Features
High anxiety: The terror of the dark unknown
Anxiety has a way of turning otherwise faithful Christians into foxhole atheists. I'm too busy worrying to pray.
It is about the money: Against docetic offertory prayers
Docetic offertory prayers imply that the money inside the envelopes in the offering plates is unimportant, even embarrassing.
Eventual grace: The long path to reconciliation
Like Jacob and Esau, my mother and my aunt met each other one day after 20 years of estrangement.
Out of the shadows: Isabel Castillo, immigration activist
"I met an activist who said, 'You should go back to Virginia and start to organize.' It took me about three months to send out the first e-mail."
Our life together: Four practices of healthy congregations
To build stronger communities, we need to get in the habit of recognizing what undergirds our relationships. We can't afford to take it for granted.
Man on a Ledge
Man on a Ledge is a nifty little entertainment about an ex-cop
(Sam Worthington) framed for stealing a diamond owned by a ruthless
magnate (Ed Harris). He escapes from custody and stages a suicide
threat on the window ledge of Harris's hotel as a diversion while his
allies break into his accuser's vault to prove the theft was a hoax.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
David Fincher's film of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo should please fans of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. Fincher and his screenwriter, Steven Zaillian, remain faithful to the complicated plot of the trilogy's first book, and they reproduce most of its many characters. In truth they improve vastly on their source material.
Books
The Forgotten Affairs of Youth, by Alexander McCall Smith
Isabel Dalhousie, the Edinburgh-based philosopher who edits the Journal of Applied Ethics, is not everyone's cup of tea. Her niece, Cat, is usually irritated with her....
Inspired preachers
I knew my worst sermon was going to be terrible
before I preached it. I want to hold myself to a higher standard, and
James Howell's book offers the inspiration to get me there.
Founding the Fathers, by Elizabeth A. Clark
In this deeply researched and illuminating monograph, Elizabeth Clark examines the development of early church history as an academic field in the U.S.
Foodie nation
Late in life, my mother confessed that she never enjoyed cooking. "But," she said, "I did take satisfaction in serving simple meals to my family." Well, there's no such thing as a simple meal anymore.
Departments
In praise of snow
Snow can be tiresome, even deadly, but it can also be a sign of holiness and of hope.
Idol smasher
Christopher Hitchens was an unrelenting unbeliever to the end. But Ross Douthat claims that everything about Hitchens points to an embrace of life and a refusal to give in to despair.
Árbol de Vida (Tree of Life)
Bertha Servín Barriga hand draws her images onto fabric for embroidering, using traditional colors of the Purépecha people of central Mexico....
Life and health
I recall three times when the churches I served were picketed. The one that was by far the most traumatic had to do with abortion.
Antipoverty campaign?
If Rick Santorum wins the nomination, this could have at least one positive outcome: a general election campaign in which the candidates actually talk about poverty.
News
Megachurch pastor resigns, suit alleges sexual coercion
When megachurch pastor Tyrone Gordon announced January 22 that he was resigning in mid-February from St....
Reactions vary on Obama’s contraception compromise
Facing growing furor from religious groups, President Obama unveiled
an "accommodation" in which health insurance companies, rather than
religious institutions, will provide employees with contraception
coverage....
Anglican splinter group faces new power struggle
Founded by breakaway Episcopal priests who left their former
denomination because they felt it was too liberal, the Anglican Mission
in the Americas is now in the middle of another ugly church feud....
Washington seventh state to legalize gay marriage
In an emotional ceremony, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed legislation that
makes Washington the seventh state to legalize gay marriage. "Today is a
day that historians will mark as a milestone for equal rights," she...
Till death, or brain injury, us do part?
Philip Weeks fondly remembers the days when his wife of 56 years,
June, was a nurse and an artist whose paintings were compared to
Rembrandt's. Her paintings still hang in their home in Lynchburg,...
Homegrown Muslim terror threat ‘tiny,’ report says
The threat of homegrown Islamic terrorism is "tiny" and often
exaggerated by government officials, a leading antiterrorism expert
said in a recent report....
Appeals court nullifies same-sex marriage ban
In a decision that likely will set the stage for a high-stakes
showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals struck down California's Proposition 8 ballot measure that...
Canadian imams declare fatwa against ‘honor killings’
Muslim clerics in Canada issued a fatwa against so-called honor
killings a week after three members of an Afghan family in Montreal were
convicted of the murders of four relatives....
Ecumenical group affirms relationship with Vatican
One of the world's most recent ecumenical entities, the Global
Christian Forum, has met in Rome with Vatican officials, affirming the
journey together in the search for Christian unity....
Lectionary
Sunday, March 11, 2012: 1 Corinthians 1:18–25
"You're a preacher, I can tell," the woman said to me. "But not yet."