Though comprehensive sex ed is effective, fear of controversy keeps many schools from implementing it. But support may be gaining ground.
When Nicole Chaisson teaches kids about sexuality, she doesn't have to worry about the state legislature. But that doesn't make her task simple.
The Cubs last won the World Series in 1908. I have learned to comfort myself with Christian verities such as steadfastness and hope.
Title IX revolutionized sports at the scholastic and collegiate levels. The results show up elsewhere as well.
I dreamed of meeting Adam in heaven. He wasn't hard to recognize; he looked like my great-uncle Harold, with the weight of his years melted off.
Orthodoxy's roots in Egypt and Ethiopia are ancient. In East Africa there is a younger movement: a native Orthodoxy, locally grown.
When I Was a Child I Read Books, by Marilynne Robinson
To those who fear that Christian cultural engagement is in a state of intellectual poverty, Marilynne Robinson's work offers reason to hope.
Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick
The title of Nathaniel Philbrick’s slim new meditation foregrounds the questions at the heart of every assignment made by every English teacher: Why read this book? Or that book? For that matter, why do we assign reading in the first place?
Muckraking pilgrim
Michael Moore's work is that of a repentant sinner called to bring the news—not all of it good—to folks who would rather do without it.
Devout atheist
Alain de Botton is offiicially enthusiastic, but his book is wistful. Atheists who pick it up may find themselves undergoing a crisis of faithlessness.
Religion in Human Evolution, by Robert N. Bellah
Some two decades before Robert Bellah and his colleagues wrote the seminal 1985 book Habits of the Heart, which improved the public conversation about religion and society in the United States, Bellah penned a provocative essay called “Religious Evolution.” He has finally returned to that ambitious theme.
MI-5
Why did I spend three and a half days of my life watching all 87 episodes of a soapy spy serial? For Jesus, of course. Also because it's a provocative and relevant series.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, by British director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love), is a “hands across the water” movie flavored with large doses of “there’ll always be an England” pluck. It culminates in a warm and thoughtful look at our innate ability to rediscover unexplored strengths within ourselves even on the last few miles of life’s journey.
A Simple Life
Whenever people complain to me about the lack of “realistic” movies out there, I point them to tiny gems such as Ann Hui’s A Simple Life, Hong Kong’s entry for last year’s Oscar for best foreign language film.