Guest Post

Subscribe to the Century editors' link blogging by feed. Uganda shelves kill the gays bill--for now.

We're very pleased that indie-press digest Utne Reader nominated the Century for a 2011 Utne Independent Press Award in the "body/spirit" category.

"Open conversation that leads to nothing." That's how Jon Stewart summed up his interview with popular right-wing historian David Barton. He was right: After 30 minutes of glib back-and-forth with Barton (ten of which made it onto TV), Stewart was flummoxed, worn down, unfunny.

We are right to feel a sense of relief that a major source of evil has been removed. But we should reflect also on the flip side of that relief: the nature of our fears.

CEO Dan Cathy of the Chick-fil-A company has a new service model: the Sermon on the Mount. "Here's the deal," Cathy announced recently at the second annual Imagination Summit in California. "All of us were created in God's image."

When mission organizations send out promotional materials, they don't usually include missionary ruminations like Heather Hendrick's. She exposes her faith, doubt, frustration and hope with equal courage.

In the latest First Things, David Bentley Hart skewers the thought of Ayn Rand. Yet only in a passing reference does he acknowledge the reasons for the renewed interest in Rand.

I like the energy and talent in our praise group, but invariably I'm the one who asks if the bass player could turn down his amp. I've also been known to ask if we could sing more songs that let Jesus down off of the cross.

In 2009, Sen. Mark Kirk (R--Ill.), then a congressman, voted for a bill that would have regulated greenhouse gases--a bill that died in the Senate. Kirk later did an about-face on global warming. In January he explained that "the consensus behind the climate change bill collapsed and then further deteriorated with the personal and political collapse of Vice President Gore."

Subscribe to the Century editors' link blogging by feed. Solidarity in honor of Dr. King. How, and how not, to stimulate the economy.