Niebuhr’s political realism won, but it’s King’s radical politics that we need in this neoliberal, neofascist era.

c. 2017 Religion News Service

CHICAGO (RNS) In his final speech as president of the United States, President Barack Obama spoke of his faith in American democracy and warned his supporters not to retreat into despair.

Obama had returned to his adopted hometown of Chicago for his farewell address January 10 at McCormick Place.

It’s the city where his political career began—where he had given his victory speeches on election night in 2008 at Grant Park and in 2012, also at McCormick Place.

(The Christian Science Monitor) Charleston variety store owner Leon Fields pondered the question of whether Dylann Roof should die for his unthinkable crimes or have his life spared as an act of grace.

Fields has witnessed all sorts of senseless violence in his neighborhood. Thoughts of vengeance, forgiveness, and God’s judgment aren’t theoretical here, but viscerally real, said the African-American businessman.

I despise the murderer of the Emanuel Nine, and all he stands for. But I can't embrace his death.

It's one thing to oppose harmful actions. It's another to need to be right.

c. 2017 Religion News Service

(RNS) At least 16 Jewish community centers received bomb threats on Monday (Jan. 9) in an apparent attempt to rattle American Jews, who have seen a spike in anti-Semitism incidents in the past year.

The threats—some by live callers, some by robocall—were made to JCCs in Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, South Carolina, and at least four other states.

There are few things scarier than genuinely and openly stepping out in pursuit of truth. It is easy to be dogmatic but it is difficult to find the humility and courage necessary to begin unsettling one’s own limited understanding for something truer and purer than what we have already known.

As I think about the Magi, I've remembered lessons about hatred and fear that I learned by traveling to Israel myself.

D. L. Mayfield wanted to help Somali refugees. She ended up mostly baking them cupcakes.

The Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro has launched an international appeal for donations to help restore Christ the Redeemer, Brazil’s 98-foot-tall statue, considered one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World.

“Christ the Redeemer, with its open arms, is the greatest showcase for Rio and Brazil,” said Cardinal Orani João Tem­pesta, the archbishop of Rio, at the recent launch of the Friends of Christ the Re­deemer campaign. The initiative is a way of “continuing to spread the Christian faith.”