Latest Articles
Deer Hunting with Jesus
If social democracy is ever again to be taken seriously in this country, its proponents have to admit that much of th...
Amazing Grace
In the present confusion over religion and public life—and the accompanying opportunism—the life and car...
Recut Madness
If Abe Lincoln were to once again borrow from Jesus—but for C-SPAN’s cameras—he might say, “A house divided again...
Call of the wild
Fashioned from a book by Jon Krakauer, Sean Penn’s Into the Wild is an elegiac film about Christopher Johnson McCandless, who, upon graduating from Emory University in 1990, set out, without...
Messianic ministers
During almost 20 years of pastoral ministry I have served three different congregations that experienced such long-term decline and loss that it seemed as if the “end of the world” was upon us: the...
Blogging toward Sunday
My wife and I were in the Atlanta airport this summer when she stopped at a newsstand to pick up a magazine....
Hope in October: The Cubs have done it again
The Chicago Cubs have done it again. After winning the National League’s central division, they were swept aside by the Arizona Diamondbacks....
Talking with the enemy: Meeting with Ahmadinejad
When President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran visited Columbia University, he was introduced as a “a petty and cruel dictator” by his host, the school’s president, Lee Bollinger....
Century Marks
Back to your roots: EcoEternity is offering a green form of burial: for a price the company will place a person’s remains in a biodegradable urn and plant it beside a mature tree. In time, the remains will be soaked up by the tree’s root system.
After the surge: Getting out of Iraq
The weekly death tolls in Iraq have recently decreased—for four reasons: The U.S....
Kids in combat: U.S.-funded child soldiers
From 1995-2005, 2 million child soldiers were killed and 6 million permanently disabled or injured. An estimated 300,000 children (younger than 18) are currently serving as soldiers. Some have joined voluntarily out of economic desperation or for their own safety; others have been forcibly recruited by rebel forces. Still others have been by recruited by recognized sovereign governments—and eight of the nine such governments receive military assistance from the U.S.
Kinnamon's NCC: Frugality and fellowship
If ecumenical veteran Michael Kinnamon is ratified next month, as expected, to be the top executive of the National Council of Churches, look for a stylistic shift on social justice issues and appe...
British clergy warned to leave collars at home: A safety measure
A British church safety group is advising clergy—from the archbishop of Canterbury on down—to reduce the risk of being attacked by taking off their clerical collars when they go out while off duty....
UCC head arrested in peace petition act: Protest at White House
Joining protest with prayer, the head of the United Church of Christ was arrested October 10 outside the White House while attempting to deliver to President Bush a pastoral letter condemning the I...
Episcopal alternative formed; Africans urge Lambeth be postponed: Anglican Covenant proposed
A high-level Anglican committee based in Great Britain has reported that the Episcopal Church’s bishops who met last month in New Orleans “clarified all outstanding questions” regarding its controv...
Polls find shifts by young evangelicals: Political migration
Are evangelical young adults shifting away from the Republican Party and becoming more estranged from contemporaries because of how closely evangelical Christians are linked to “antihomosexual” vie...