Features
Bottled and sold: A church’s recycling mission
We live in the reddest part of Texas, a very red state. So maybe we shouldn't have been surprised when our city stopped recycling glass.
The winter life of bees: Social order in the hive
On a crisp winter morning, I took a walk in the sparkling snow covering our small farm. Soon four beehives beckoned.
R-rated: How to read the Bible with children
Much of the Bible is not fit for children—it's a book to ease little ones into, not drop them in cold. So what's the best way to go about this?
Kicking at the Darkness, by Brian J. Walsh
Some of us owe a large part of whatever prophetic imagination we have to the creative powers of Bruce Cockburn. For pop-music-loving Bible readers of my generation, chances are he came to us via U2 of the late 1980s. In “God Part II,” from Rattle and Hum (1988), Bono tells of a late-night radio singer announcing his resolve to “kick the darkness / Till it bleeds daylight.” Liner-note readers like myself found next to this devastatingly evocative phrase a footnote introducing Cockburn, from whose “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” the line was purloined.
Alternative liturgy: Social media as ritual
If Christian liturgy works on the imagination, so do disordered secular liturgies. Social media—despite its good uses—might be one example.
Making Lent difficult: The case for rigorous disciplines
Sustainable Lenten disciplines anticipate an Easter in which they will continue. But surely Easter hope is for something more.
Books
The Open Door, edited by Don Share and Christian Wiman
Christian Wiman and Don Share have put together a memorable collection of poetry drawn from Poetry magazine’s venerable history....
In defense of church
Lillian Daniel's book is a feast of words—funny, ribald, tiptoeing to the edge of sarcasm, yet full of love and unflinching hope.
Kicking at the Darkness, by Brian J. Walsh
Some of us owe a large part of whatever prophetic imagination we have to the creative powers of Bruce Cockburn....
Straphanger, by Taras Grescoe
Taras Grescoe is not hesitant to use a car occasionally, but he’d rather be on a train, bicycle or just on foot....
Shalom and the Community of Creation, by Randy S. Woodley
For close to 50 years, Americans committed to both economic growth and the daunting goal of “saving the planet” have placed their hopes in a highly stylized image of First Nations peoples....
A Year of Biblical Womanhood and Sabbath in the Suburbs
In a guinea pig memoir, the intrepid narrator tries on a practice for a period of time, often a year, in the hope that the project will lead to personal or prophetic insight, renewed hope for the future—and a book deal.
Departments
More than entertainment
Filmmakers often defend cinematic violence by drawing a line between entertainment and the real world. But this devalues their work.
In the House of My Pilgrimage, by Grace Carol Bomer
Encaustic—the use of heated beeswax and pigment—is a traditional technique that is enjoying something of a renaissance. It’s both highly tactile (with its often thick-textured surfaces) and wonderfully organic both in surface and in fragrance....
Facebook tsunami
Social commentators warn that if you don't manage your social media identity, someone else will. I recently learned this the hard way.
Flood waters
Parents are committed to keeping children safe. But the reality is closer to Benh Zeitlin's vision of chaos than we care to admit.
Americans in waiting
If the current bipartisan push leads to serious immigration reform, we'll all be the better for it. But what constitutes serious reform?
Marked
The church of my childhood paid no attention to Lent. The season's words sounded too mystical to us, too strange and too Catholic.
News
American Baptists applaud moves toward immigration reform
Leaders of the American Baptist Churches USA who serve in ministry to immigrants and refugees welcomed a bipartisan framework unveiled by eight senators who are being called the “gang of eight” for their public effort to get the ball rolling on le...
Anglicans, Protestants hail pope’s ‘courage’ in deciding to retire
One week after Justin Welby was confirmed as the next archbishop of Canterbury, a frail Pope Benedict XVI surprised the Christian world February 11 by announcing that he would step down by the end of the month....
Christian left foresees a bolder Obama
Heartened by his calls for gay marriage and for bold action on climate change, leaders of the Christian left are confident that President Obama will now claim the progressive legacy they believe he craves....
Religious groups shape Boy Scouts debate
The decision by the Boy Scouts of America to postpone any change in policy about gay membership was fueled by an “outpouring of feedback.” Much of that reaction came from a sector with strength in numbers: the religious groups that compose the maj...
Catholic, Reformed agree on approach to baptism
Leaders of Catholic and Reformed churches have signed an agreement to recognize each other’s sacraments of baptism—a public step toward unity among groups that are often divided by doctrine....