Respecting the Ten Commandments, in all their ambiguity

I’m posting them in my classroom—and teaching my students about how people interpret them differently.

text by Alan Jay Levinovitz, drawings by Jason Novak

December 6, 2024

Alan Jay Levinovitz

Alan Jay Levinovitz is professor of religion at James Madison University and author of Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science.

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Jason Novak

Jason Novak is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, the Paris Review, and the Believer. He lives in Oakland, California.

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Dear Jesus, Am I broken enough yet?

At youth group and church camp, I learned to perform my own unworthiness. It took years to recognize the spiritual harm this caused.

by McKenzie Watson-Fore

Features

The Scopes Monkey Trial and the evolution of fundamentalism

A staged legal proceeding in a small town became the catalyst for a century of culture wars.

by Michael A. Smith

Feature

Body counts: The dark side of Christian history

With its long coastline, rugged mountains and haunting sand dunes, Oman is a paradise for desert lovers, hikers and boaters. Muscat, the capital city, is a gem—its arched white buildings and flat roofs squeezed between the blue ocean and black mountains. Yet call me an egghead, but what I remember most from a trip to Oman is a booklet I read there with an ominous title: Body Count: A Quantitative Review of Political Violence Across World Civilizations (2009). In it, author Naveed Sheikh claims that “the Christian civilization emerges as the most violent and genocidal in the world history.” Compared to Islam, Christianity is a clear winner: 31.94 million deaths by Muslims to 177.94 million deaths by Christians.

by Miroslav Volf