Latest Articles
The nations on Judgment Day: Matthew 25:31-46
Our eternal destinies hang on two phrases: “I was a stranger and you took me in” and “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.” Jesus gives us two options when relating to strangers: we can wel...
That girl who prays: Chloe and the Gypsies
When A Banjara Indian woman named Mary came to our church to talk to us, nine-year-old Chloe was there. Chloe had to be there....
First fruits: Broetje Orchards puts people before profits
When hail wiped out 70 percent of the 2006 apple crop at Broetje Orchards, Ralph and Cheryl Broetje and their management team had a decision to make. The insurance company would pay on the business’s policy only if no further harvesting of the orchard’s fruit were done. If they agreed, the Broetjes would recover some of their costs. But hundreds of their year-round workers would lose their jobs, and migrant workers would be left unemployed.
Public pews
For the past four decades the mainline Protestant churches have been working hard to shape p...
Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America's College Campuses
When I was a student at St....
Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy
In 1621 Robert Burton published The Anatomy of Melancholy, and now, nearly 400 years later, Eric Wilson has given us what amount...
Ghost Town
The first “ghost comedy” was an effervescent 1937 charmer called Topper, in which two of the most elegant high comedians in movies, Cary Grant and Constance Bennett, crashed their roadster a...
On actually following a beloved passage
In the marketing world, a high "Q score" means that an item or brand is well known and regarded....
On the shelf: 118 Days: Christian Peacemaker Teams Held Hostage in Iraq, edited by Tricia Gates Brown
When four men affiliated with Christian Peacemaker Teams were abducted in Iraq, ...
Election-night symbolism
Last Tuesday night, I went down to Chicago's Grant Park to witness
Barack Obama's election and victory speech. At the event, I was struck...
Grief and hope: Cubs fans wait for next year
When a Los Angeles Dodger hit a grand-slam home run off of the Cubs’ most reliable pitcher in the first game of the National League division series, a great silence descended on Wrigley Field....
Educated for marriage: The difference college makes
After thousands of scientific studies of marriage, the one number everybody knows is 50 percent. Fifty percent of American marriages end in divorce....
Briefly noted
A Wisconsin-based group of atheists and agnostics has filed suit against President Bush over the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer....
Russian court orders 'rehabilitation' of czar: Necessary to overcome bloody Soviet-era legacy
In a move that both monarchists and human rights activists say is necessary for Russia to overcome its legacy of Soviet-era bloodshed, the country’s highest court has ruled that Nicholas II, Russia...
Catholic thinker rejects Vatican demand for rewrite: Article criticizes Vatican's attitute toward other churches
A prominent Roman Catholic theologian in Poland has rejected a demand from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he retract and rewrite an article criticizing its attitude t...
California marries 11,000 same-sex couples: About 10 percent of same-sex couples in the state
In the first three months that gay and lesbian couples could marry legally in California, an estimated 11,000 of them took their vows—a number that, according to a new study, is higher than the tot...
Pittsburgh diocese votes to exit Episcopal Church: Aligns with Anglican Province of the Southern Cone
The Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Pittsburgh, as expected, has voted to split from the national church....