Latest Articles
Episcopal dioceses vary on same-sex rite policies: Decisions to make in California
As California clerks began issuing civil marriage licenses to same-sex couples in mid-June, Episcopal bishops in the state took a variety of stances on whether their dioceses would provide religiou...
Fundamentalists regain SouthernBaptist presidency: Atlanta-area pastor Johnny Hunt elected
Atlanta-area pastor Johnny Hunt has been elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, returning control of the 16-million-member denomination to its fundamentalist establishment....
Obama is quick to make contact with evangelical leaders: Off-the-record session in Chicago
Only days after Barack Obama resumed his presidential campaign wearing the label of “presumptive Democratic nominee,” the Illinois senator invited a number of evangelical leaders to a private meeti...
TheAmericanist: An interview with Ken Burns
Ken Burns’s acclaimed documentaries include The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz and, most recently, an account of World War II titled The War....
My Facebook friends: Connected but lonely
With one child in college and two teenagers at home, I learned vicariously about “being friended” and “facebooking.” My kids didn’t want me to join Facebook, but relented when I told them that our ...
The other Jewish lobby: AIPAC is not the only game in town
Remember Dennis Kucinich (D., Ohio), the Democratic presidential candidate who brought a refreshing note of reality to the early primary debates? You don’t remember him?...
Market values: Christian symbols and pagan shrines
As Christians conquered pagan lands, they regularly superimposed Christian symbols on pagan shrines....
Survey findsAmericans flexible on faith tenets and interpretations: The Pew Religious Landscape Survey
Think you know what Americans believe about religion? Think again.
• Seven in ten Americans who follow one particular faith believe that many religions can lead to eternal life....
Canada apologizes for abuse at church-run aboriginal schools: Boarding schools were compulsory
Church leaders in Canada hope that action will follow a public apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to victims of a policy whereby aboriginal children were placed in residential schools run by ...
Christian Reformed Church elects a woman as vice president: First Synod with women delegates
The Christian Reformed Church made history by electing a woman as vice president of its annual Synod—the first such meeting in which women were allowed to serve as delegates....
Mainline shows shift to Democrats: Most change among centrist mainliners
Although mainline Protestant denominations for decades have been closely linked to liberal causes—civil rights, women’s movements, abortion rights and antiwar protests—most of their members have be...
Waiting for the kingdom: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43; Romans 8:12-25
When I sit with the Washington Post and my morning coffee, I have a sense that I’m hovering on a threshold; like many Americans, I remember September 11 and feel as if I’m waiting for the ...
The mysterious power of leaven: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-49a
What are we asking for when we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come?
Like a child: Reflections on a mission trip
In January of this year I went to the Dominican Republic with Edge Outreach to install water purifiers. We were in the capital city of Santo Domingo....
The world comes to Qatar: Interfaith conversations in an Arab land
A few decades ago Qatar was a tribal society with an economy based largely on fishing, pearl harvesting and camel and horse breeding. In 1995 a bloodless coup set the stage for the modernization of the country’s oil and gas industries. Qatar’s economy grew 24 percent in 2006 alone, and its per capita income that year was $61,540. Today Qatar is on track to become the wealthiest nation (on a per capita basis) in the world.
God and Globalization, Volume 4: Globalization and Grace
In the first century St. Paul believed that God’s divinity was everywhere manifest and nowhere fully heeded....
From Stone to Living Word: Letting theBible LiveAgain
Sometimes funny, frequently irreverent and consistently thoughtful, Debbie Blue, a founding pastor of the House of Mercy i...
Special Orders: Poems
These poems from Edward Hirsch, a mature and accomplished poet, are remarkable for the way jubilation arises from them, even through the usual heartbreak th...