Features
Shocked by grace: A visit to death row
Every time I mentioned God, David referred to God’s mercy. Bandying sacred language back and forth with a convicted murderer unnerved me.
Notes on loving your neighbor
It's easy to love Mr. C. It's not as easy to love Mrs. M., and it’s stone-cold not easy to love that guy down the street.
Dislocated: A household move unleashes demons
My husband and I are moving to Woodstock, near many old friends. It’s a great move. So why the interior drama?
Mentors: Essays by readers
In response to our request for essays on mentors, we received many compelling reflections. Here is a selection.
Premarital wisdom: How pastors are counseling same-sex couples
Same-sex couples present clergy with particular challenges. Yet many ministers say this work illuminates their understanding of marriage generally.
Books
Theology for Liberal Protestants, by Douglas F. Ottati
The genius of Doug Ottati’s work is that he illuminates ways that theology is a source for rather than an obstacle to piety and practical living.
Holding on and letting go
The aging-parent memoir is a crowded genre. Still, I was eager to read Jeanne Murray Walker’s account of her mother’s last years. I wasn’t disappointed.
At-Risk, by Amina Gautier
The power of Amina Gautier’s stories is in the way they portray the undertow of danger that pulls at African American youth in a Brooklyn housing project.
Departments
As if
Literary belief is always metaphorical, not actual. What about religious belief?
Investment option
Ministry is an undertaking of the entire church. Ministers flourish when they share their experience and reflect on it with others.
Tomorrow, by Rick LaMarre
Artist and illustrator Rick LaMarre imagines what the disciple Peter would do the day or two after denying Jesus. Would he return to fishing, the world he knows?...
An Irish peacemaker
Alec Reid’s heroic story sounds as if it comes from a Catholic suspense novel. But it really did happen—in Belfast in 1988.
Members only?
When the church was under siege, passing the peace was important to members meeting in secret. Today, it’s a part of the service I dread.
Leading man
In the holiday movie blitz, one live wire unites two very different films: Christian Bale, who plays the lead in both Out of the Furnace and American Hustle.
News
Roman Catholics decline in England, Wales
c. 2014 Religion News Service...
Children’s right to die affirmed in Belgium
A long-running debate over a child’s right to die is coming to a head after the passage of a bill by Belgium’s upper house of parliament agreeing to extend the country’s euthanasia law to children....
Rift grows for United Methodists
A deep divide within the United Methodist Church over how to minister to gays and lesbians has led a Washington, D.C., pastor to suggest the denomination should not wait until its 2016 General Conference to change its policies....
Black-white racial divide is worse, researchers say
Nearly 60 years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a “separate but equal” doctrine that reinforced segregation, almost a quarter of Americans say it is OK for races to be separate as long as they have equal opportunities....
Conviction reversed in case of clergy abuse cover-up
A post-Christmas court decision that freed a senior Catholic cleric in Philadelphia who had been jailed for shielding an abusive priest was a symbolic setback for victims’ advocates and one with a substantial and discouraging message for their cau...
Same-sex marriages rose rapidly last year
By mid-December 2013, gay and lesbian couples could count eight states that had approved same-sex marriages through court rulings or legislative action that year....
Nod to unbelievers part of pope’s style
When Pope Francis left his script Christmas morning to ad-lib an invitation to atheists to join the prayerful in “desiring peace,” it may have been the first time an Urbi et Orbi Christmas address—an annual message “to ...
Ugandan law would give gays life imprisonment
A Ugandan cleric who ministers to homosexuals has criticized the passage of a controversial law that imposes life imprisonment for homosexual acts....
Respect for clergy drops, according to Gallup poll
Clergy used to rank near the top in polls where Americans were asked to rate the honesty and ethics of people in various professions....