Feature
Losing ground: Less money for AIDS work
Funding for global AIDS work is declining—even though current programs are working, and antiretroviral drugs are keeping people healthier.
Diverse and devout
The U.S. would seem to be prime ground for deep and chronic social conflict. Yet the evidence indicates that Americans get along fairly well in spite of having many different religions, including the growing number who subscribe to "no religion."
On the fault line: Christian-Muslim encounters in Nigeria
Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, and nearly half of its people are
Christians. They are often in conflict,
sometimes violent conflict, with Muslims.
Are the kids all right? Questions about donor conception: Questions about donor conception
In The Kids Are All Right, a sperm donor connects with his biological children but is eventually dismissed as an "interloper" in their lives. To believe that the kids are all right, we have to agree with this judgment.
Married or not: Standards for gay clergy
How will the ELCA hold gay pastors who aren't married accountable to the standard of monogamy and lifelong commitment? Do same-sex couples have to prove what is taken for granted with married heterosexual couples?
Land battle: Settlements and Middle East peace
Attacks on Israelis inside or emanating from the West Bank are now almost nonexistent. Peace efforts are focused instead on settlements—because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a conflict over land.
Theology for dark times: Rereading Letters and Papers
I have returned again and again to Letters and Papers in search of insight into what it means to do
theology today, especially in my own South African context. Whether my
interest and inquiry has focused on theological issues, on the renewal
of the church and its public responsibility or on history, literature,
art and aesthetics, this remarkable collection has always provided much practical wisdom for people living in tough and
uncertain times.
Tackling intolerance: Muslims and the West
I travel to the Middle East at least once each year, often visiting
multiple countries. I belong to an evangelical-Muslim discussion group
which meets annually, and the participants include pious, brilliant,
generous Muslim scholars whom I count as my friends. When a topic like
"Islamophobic America" comes up, I share intense personal e-mails with
them. But I came away from my trip to the Middle East this past summer with some new concerns.
No shows: The decline in worship attendance
Many people assume that there has been a steady decline in worship
attendance for all the mainline denominations since the mid-1960s—the
era when most of them began to see their memberships decline. But
trends in attendance have actually followed their own
patterns.
No secret plan: Why you don’t have to ‘find’ God’s will for your life
The commandments and promises of God are easy to find: they're right there in the Bible. But my students have something else in mind when they refer to "God's will," though it's not easy to say what.
When the shooting stops: Criteria for a just peace
Those who have suffered through war are in special need of God's peace and justice, of reconciliation and restoration. After the smoke clears, Christians must work to foster and promote a just peace.
Religion and the ridiculous: Novelist Clyde Edgerton
A critic once called Clyde Edgerton the "love child of Dave Barry and Flannery O'Connor"—a reflection of the fact that his novels are both dark and funny.
Hunger is political: Food banks can’t do it all
Americans do a good job of helping people in need directly, as we should. But there is another way to help people in need: citizen activism.
Where’s your church’s money? Banking for the common good: Banking for the common good
How does a church choose a bank? Typically we look for the best deal and then pat ourselves on the back for our good stewardship, as if stewardship had to do simply with saving money rather than with putting it to good use.
Immigrants like us: Family stories
My ancestors wanted to own land and prosper on it, to see their children and their children's children thrive. They knew that they were loved by a God who does not see national boundaries.
Doubts about prayer: Between action and contemplation
I have never felt comfortable praying. I almost feel I should put the word in quotes, as I'm never quite sure that what I do deserves the name.
Ways of giving: How churches think about money
Most fund-raising board meeting discussions, when stripped to the core, become one common, persistent question: "How can we persuade people to give more?"
Cross and context
For seven splendid years (1953-1960) I studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Someone told me that visitors to the seminary were occasionally brought around to the tutors' office, where I worked as a graduate student, in order to glimpse "the Barthian"—of which species I was apparently the only one in captivity in that place.