Features
Inland drilling: A debate over mining in Upper Michigan
On the southern shore of Lake Superior, rugged edges of deep green forest merge with cliffs of sandstone and million-year-old granite to mark a remote corner of the Upper Peninsula that economists often call America’s “second Appalachia.” For those who live here, it has become a battleground between an international mining company and a patchwork coalition of residents, fisherfolk, church leaders, environmentalists and an Indian tribe.
Excavating Jesus: An interview with Jonathan L. Reed
Unless we understand something of life in the first century, says archaeologist Jonathan L. Reed, we have “no chance of understanding Jesus or Paul, Peter or Mary.” Archaeological finds provide “an intimate glimpse into the past,” he writes, and they help us “imagine the lives of people who were once real, not just names in a book.”
How martyrs are made: Stories of the faithful
One of the teenagers killed in Colorado’s Columbine High School shootings in 1999 was Cassie Bernall. Soon after her murder, reports emerged about how one of the shooters had found Bernall under a table, pointed a gun at her head and asked, “Do you believe in God?” She said yes and was promptly shot.Within weeks of that event I heard a sermon at an Episcopal church praising Bernall’s witness and urging Christians to imitate her faithfulness. Prognosticators predicted another Great Awakening in American life sparked by Bernall’s martyrdom.
The Edge of Heaven
Most of The Edge of Heaven feels like a shaggy dog story. It’s not until well into the second half of the film that writer-director Fatih Akin shows where he’s headed with his tale.
Books
Police force
A few days after 9/11, a good friend of mine called to ask me to help preside at the funeral of his son, age 26,...
Mission Trips That Matter: Embodied Faith for the Sake of the World
"It’s happening again,” said the 17-year-old seated next to me on the airplane....
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace. . . One School at a Time
Greg Mortenson grew up in Tanganyika, now Tanzania, the son of Lutheran missionaries....
Departments
Something Christlike: A life-giving strategy
The version of Christianity that appears in the media often embarrasses me: it’s narrow, sectarian, exclusive and sometimes mean-spirited....
Degree of tolerance: A balanced interpretation
A recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that Americans are quite accepting of religions other than their own....
Eminent Victorians: Debaters with imagination
The new atheist movement has reached its high-water mark, and there are signs that it is starting to recede. Wishful thinking, you say? Aren’t there more and more antireligious tracts on the bestseller lists? Aren’t these writers terribly clever?...
Among royalty: Bishop Brazier passes the baton
In the 1960s, famed community organizer Saul Alinksy, Arthur M....
News
Tanzania bishop tells Lutheran World Federation gay relations unacceptable: Says relationships "against principles of nature"
The host bishop at a global Lutheran conference in Tanzania raised the thorny issue of homosexuality in his sermon opening the meeting of the main governing body of the 68-million-strong Lutheran World Federation—a group that has so far avoided th...
McCain, Grahams have 'excellent conversation' but no endorsement: Private meeting at McCain's request
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain visited evangelists Billy and Franklin Graham for “a very excellent conversation” at the elder preacher’s North Carolina home June 29....
Episcopal court finds bishop guilty of hiding abuse by brother: Victim says Bennison walked in on encounters
An Episcopal Church court has unanimously found Bishop Charles E. Bennison guilty of not responding appropriately to sexual abuse committed by his brother against a teenage girl more than three decades ago....
Virginia judge sides with breakaway churches: Upholds Civil War–era law
A Civil War–era law that lets Virginia churches keep their property when leaving a denomination where a “division” has occurred is constitutional, a county judge has ruled, siding with 11 former Episcopal parishes....
Anglican leader rebuffs challenge to his authority: Rowan Williams and GAFCON
The archbishop of Canterbury has declared that conservatives’ plans to usurp his leadership in the Anglican Communion are “problematic in all sorts of ways,” saying Anglicans must renew— not dismiss—their now-frayed connections....
Obama pledges to expand Bush's faith-based works: "A real partnership, not a photo op"
Adopting a federal program criticized strongly by some liberals, Senator Barack Obama says he would expand and improve President Bush’s initiative to fund religious charities and community ministries and make it central to his administration shoul...
Presbyterians push again for gay clergy: Regional presbyteries must follow suit
The nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination has again pushed open the door to ordaining noncelibate gay and lesbian clergy, though the decades-old fight is far from over....
Century Marks
Giving up stuff: In an effort to combat consumerism, Dave Bruno is taking a “100 thing challenge”: he aims by November 12 to have whittled his personal possessions down to 100 items. By personal items he means things that are totally his, not items shared with family members. And some things, like books, he groups together as a category (though he is considering trying to get his own library down to 100 titles). Bruno, owner of a Christian audio book company, is blogging about his efforts at a guynameddave.com.
People
Gary B. Walter was elected the ninth president of the Chicago-based Evangelical Covenant Church June 25 at the denomination’s annual meeting in Green Lake, Wisconsin. Walter succeeds retiring president Glenn Palmberg....
Briefly noted
Unitarian Universalists ended their annual General Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last month with a call to oppose ballot measures in Florida and California that would outlaw same-sex marriages....
Jewish groups pleased by PCUSA stand on Mideast: An "important step forward"
Jewish groups said the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s recent call for peace in the Middle East is an “important step forward” in repairing relations between the two sides after several years of acrimony....
Lectionary
Feed them: Matthew 14:13-21
How do you summon compassion when you’re depleted?