphalt in my neighborhood, all the places where, if I pedaled really fast, I could for one blissful moment—down, up!—feel as if I were flying....
Martyrs in the family: What Seoul and Kampala have in common
What has Seoul to do with Kampala?...
Work ethic: Fifty years of Salinger
I read The Catcher in the Rye when I was in college. J.D. Salinger’s book, published in 1951, has sold more than 65 million copies and still sells 250,000 a year....
Room for refugees? A Johannesburg church opens its doors: A Johannesburg church opens its doors
In the movie District 9, an alien spaceship stalls in the skies above Johannesburg....
Family feud: Politics in a small church
When I arrived as pastor at Beech Grove United Methodist Church, the community was bitterly divided because one member was running against another to be county commissioner....