Features
Lethal lawn care: Poisons in the grass
It’s springtime and the pressure is on. For several weeks now I’ve been growing anxious as I watch the brown neighborhood grasses gradually turn to shades of green. Like other homeowners, I am on the lookout for that first dandelion or patch of crabgrass, sure signs that I’ve been delinquent in the care of my “back 40.” I am ready to stomp out each pesky weed that disfigures the hoped-for lush green carpet.
Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? Third in a series
In late 2003 President Bush said, in response to a reporter's question, that he believed Muslims and Christians "worship the same God." The remark sparked criticism from some Christians, who thought Bush was being politically correct but theologically inaccurate. For example, Ted Haggard, head of the National Association of Evangelicals, said, "The Christian God encourages freedom, love, forgiveness, prosperity and health. The Muslim god appears to value the opposite."
Literary agent: A profile of Phyllis Tickle
In 1987 Phyllis Tickle, then the religion editor at Publisher’s Weekly, foresaw a rising demand for religious books. Books, she wrote, were about to become “portable pastors.” Her prediction proved true. Beginning in the early 1990s, sales of religious books began a steady increase. In fiscal 1997, when Tyndale’s Left Behind series hit bookstores, growth in the market surged again (especially for Tyndale) and has remained robust.
Books
Take and read
Christian ethics, like other theological disciplines, constantly rethinks its history in light of cu...
Take and read
Eire, a Reformation historian, writes of his early childhood in Cuba and his wrenching exile from his family and country at...
Take and read
This is a collection of Barton’s shrewd, discerning essays on such matters as “natural law” and prophetic ethics....
Bookish lives
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Sober stories
When Bill Wilson and Dr....
Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law
Janet Jackson’s recent display of her bare breast at Super Bowl halftime, the trials of Michael Jackson and Martha Stewart, and ...
The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life
It’s amazing and comforting to realize that world religions scholar Huston Smith, 84, has been toiling in the fields of the Lord for more than 40 years, teaching more than one generation of student...
From Paul to Valentinus: Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries
Peter Lampe, professor of New Testament at Heidelberg, begins his magisterial book by giving us a definite ...
Departments
Stacked up: Reading good writers
Martin Marty once noted that there comes a time when you confront the depressing reality that you’re probably not going to read all the books you hoped and planned to read. Your stack of books-to-be-read will outlast you....
Course correction: The U.S. needs help in Iraq
While interviewing President Bush for his just-published book Plan of Attack, Bob Woodward mentioned what British Prime Minister Tony Blair had said about receiving angry letters from families who had lost loved ones in Iraq: “Don’t believe...
Anti-Semitism or anti-Judaism? The politics of recognition
When people speak loosely of anti-Semitism, do they have in mind a religiously derived separation from Judaism on the part of Christians historically, or a pernicious racialist theory?...
String theory: Guilty of work-righteousness
The children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” So spake Jesus (Luke 16:8) in a parable that preachers do not like or understand, and wish they never had to preach....
News
Jury gives $37 million to Lutheran victims: History of abusive pastor hidden
A Texas jury has awarded nearly $37 million to nine victims who accused a Lutheran governing body of hiding the history of a pastor later convicted of child abuse....
Gay priest in Britain named diocesan dean: Withdrew last year from appointment as Anglican bishop
The issue of homosexuality has come back to haunt the Church of England with the appointment of avowedly gay Canon Jeffrey John as dean of the diocese of St....
Evangelical teens also pirate music, says poll: Few consider unauthorized downloading wrong
The Gospel Music Association says it has embarked on a campaign to counter music piracy after commissioning a study that found purchasers of Christian music are as likely as other teens to engage in the practice....
AAR keeps plan for stand-alone meeting: Traditionally meets concurrently with Society of Biblical Literature
Despite an on-line petition signed by nearly 3,000 members, the board of directors for the 10,000-member American Academy of Religion said the organization of religion scholars will not rescind its decision last year to meet separately from the So...
Agencies in Iraq reduce operations: Cite escalation of hostilities
Church aid agencies working in Iraq are pulling out international staff, reviewing their programs in the face of continuing violence, and in at least one instance considering suspending operations altogether, the Geneva-based Action by Churches To...
Briefly noted
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to consider an appeal of a lower court ruling that mealtime prayers at Virginia Military Institute are unconstitutional....
Century Marks
Moratorium on prayer: Anthony Bloom, longtime head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain, was a noted authority on prayer....
Kerry may survive Rome's hard line: Two bishops say Communion shouldn't be withheld
Although a leading Vatican cardinal states that Catholic teaching is clear about denying communion to a politician who supports abortion rights, two key U.S....
Religious groups join women's rights march: Prayerfully Pro-Choice Interfaith Worship Service
Standing at a worship service shortly before the official start of the March for Women’s Lives held in Washington, D.C., pastry cook Theresa Helfrey held two signs stapled together, one declaring the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s call for justice...
Catholic right holds first prayer breakfast: National Catholic Prayer Breakfast
When 1,000 “faithful” Catholics packed a Washington hotel ballroom for the first-ever National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on April 28, noticeably absent was the man who could be the first Catholic president in 44 years. Democratic U.S....
Suffered in Israeli jail, says Christian convert: Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu
Released Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu said on April 21 he had been persecuted by the authorities in Israel because of his conversion to Christianity....
Presbyterians prefer cremation, no funeral: Memorial services favored
A funeral complete with casket? Plenty of Presbyterian pastors and parishioners polled on the matter prefer a memorial service to a funeral, and want their bodies cremated rather than buried....
Alliance of Baptists endorses gay marriage: Decries "politicization of same-sex marriage"
The Alliance of Baptists, a progressive group which grew out of a protest against a fundamentalist resurgence among Southern Baptists, has adopted a statement in favor of same-sex marriage, saying it decries “the politicization of same-sex marriag...
Church leaders: Bush's clean-air policy foul: The Clear Skies initiative
One hundred Christian leaders told President Bush in a pointed Earth Day rebuke that they have “grave moral concern” about his clean-air policy....
Lectionary
Long goodbye: John 17:20-26; Acts 16:16-34
How do you say goodbye? It depends, I suppose, on the relationship—what it has grown to and what it will become. For Jesus, preparing to leave the close society of his disciples seems to have been a long process. Almost from the beginning he gently, or sometimes in exasperation, explained that the course his life was following would lead to profound changes in their lives. So he began saying goodbye early.
Good company: Genesis 11:1-9; John 14:8-17
George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community, said that in order to form community, people must be engaged in a “demanding common task.” In his case the task was to rebuild the accommodation areas of Iona Abbey. The group that he led included people with considerable formal education, as well as people with little education. These men and women formed community out of purpose and in difficult conditions; they shared what they had and learned from each other. They built with stone and with their lives, even though they could not know what the results of their work would be.