Features
What's confirmation for? A rite needing revision
How does Jesus save?
Seeds of doubt: Ikon's Peter Rollins
The Soloist
Voices
Stephanie Paulsell
Torturous times: The need for a Gamaliel
Human beings give way too easily to the temptation to make our arguments on each other's bodies. The apostles' lives were saved because one learned man was willing the make his argument another way.
Books
Evangelical Disenchantment: Nine Portraits of Faith and Doubt
BookMarks
Church-based hate
Crisis recounts the sad stories of young people who, like Esau, cried for a blessing and too often did not receive it.
How the boom went bust
Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience
Sacred Assemblies and Civic Engagement: How Religion Matters for America's Newest Immigrants
Departments
The case for condoms: Bishops versus the pope
Scene of the crime: Television's longing for justice
Done in our name: Before we turn the page on torture
Torturous times: The need for a Gamaliel
News
People
Obama team seeks support of progressives on poverty: White House staff address Sojourners gathering
On Obama, Rome is more gentle than U.S. bishops: Vatican conspicuously silent
Top SBC ethicist calls waterboarding torture: Land: Torture "violates everything we stand for"
Maine is fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage: A legislative move
Adventists deny trying to convert Sarah Obama: Response to complaints from Kenyan Muslims
In hard-hit Indiana churches pull together: Twenty percent unemployment
Methodist court says no to clergy performing same-sex weddings: Judicial Council rejects resolutions by West-coast conferences
Seafarer chaplaincy confronts piracy fears: "An amazing ministry"
Century Marks
Happy today: When life is grim, columnist Mary Schmich likes to ask people, "What's making you happy today?" She doesn't ask, "Are you happy?" That's a "black hole" of a question, she says, that can lead to equivocation and existential dread. Her question, instead, assumes that there's always something, no matter how grim life is, that can be a source of gladness, however small or simple—like a flower or a bird, a skyline or a full moon, or just a cup of coffee (Chicago Tribune, May 1).