Features
Lifeline to kids: A shift to group mentoring
Experts say mentoring works best one on one. But Lewis Haley found such a need for mentors that he bent the rules.
This just isn’t working: When people don’t show up
Our church tried endless varieties of adult ed opportunities and midweek services, but people didn't come. So we canceled them—all of them.
A Simple Life
Whenever people complain to me about the lack of “realistic” movies out there, I point them to tiny gems such as Ann Hui’s A Simple Life, Hong Kong’s entry for last year’s Oscar for best foreign language film.
Interfaith repertoire: A Bosnian choir sings reconciliation
In a place where the religious other quite recently meant the invading army that killed your father, Pontanima's work is remarkable.
Facts of life: The case for sexuality education
Though comprehensive sex ed is effective, fear of controversy keeps many schools from implementing it. But support may be gaining ground.
Lessons for "Our Whole Lives" Church-based sex ed: Church-based sex ed
When Nicole Chaisson teaches kids about sexuality, she doesn't have to worry about the state legislature. But that doesn't make her task simple.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, by British director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love), is a “hands across the water” movie flavored with large doses of “there’ll always be an England” pluck. It culminates in a warm and thoughtful look at our innate ability to rediscover unexplored strengths within ourselves even on the last few miles of life’s journey.
Books
Religion in Human Evolution, by Robert N. Bellah
Some two decades before Robert Bellah and his colleagues wrote the seminal 1985 book Habits of the Heart, which improved the public conversation about religion and society in the United States, Bellah penned a provocative essay called “Religious Evolution.” He has finally returned to that ambitious theme.
Abba, Give Me a Word, by L. Roger Owens
As a young Methodist pastor, Owens had the good fortune of finding Larry, a retired Baptist pastor, who became his spiritual director....
Muckraking pilgrim
Michael Moore's work is that of a repentant sinner called to bring the news—not all of it good—to folks who would rather do without it.
Devout atheist
Alain de Botton is offiicially enthusiastic, but his book is wistful. Atheists who pick it up may find themselves undergoing a crisis of faithlessness.
Any Day a Beautiful Change, by Katherine Willis Pershey
One could judge this book by how many chuckles it evokes. It is good in that department. One could also judge the book by its clever and at times provocative turns of phrases....
Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick
The title of Nathaniel Philbrick’s slim new meditation foregrounds the questions at the heart of every assignment made by every English teacher: Why read this book? Or that book? For that matter, why do we assign reading in the first place?
When I Was a Child I Read Books, by Marilynne Robinson
To those who fear that Christian cultural engagement is in a state of intellectual poverty, Marilynne Robinson's work offers reason to hope.
Departments
Meeting Adam
I dreamed of meeting Adam in heaven. He wasn't hard to recognize; he looked like my great-uncle Harold, with the weight of his years melted off.
A new playing field
Title IX revolutionized sports at the scholastic and collegiate levels. The results show up elsewhere as well.
The Orthodox in Africa
Orthodoxy's roots in Egypt and Ethiopia are ancient. In East Africa there is a younger movement: a native Orthodoxy, locally grown.
Sea of Script
Jake Weidmann found his true calling when he learned there were only nine master penmen in the world....
News
Applying the Golden Rule to gay marriage
As pundits and politicians struggle to divine the political fallout from President Obama’s sudden endorsement of same-sex marriage, one thing has become clear: the Golden Rule invoked by Obama to explain his change of heart is the closest thing Am...
Wink challenged ‘powers’ and taught nonviolence
New Testament theologian Walter Wink, noted for relating the biblical phrase “principalities and powers” to the dominating sociopolitical structures of the modern era, died May 10, leaving a legacy of books, teachings and nonviolent resistance to ...
Our idea of heaven wrong, says N. T. Wright
An oft-clichéd notion of heaven—a blissful realm of harp-strumming angels—has remained a fixture of the faith for centuries....
PCUSA unit refuses to rebuke Jane Spahr over same-sex marriages
In an unprecedented act of defiance, a California region of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has rejected a ruling from a church court to rebuke a pastor who wed same-sex couples....
Faculty at Baptist college resign rather than sign required morals statement
More than two dozen faculty members have resigned from Shorter University, a Baptist school in Georgia, after it required them to sign a “personal lifestyle statement” that condemns homosexuality, premarital sex and public drinking....
Queen Elizabeth favored as Church of England head
Nearly three-quarters of people in England believe that Queen Elizabeth II should retain her position as titular head of the Church of England, according to an opinion poll....
Syrian Christians keep uneasy alliance with Assad
Hani Sarhan is a Christian who says none of his relatives works for Bashar Assad’s regime or has anything to do with it....
Black churches conflicted about Obama’s stance on gays
When the pulpits of the nation’s black churches took measure of President Obama’s decision to support gay marriage, the resulting comments were often conflicted....
Obama’s views on gays OK with most voters
President Obama’s recent endorsement of same-sex marriage opened a torrent of speculation on what his newly enunciated position will mean politically, but the latest polls indicate that the public largely backs his views and that his stance may no...
Obama campaign taps Wear, 24, to lead religious outreach
President Obama’s reelection campaign has tapped a 24-year-old executive assistant in the White House faith-based office to head up its outreach to religious communities....
Lectionary
Ordinary #12B (Mark 4:35-41)
Being fearful in a storm at sea is not exactly irrational like pogonophobia (fear of beards).
Ordinary #11B (Ezekiel 17:22-24; Mark 4:26-34)
These parables are like God's joke in the form of an invasive species.