Features
Pulpit rotation: Case by case
The community Thanksgiving service would be at the Southern Baptist church that year, but it was Madeline's church's turn to supply the preacher.
Nearest kin: R. Kendall Soulen on Christians and Jews
"Supersessionism is like a submerged resentment that infects all our social relationships. That's why overcoming it is so important."
Poor and unwanted: Sociologist Susan Crawford Sullivan
"About a third of the women in my study felt stigmatized by churches. Some mentioned not having nice clothes; some were ashamed of being on welfare."
How we make choices: Congregations and the psychology of risk
Decision making may have less to do with rational assessment than perceived risk. Is this why even well-reasoned church initiatives don't always succeed?
Embrace & abandonment: A pastor and a poet talk about God
"We aren't the first people to experience God as the slice and the stitches at the exact same time. The paradox is ancient. Jesus embodied it."
Books
Speaking Faithfully, by Jim Naughton and Rebecca Wilson
How can churches and other religious institutions speak effectively to let the world know that something is happening with church people that they might want to be a part of?
No Joke, by Ruth R. Wisse
One cannot think of American comedy without mentioning Jewish contributions, from the Marx brothers to Mel Brooks....
After Cloven Tongues of Fire, by David A. Hollinger
After Cloven Tongues of Fire is a collection of historian David Hollinger’s writings on 20th-century American Protestantism....
Promised lands
Partly a travel memoir, partly the spiritual journey of someone who claims no particular spirituality, and partly a family story of fear and joy, Searching for Zion follows Emily Raboteau’...
The Scandal of Having Something to Say, by Lance B. Pape
Perhaps the best entry point into The Scandal of Having Something to Say is the word postliberal in the subtitle, which requires that we consider the term liberal, to whi...
Departments
Armenia’s survivors
Armenia is a nation of 3.3 million in a territory a fourth the size of Pennsylvania. Its small scale belies a much larger ancient reality.
Daily Cross, by Gerda Liebmann
From Daily Cross (clockwise from top left): Sand Cross, Apple Cross, Bunker Cross, Phila Cross. ...
Song for a time of terror
The Song of Songs is about cherishing everything that makes another human being distinctive. It's the opposite of indiscriminate violence.
The Bluths’ school for virtue
Arrested Development is back, and family dysfunction is on display. But family may also be the characters' chance to break free from paralyzing narcissism.
Commencing a new future
Graduation season reminds me that you can do a whole lot worse than give your heart to a college.
Murky mandate
The evidence doesn't point to a politicized IRS. The problem is the vagueness of the tax code.
News
Abuse watchdogs cite bishops’ ‘failings’
Even as an annual review in mid-May gave Catholic bishops high marks on sexual abuse prevention policies, officials with the church’s oversight agencies expressed serious concerns about “recent high-profile failings.”...
IRS ‘targeting’ angers conservative groups
Disclosures that the Internal Revenue Service conducted special scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax exemption, including groups associated with Billy Graham, led the Obama administration in May to oust the agency’s acting director and to a...
Justices to review prayer at government meetings
The Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether prayers can be offered at government meetings—a practice that’s been common in Congress and throughout the states for more than two centuries....
Human cloning breakthrough prompts objections
News that scientists had for the first time recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos prompted dire warnings from religious leaders who say the research crosses a moral red line and could lead to designer babies....
United Methodist Reporter folds
The United Methodist Reporter, a national weekly newspaper that once produced nearly 300 separate editions, each with regional church news, said that the financial losses of recent months were part of an irreversible trend....
Congregations tend soil and soul with gardens
Morris G. Henderson wasn’t sure what do with a vacant block of land behind his 31st Street Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia....
Canadians turn away from organized religion
A new national study shows that while Canada remains overwhelmingly Christian, Canadians are turning their backs on organized religion in ever greater numbers....
Radio evangelist Harold Camping faces doomsday
Two years ago radio evangelist Harold Camping was predicting the end of the world. Now aides say his false predictions are likely to result in the end of his California-based Family Radio ministry....
Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s burial angers Virginia Muslims
Officials and local residents of a rural Virginia county say they’re surprised and angered that the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried in a local cemetery....