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January 27, 2021

Volume 138, Issue #2
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Features

Interviews

The woman behind Pittsburgh’s Demaskus Theater Collective

“The best place to be is at the intersection of art and faith.”

by Leah C. K. Lewis

Why The Crown is so fascinating to a world in perpetual crisis

As the series drifts, it mimics the drift of the monarchy itself—and of other institutions.

by Benjamin J. Dueholm

First Person

Walking a labyrinth as I prepared for more chemo

I held ten stones. My friend held two more.

by Lisa Bernheisel

In Eugene, civilian response workers are dispatched to nonviolent crises

CAHOOTS is providing a model for rethinking public safety.

by Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil

Critical Essay

The theological work of antiracism needs to include lament

The Bible shows us what to do with our frustration, outrage, and complicity.

by Rob Muthiah

Books

The solution to the fear of death is to live as dying creatures

Theologian Todd Billings grapples with scripture, philosophy, and his own incurable cancer.

by LaVonne Neff

The many voices of refugee experience

Kao Kalia Yang’s collective memoir conveys their diversity—and their singular humanity.

by Amy Frykholm

A history of the Pilgrims that neither idolizes nor demonizes them

Historian John Turner tells the story of Plymouth Colony with nuance and care.

by Grant Wacker

What is “religious violence”?

We know what violence is, but what counts as religion?

by Thomas Albert Howard

Departments

First Words

Gratitude, need, and desire

These three stances toward God are the beginning of faith.

by Peter W. Marty

On Art

Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones, by Cody F. Miller

Can these bones live? The answer to this question posed to the prophet Ezekiel seems painfully obvious in such a macabre setting, depicted in this mixed media collage by Cody F. Miller as a place of skull heaped on skull, where all hope is lost....

art selection and comment by John Kohan

Faith Matters

“Why didn’t Jesus come as a woman?” asked my daughter

I didn’t know how to answer, but I do know that the gendering of God has real-world consequences.

by Debie Thomas

Screen Time

Pixar's Soul explores big ideas about creativity, purpose, and the meaning of life

But the movie would be stronger if it skipped the metaphysical realm and just stayed put in Queens.

by Kathryn Reklis

News

Sean Feucht accused of ‘biological warfare’ in LA

Los Angeles activists held car caravans in late December to block evangelical recording artist Sean Feucht from holding outreach events in two homeless communities in LA, including the large one in the 54-block area known as Skid Row....

by Alejandra Molina

Expedited border wall construction jeopardizes church, environment

In its final weeks, the Trump administration rushed efforts to build wall structures along the US-Mexico border—a project the Biden administration is ex­pected to cancel....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

LDS Church sued for alleged role in Boy Scouts sexual abuse crisis

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was hit with several lawsuits in late December for allegedly covering up decades of sexual abuse among Boy Scout troops in Arizona, marking the latest litigation before the state’s end-of-year deadli...

by Terry Tang

Episcopal congregation builds Holy Land app for virtual pilgrimages

This winter, hundreds of Episcopalians embarked on a walking pilgrimage around the Holy Land without ever having to set foot outside their neighborhoods—thanks to an app built by St....

by David Paulsen

How the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation got included in Congress’s $900 billion relief bill

Among the legislative loose ends that made their way into the $900 billion spending bill passed by Congress on December 21 was a significant update to the 18-year-old Tibetan Policy Act, strengthening US support for Tibetan autonomy and religious ...

by Paul O'Donnell

Online hymn database sees spike as Christians worship at home

In 2020, we celebrated holidays at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We worked at home, attended school at home, even attended worship services at home....

by Emily McFarlan Miller

People

Presbyterian minister to serve as first female US House chaplain

A longtime military officer and minister has been named the new chaplain of the US House of Representatives....

by Bob Smietana

People

Russian rebel monk arrested, charged with inciting suicidal actions

Russian riot police stormed into a monastery on December 29 to detain a rebel monk who has castigated the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church leadership and denied the existence of the coronavirus....

by Vladimir Isachenkov

People

Top German Catholic official says church should be more inclusive

Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German na­tional conference of Catholic prelates, called for a more inclusive church on Decem­ber 29, suggesting that the Catholic hierarchy could shift its positions on women’s ordination and homosexuality.<...

by Jack Jenkins

Lectionary

February 14, Transfiguration B (Mark 9:2–9)

Peter wants to capture that mountaintop experience forever.

by Victoria Lynn Garvey

February 7, Epiphany 5B (Mark 1:29-39)

Mark's Gospel provides tantalizing hints about Peter’s unnamed mother-in-law.

by Victoria Lynn Garvey

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