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June 16, 2021

Volume 138, Issue #12
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Features

Reflection

How Princeton Seminary’s slavery audit created moments of unlikely intimacy

We need structural change. We also need to be willing to be personally undone.

by Keri L. Day

First Person

Where my faith and my work as a scientist meet

It’s difficult to study the phylogenetic tree and still feel lonely.

by Emily Boring

How My Mind Has Changed

I had to learn to love the church

Then I had to learn to love God.

by William T. Cavanaugh

Critical Essay

How White Christians turned syncretism into an insult

Early-20th-century European and North American missionaries grew concerned about it—but never in their own churches.

by Ross Kane

First Person

How faith-based organizing helped end money bail in Illinois

The Bible provided some healthy agitation as we built coalitions to literally set the captives free.

by Charles Straight and Will Tanzman

Books

I want more for Deesha Philyaw’s church ladies

I want a sequel where they don’t have to hide their sexuality.

by Lillian Daniel

James Martin offers a primer for prayer

His definition of prayer is simple: conscious conversation with God.

by L. Roger Owens

Aimee Nezhukumatathil shows us the worlds she sees

The poet’s collection of essays is so vivid, we can smell, hear, taste, touch, and see her rapture.

by Trish Beckman

Want to challenge White supremacy? Here’s a good place to start.

Kerry Connelly and Layla F. Saad offer primers for White people in various stages of antiracism journeys.

by Jane McBride

Departments

First Words

Lucilla Goodman and other ordinary saints

Her epitaph, “She hath done what she could,” says a lot.

by Peter W. Marty

On Art

Laquan McDonald (from the series In the Wake), by Jared Thorne

Laquan McDonald, a Black teenager, was walking away from Chicago police in 2014 when he was shot 16 times by an officer, who was later convicted of murder on the basis of video footage suppressed by authori­ties....

art selection and comment by Aaron Rosen

Faith Matters

Where is my love to go?

Imagine God asking that question. You’ll get an insight into God’s heart.

by Samuel Wells

Screen Time

What makes a movie a “family movie”?

It’s not just about entertaining the kids.

by Kathryn Reklis

From the Editors

Is there any hope for a just peace in Israel and Palestine?

A two-state solution seems as far off as ever. It’s also the only viable way forward.

News

The religious aspect of the Israel-Palestine conflict

In mid-May, violence between Gaza and Israel intensified to levels not seen for years, with Hamas shooting hundreds of rockets toward the Tel Aviv area and Israel retaliating with heavy strikes in the Gaza Strip....

by Yonat Shimron

Conservatives push big issues to forefront at Supreme Court

Abortion. Guns. Religion. A Trump-fortified conservative majority is making its presence felt at the Supreme Court by quickly wading into high-profile social issues that have long been goals of the right....

by Mark Sherman

100 years later, Black church leaders seek reparations for Tulsa massacre

On the first Wednesday in May, as the centennial of the Tulsa massacre ap­proached, Robert R. A. Turner stood outside Tulsa City Hall with his megaphone, as he does every week....

by Adelle M. Banks

How a faith-based network helps people return to their communities after incarceration

After a two-year prison sentence, Amber Bjornsson moved into a recovery home. She took a minimum wage job at a restaurant within walking distance of her transitional housing....

by Amanda Page

People

Vashti McKenzie, first woman bishop in AME church, to retire in July

Vashti Murphy McKenzie, the first woman to be elected as a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, will retire from active ministry at the AME general conference in July....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

People

Russell Moore leaves Southern Baptist ERLC to join Christianity Today

Russell Moore, the embattled South­ern Baptist ethicist and “never Trumper,” is resigning as president of his denom­ination’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission....

by Bob Smietana

People

P. Stephen Chow Sau-yan

Pope Francis on May 17 named a new bishop for Hong Kong, tapping the head of his own Jesuit or­der in the region, P. Stephen Chow Sau-yan, for the politically sensitive position that has been vacant for two years....
People

Lenny Duncan joins Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

Lenny Duncan, a queer, Black pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is joining Pacific Lutheran The­ological Sem­i­nary as a public theologian to help de­velop a two-year certification program....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

Lectionary

July 4, Ordinary 14B (2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10)

Whatever else David is, he is recognizably human and not a fairy-tale king.

by Celeste Kennel-Shank

June 27, Ordinary 13B (2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27)

When David praises Saul and Jonathan, is he acting out of expediency, faithfulness, or both?

by Celeste Kennel-Shank

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