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When I was in southern Ethiopia in 1994, I watched truck after truck roll into a community with food aid. I asked a farmer if the harvest had been bad. He told me he had an abundant harvest of tomatoes and onions—cash crops. Because of all the food aid they were receiving, he could use his land to make some extra cash—and his family would eat wheat from America. That same year I could purchase corn oil at the local grocery store—in big metal containers labeled "A gift from the people of America." I resented having to pay for what was clearly intended to be food aid.

Observers of American Catholicism can be alternately impressed and puzzled by its polyphony of public voices...

It’s 1967 in Minnesota, and life is getting more and more difficult for physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg)....

This week’s texts are striking for their marvelous intertwining of themes that creedal Christians, in particular, often tend to keep...

Samuel and Jesus have a lot in common....

So who is actually on the Revised Common Lectionary committee, and why do they have us visiting the island of Crete when everyone knows the focus should be on the little town of Bethlehem?...

There is a veritable feast of recommended books and DVDs in this issue, and I have already circled and clipped several and left them lying in conspicuous places just in case anyone is wondering wha...

President Obama goes to the Copenhagen conference on climate change this month in a weak position, unable to point to any significant U.S. plan for cutting carbon emissions. Though the U.S....

Bravado is a killer: By the time Americans reach the age of 85, women outnumber men 2.2 to 1. Boys and men are conditioned to be tough. Hence, they are much more reluctant to seek medical help. “The cultural reasons for not going to the doctor are killing men,” says Dr. Marianne J. Legato, author of Why Men Die First (Web MD).

A commitment to mediating conflicts has taken John Paul Lederach to all corners of the globe....

Pope Benedict’s invitation to Anglican bodies to join the Roman Catholic Church was seen by some observers as historically momentous and by others as insignificant (after all, a provision has alway...

The status quo on federal abortion funding leaves a lot to be desired, and not just for abortion-rights hardliners. Current law offers antiabortion citizens the peace of knowing that while abortion may be legal, at least their taxes aren't paying for it. In exchange for these clean hands, Americans get a system in which women who rely on the federal safety net for their health coverage don't have access to abortion, while women of greater means do. The Stupak Amendment to the House's health-insurance bill would make this inequality worse.

Seminary professor Ian T....