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January 29, 2020

Volume 137, Issue #3

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Features

First Person

Our problem isn’t just loneliness—it’s species loneliness

How human isolation from the rest of the world keeps us from thriving.

by Tricia Gates Brown

First Person

Kindness, kinship, and the boundaries of justice

The virtue of kindness depends on who we see as kin.

by Amy Peterson

Opinion

What steps toward peace could Israelis and Palestinians take now?

A noncomprehensive list of realistic, practical actions

by Cary Nelson

Screen Time

How universal is the Force?

The Rise of Skywalker reduces a powerful theological symbol to a family drama.

by Kathryn Reklis

Critical Essay

Major stories in American Christianity of the 2010s

How faith has been shaped by Obergefell, the Charleston murders, Me Too, and more

by Philip Jenkins

Books

How the security culture has burdened women

Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz shows how the post-9/11 US has intensified control of women’s bodies.

by Bromleigh McCleneghan

Poems of hope, gratitude, and perspective

The devotional, political poetry of Barbara Crooker

by James Crews

Working through collective sin

Susan Neiman considers how Americans might learn from Germany.

by Chris Hammer

Examining whiteness through “reparative writing”

Jess Row asks what happens when alienation turns to rage.

by Amy Frykholm

Departments

First Words

Adopted and loved

One of the greatest mysteries of faith is that God loves us as is.

by Peter W. Marty

Faith Matters

The dirty work of ministry

What two drastically different messages from parishioners taught me

by Samuel Wells

On Art

Model for Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Portland, Maine, 2019 (in progress), by Robert Katz

The poetic language of Martin Luther King Jr. gave form and direction to the civil rights movement, and it has also given shape to many memorials erected in his memory....

art selection and comment by Aaron Rosen

From the Editors

China’s attack on the Uighurs and their Muslim faith

Will the US and other nations speak up?

News

People

Archbishop Atallah Hanna in stable condition after being poisoned

Archbishop Atallah Hanna, head of the Sebastia Diocese of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, who has been outspoken on political issues of the region, was hospitalized on December 18 after being poisoned, according to a message from the Worl...

United Methodists plan a split over LGBTQ differences

A diverse 16-member group of United Methodist bishops and other leaders has offered a proposal that would preserve the United Methodist Church while allowing traditionalist-minded congregations to form a new denomination....

by Sam Hodges and Kathy L. Gilbert

Religious communities respond as bushfires rage in Australia

As people around the world rang in the new decade, Australia continued to burn for a fifth straight month....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

LDS Church unlikely to face action from IRS for use of donations

The Mormon world was rocked on December 16 when news broke that a whistleblower had accused the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of misleading members regarding more than $100 billion retained in accounts accumulated from tithe donation...

by Jack Jenkins

Vatican ends policy of secrecy in handling of clergy abuse cases

When Pope Francis announced on December 17 that he had abolished pontifical secrecy for cases of clerical sexual abuse, some observers compared the move to a regime opening its secret files, bringing to light years of testimony and documents....

by Claire Giangravé