Features
Stimulus needed: How to create jobs
Unemployment is a human crisis. Yet the Obama administration, Congress and the Fed mostly act like it's not their problem.
Investing in change: Nora Nash, shareholder activist
"We do not shame a company," says Sister Nora Nash of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. "If there is shaming, the company brings that on itself."
Training in Jesus’ way: Ministry in the 21st century
"Jesus calls us to make disciples, not just converts," says Todd Friesen of Lombard Mennonite Church in Illinois. "I believe that discipleship begins in communal worship."
The absurd in worship
I recently learned that "Onward Christian Soldiers" can speak truth—when it's not a display of militarism but just patently ridiculous.
People Like Us
Though this movie wants to be about and for adults, it’s hamstrung by the soap-opera mentality of its writers, Roberto Orci and Jody Lambert, and its director, Alex Kurtzman.
The Bible plus: The four books of Mormonism
The LDS canon's four books carry equal weight of authority. All are read as historical witnesses to God's promise of salvation.
An American original
It has become fashionable to narrate the lives of books. Paul Gutjahr offers a brief and readable account of the Book of Mormon's history.
Visions of Zion: Changes in Mormon social ethics
The 19th-century Mormon kingdom emphasized the common good. Later came a shift toward personal morality as the mark of saintliness.
Take This Waltz
This low-key, intimate Canadian film is in danger of passing by unnoticed. An anatomy of two relationships—a marriage and a courtship that overlap—the film is excitingly fresh and unconventional, and one of the few bright spots in a dim summer movie season.
Books
Reading Like a Serpent, by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is one of McEntyre’s favorite books....
The Leftovers, by Tom Perrotta
What if the Rapture really happened? This is the question Tom Perrotta takes up in his novel The Leftovers....
Some Assembly Required, by Anne Lamott with Sam Lamott
Anne Lamott fans: if you're expecting a reprise of the gritty Operating Instructions, this isn't it. But read on.
Red State Religion, by Robert Wuthnow
Kansas politics are often polarizing and angry—and rooted at least rhetorically in conservative Christianity. If this situation seems dire, Robert Wuthnow provides encouraging news.
A Faith Not Worth Fighting For, edited by Tripp York and Justin Bronson Barringer
The editors and contributors to this volume believe that the practice of nonviolence is at the center of what it means to follow Jesus....
Departments
A Camel through the Eye of a Needle
Jesus said to the disciples, “The truth is, it is difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven....
Snakes in the grass
I am not squeamish about most animals or insects. But snakes are a different story.
Our Mormon neighbors
Romney's faith, like Obama's, is distinctly American yet often misunderstood. And campaigns are rarely an occasion to increase understanding.
Gun madness
The Peaceable Kingdom pricks my conscience every time I see it because of the enormous gap between its vision and the world's reality.
News
Gun control as a religious issue
Of all the controversies that have followed in the bloody wake of the July 20 shooting rampage in Aurora, Colorado, few have provided such clarifying insight into the moral tensions and contradictions in American culture as the argument over wheth...
Orthodox Church in America ousts its leader
The Orthodox Church in America announced that it had forced its leader, Metropolitan Jonah, to resign earlier this summer, chiefly because he had failed to remove a priest accused of rape....
Templeton gives $5 million to study immortality claims
Promising an “uncompromising scientifically rigorous” approach, a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside, says he has received a three-year $5 million gra...
Romney as church leader: Strict on sex, but caring to those needing help
Lani Gerson left the Mormon church long before Mitt Romney decided to excommunicate her....
Episcopal bishop says yes (and no) to gay blessings
Episcopal Bishop Kee Sloan of Alabama voted in favor of his church’s new ritual for blessing same-sex unions—but he won’t allow priests in his diocese to perform it....
Court upholds Georgia ban on guns in church
A federal appeals court has upheld Georgia’s ban on bringing guns into places of worship....
Catholic official jailed for sexual abuse cover-up
Monsignor William J. Lynn, the first U.S. Catholic official convicted for covering up the sexual abuse of children, has been sentenced to three to six years in prison....
Lectionary
Sunday, September 2, 2012: James 1:17-27
My childhood church used offering envelopes with six checkboxes on them, a sort of spiritual scorecard. When I finally met James, hiding behind Paul, I proudly showed him my envelope. He laughed.