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February 12, 2020

Volume 137, Issue #4

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Features

A visit to the Hava NaGrilla Smoke BBQ Festival in Philadelphia

Hope smells like barbecue.

by Adam Hearlson

Interviews

Is there a way beyond hyperpartisanship?

“We have remade our nation before and we can do it again.”

David Heim interviews Kevin M. Kruse

Why Andover Newton requires seminarians to take a course from the Yale School of Management

Congregational ministry requires business skills.

by Sarah B. Drummond

First Person

Faith formation in my world religions classroom

Each year a Hindu priest asks my students to “worship our own, but respect all.” They find the second part easier.

by Jason A. Mahn

Books

In the beginning, God created difference

Theodore Hiebert’s deft reading elicits a fresh awareness of the legitimacy of the other in Genesis.

by Walter Brueggemann

Religious freedom in America

Melissa Rogers considers what a healthy role for religion in American public life might look like.

by Clint Schnekloth

New books in theological education

Reformulating the landscape in changing times

by Elizabeth Palmer

Rachael Denhollander’s account of standing up against sexual abuse

The gymnast who brought down Larry Nassar tells her story.

by Ruth Everhart

What we can learn from medieval views of the human body

Some ideas have morphed while others have strangely stayed the same.

by Shannon Gayk

Departments

First Words

When we advertise our righteousness, it becomes self-righteousness

What we can learn from the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector

by Peter W. Marty

Daniel Ortega’s slide into corruption and authoritarianism

Nicaragua’s liberator has become its dictator.

by Philip Jenkins

On Art

No more of it in one place than another (Eight shades of blue at the Ex-Convento de Santo Domingo de Guzmán) and Model for a String of Dreams, by Cherith Lundin

Artists like Cherith Lundin help you look at space and light differently. You begin to notice, for example, how light falls on white to create shades of pinky gray....

art selection and comment by Lil Copan

From the Editors

The many failures revealed by the Afghanistan Papers

US officials have been lying about the war since it started. Why don’t we care?

Faith Matters

Making a habit out of Epiphany

Epiphanies flare up and fade. How can we keep them in our everyday vision?

by Stephanie Paulsell

News

LGBTQ student joins suit against seminary

For Nathan Brittsan, it was his own “mini dark night of the soul.” Days into his first quarter as a student at Fuller Theological Seminary, Brittsan was expelled....

by Emily McFarlan Miller and Alejandra Molina

Trump pledges to prevent ‘unacceptable’ repression of school prayer

President Donald Trump, surrounded by schoolchildren of a variety of faiths, has announced what he called “historic steps to protect the First Amendment right to pray in the public schools.”...

by Adelle M. Banks

Federal judge sides with faith-based group on refugees

A federal judge in Maryland has blocked President Donald Trump’s recent executive order allowing state and local officials to refuse refugee resettlement....

by Emily McFarlan Miller

Atlantic Coast Pipeline suffers legal setback

Opponents of the planned Atlantic Coast Pipeline are celebrating after a federal court in Virginia invalidated a key permit for the project on January 7....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

Republican PAC launches never-Trump ad aimed at evangelicals

A group of “never-Trump” Republicans targets Christian voters in its first political ad warning that “evangelical leaders who lay their loyalty and faith on the altar of Donald Trump are betraying their congregants and their country.”...

by Bob Allen

All dog owners go to heaven?

Worshipers who frequently attend religious services are the least likely to own a pet, according to a new study analyzing data on religion and pet ownership from the 2018 General Social Survey....

by David Briggs

People

Cyntoia Brown-Long headlines California antiabortion event

On January 18, Cyntoia Brown-Long was the keynote speaker at OneLife LA, an antiabortion event hosted by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles....

by Alejandra Molina

People

Benedict XVI removes name from controversial new book

On January 14, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI asked not to be mentioned as coauthor of a book scheduled for release in February, according to a close aide....

by Claire Giangravé