Latest Articles
A Broad Place: An Autobiography
Jürgen Moltmann may be the most renowned theologian living today....
Keep going
Sometimes liberation is not enough. When the Hebrew people finally escaped Egypt, they might have shaken off their shackles, so to speak, but they still weren't done....
Shaping heaven
Like it or not, our lives inevitably intersect with the lives of others....
Taking awe breaks: The miracles that greet us each morning
I love living in a big city: the energy, the pace, the sirens. I love being able to walk or ride a bus to work, or catch a train to the airport....
Revelations in Iowa: When immigrants are sent away
For the past several months the debate over U.S. immigration policy has centered on the tiny town of Postville, Iowa....
Century Marks
Deceptive advertising: An ad produced by the American Petroleum Institute claims there is “enough untapped oil in the U.S. to fuel more than 60 million cars for the next 60 years.” While the claim is correct, the problem is that as of 2006, 60 million cars accounted for only a fourth of all registered vehicles in the U.S., according to FactCheck.org.
The Chinese at worship: Official and underground Christianity
In the 1950s, the communist government of China expelled all foreign missionaries....
Briefly noted
Nine faith leaders have joined to urge senators Barack Obama and John McCain to present a ten-year plan to combat poverty at their nominating conventions....
Faith groups work with UN to limit arms trade: U.S. not present for vote on agreement
Religious and peace groups have offered qualified praise for a recent nonbinding United Nations agreement on small arms that they say takes a step in efforts to curb the trade in illicit weapons....
Reid proposes federal antipolygamy task force: Accuses polygamous groups of organized crime
Law enforcement officials from three western states have urged the creation of a federal task force to combat polygamy— a proposal that members of a polygamous sect called an attack on religious fr...
Baylor regents remove president over failure to unify factions: In spite of John Lilley's "significant accomplishments"
John Lilley, president of Baylor University, has been fired for failing to “bring the Baylor family together,” says Howard Batson, chair of the university’s board of regents....
Muslim issue is 'no-win' for him, says Obama: A catch-22
Democratic senator Barack Obama admitted to a recent journalists’ conference in Chicago that correcting assertions and rumors that he is a Muslim has him cornered in a “no-win situation” in his rac...
Catholic campus revokes chair for feminist scholar: University of San Diego and Rosemary Radford Ruether
The University of San Diego has rescinded an invitation to a controversial feminist theologian who had been planning to spend a semester teaching and lecturing on the Roman Catholic campus....
Bay State clears path to same-sex rites for out-of-state couples: Repeals 1913 law that stood in the way
Massachusetts lawmakers voted last month to repeal a 1913 law that had the effect of preventing out-of-state gay or lesbian couples from being married in the Bay State....
Court upholds ruling against council member's Jesus-specific prayers: Sandra Day O'Connor weighs in
In a decision hailed by supporters as a victory for the separation of church and state, a federal appeals court upheld a Fredericksburg, Virginia, policy that restricts praying “in Jesus’ name” at ...
Unitarians steadfast after church shooting: No plans to alter teachings
Unitarian Universalist leaders say a fatal shooting at a church in Knoxville, Tennessee, will not deter them from continuing their socially progressive teachings, even as police say those beliefs a...
Out of darkness: Images that reach us
My husband and I found the WorldWide Telescope a few months ago, and we’ve been staring into the heavens ever since. “Which planet would you like to see first?” he asked me once he'd loaded the program onto his computer. No question: Saturn. I’ve always been fascinated by those rings. A few clicks of the mouse and there they were, circling and circling, a sash of light, a halo, a crown. We looked at Jupiter next, with its great red spot. We looked at Mercury, Venus, Mars and Pluto. Each planet was unique, different from every other. But what they had in common was this: they shone out of utter darkness.
The road taken: Marty's final column
At age 12, when I still thought I was or would be or could be a poet, John G. Neihardt figured large in my imagination. For 50-plus years he was Nebraska’s poet laureate....
Anglican unity in ‘grave peril’ if gay bans not enforced, Williams says: Report from Lambeth
The three-week Lambeth Conference in England concluded with essentially the same prognosis that bishops of the global Anglican Communion were given before they met in Canterbury. ...