Features
A fair tax: How Bush's policy falls short
Americans are, or at least claim to be, a Christian people. Almost 80 percent of us, including President Bush, practice Christianity in some form. Bush has openly stated that Jesus is his favorite philosopher and that “we ought to love our neighbor like we love our self, as manifested in public policy.” Yet the president is leading our tax policy far from God’s moral compass.
Here is a view of tax policy from the standpoint of Judeo-Christian ethics:
Death of a people: Genocide in northern Uganda
The worst place on earth to be a child today is northern Uganda. The suffering is far worse than in Darfur in duration, magnitude and long-term consequences. Genocide is being carried out by the government against the Acholi people.
No comparison: A chaplain's view of torture
Miracle market: Mark's enigmatic ending
So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
—Mark 16:8
Passion play: Life and death on the Root River
“The secret of life is that it is a passion play.”
—Holmes Rolston
Being Benedict: The pope's first year
Late in his life, Karl Barth invited a young Catholic theologian to join his theology seminar. Frederick Lawrence, one of the students in the seminar, remembers the visitor as a “handsome young priest with graying hair, of medium build and slender stature,” who spoke with such skill that Barth pronounced his performance “outstanding.” Barth had one reservation: his guest too often used the construction “on the one hand . . . and on the other hand” when a simple decisive pronouncement would have been in order.
Jesus the priest
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
—Barry Goldwater (with thanks to Thomas Paine)
Blowing up a building can change the world.
—V
The notion that terrorist acts may be necessary to topple an evil regime usually finds cinematic treatment in low-budget films dealing with the Irish Revolutionary Army or the Black Power movement. But V for Vendetta is a big-budget mainstream release with a huge advertising budget.
Books
Altar call
Test run
Lenten roadmap
Life-giving law
Sail on
Departments
Hooked on war: The psychology of car sales
Shame on us: Some means can never be justified
Modern martyrs: Forgiveness and peace are the only way
Lame excuse: Pastors and parishioners
Fresh evidence: U.S. and the Israel lobby
News
Afghan Christian averts death for apostasy as Italy grants asylum: American Muslims insist death for apostates not mandated
People
Miracle market: Mark's enigmatic ending
The file on Benedict
Century Marks
Jonathan Tasini, a Jew who is running for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, says that U.S. Jews must speak out about American foreign policy on Israel. He believes "there will only be a just peace agreement when a Palestinian state—a strong, vibrant, prosperous, independent state, able to provide jobs and a good life for its people—thrives alongside Israel.” (rachelswords.org).