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February 26, 2020

Volume 137, Issue #5
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Features

Critical Essay

In the Qur’an, God is a great debater

The Qur’an is not a description of God. It’s a call to conversion.

by Gabriel Said Reynolds

Readers Write

Feet: Essays by readers

We gave our readers a one-word writing prompt: “Feet.”
Critical Essay

What Meghan and Harry can and can’t escape

At the heart of life is the mess of being stuck with other people.

by Martha Tatarnic

Books

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What makes an American home?

A literary look at the walls that protect us—and keep us captive

by Amy Frykholm
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Brian Doyle’s rivers of words

A new collection of Doyle’s nonfiction overflows with wonder.

by Tom Montgomery Fate
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Learning to face the doctrine of discovery

I wish I’d had Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah’s book when I was in college.

by Lauren D. Sawyer
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Pope Francis’s vision of a wounded church converted by mercy

How can the church become less of a citadel and more of a field hospital?

by Curtis W. Freeman

Departments

First Words

Why we need the grime of Ash Wednesday

Like the sludge on a car in the winter, most of our messes accumulate gradually.

by Peter W. Marty

On Art

The Last Supper, by Brian Whelan

How to depict the 12 disciples has long been a perplexing problem for illustrators of the Last Supper.  Artistic convention established that Peter should be presented as a curly-haired senior....

art selection and comment by John Kohan

Faith Matters

The truth about testimonies

As a child, I testified every Sunday morning. I can’t do it anymore.

by Debie Thomas

Screen Time

Sorry for Your Loss’s quiet exploration of race

A white woman, her black husband, and the struggle to be known

by Kathryn Reklis

From the Editors

At the border, “law and order” looks a lot like chaos

Trump’s new policies are creating confusion and misery.

News

Latino Christians grapple with complicated identity

Allen Hernandez wears his Chris­tian faith and his indigenous Maya roots on his sleeves, literally....

by Alejandra Molina

Elizabeth Warren launches interfaith initiative, hopes to appeal to faith communities

Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has announced an interfaith advisory council and forthcoming endorsements from more than 100 religious leaders from across the country....

by Jack Jenkins

Comedians take on Christian film industry in film festival debut

It has all the ingredients of a faith-based blockbuster: an astronaut who finds God after she’s pushed to her limits. It also has space monsters. But you won’t find “A Prayer in Space” in theaters....

by Emily McFarlan Miller

Michigan church shares innovative plan for low-cost solar panels

In 2017, after installing solar panels in their home, Fred and Nancy Elmore began thinking about how their church—Keswick United Methodist in Suttons Bay, Michigan—could do the same....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

New Orleans Saints fight to shield emails tied to Catholic sex abuse crisis

The New Orleans Saints are going to court to keep the public from seeing hundreds of emails that allegedly show team executives doing public relations damage control for the area’s Roman Catholic archdiocese to help it contain the fallout from a b...

by Jim Mustian

People

Gwen Ifill honored at historic AME church

In the historic black church where she worshiped, the late journalist Gwen Ifill was remembered with a new Black Heritage stamp in a ceremony featuring dignitaries of the church, politics, and journalism....

by Adelle M. Banks

People

Herbert Chilstrom, ELCA's first presiding bishop, dies at 88

Herbert Chilstrom, the first presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, died on January 19 at the age of 88....
People

Nigerian pastor Lawan Andimi executed by terrorist group

Lawan Andimi, the Nigerian Church of the Brethren pastor whose hostage video made waves on the internet last month, was executed on January 20, ac­cording to conflict and terrorism reporter Ahmad Salkida....

Lectionary

March 8, Lent 2A (John 3:1–17)

Like Nicodemus, Kanye shows that the Spirit blows where it chooses.

by Amy Ziettlow

March 1, Lent 1A (Matthew 4:1–11)

The devil is testing Jesus. Jesus is also testing the devil.

by Amy Ziettlow

February 26, Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21)

Every year, we repeat this dusty choreography.

by Amy Ziettlow

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