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April 21, 2021

Volume 138, Issue #8

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Features

First Person

Jellyfish at prayer

Is V. velella a colony or an individual? When does sharedness dissolve into oneness?

by Emily Boring

Hip-hop artists Sho Baraka and Propaganda flip the script

Stanley Hauerwas says good theological writing makes the familiar strange.

by A. Trevor Sutton

A civil rights pilgrimage through the eyes of Congolese refugee teenagers

We began to understand why James Baldwin called US history “more beautiful and more terrible than anyone has ever said about it.”

by Ashley Makar

COVID and the faithful risks pastors have taken

This is a high-stakes time. Some churches need to take more creative risks than ever before.

by Carrie Graham

First Person

Because of Paul Crow, I’m still a pastor

The ecumenical leader who talked me out of burning my ordination certificate

by Beverly Dale

Black churches address vaccine hesitancy

Helping a community navigate historical concerns

by Donna Hammond

Books

Do we still need institutions?

Yes, says Yuval Levin. But only if they serve a formative function.

by Anthony B. Robinson

Why the death penalty came back

And why it might be abolished

by Amy Frykholm

Donna Haskins defeats the devil

Onaje X. O. Woodbine’s book about a Black woman’s life is a model of ethnographic work that centers the voice of its subject.

by Elizabeth Palmer

Lies about the Old Testament

Brent Strawn aims to debunk mistruths that come from biblical illiteracy and anti-Semitism.

by Sally Dyck

Departments

Screen Time

Three neo-Westerns that reimagine the genre

First Cow, Bacurau, and Nomadland reveal the stark racism of classic American Westerns.

by Kathryn Reklis

On Art

Sublunary Embrace, by Alyssa Coffin

One morning this autumn my brother woke to ash falling from the sky outside his window in Montana. He leapt out of bed, worried that his apartment building was on fire. It wasn’t....

art selection and comment by Aaron Rosen

Faith Matters

Life after resurrection

Salvation is not a place but a way of life.

by Brian Bantum

First Words

It’s time to end our national love affair with guns

Breaking America’s fetish for lethal weapons

by Peter W. Marty

From the Editors

Why are we calling the predictable seasonal shift at our border a surge?

Pretending we don't expect something gets us off the hook for not being prepared.

News

Poll: Most Americans support LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws

A new study shows overwhelming public support for LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws....

by Yonat Shimron

Local Black church creates ‘lifesaver’ program for families struggling with virtual learning

In March 2020, when parents were thrust into the so-called new normal, Jodie Pope Williams, an academic adviser at Madison Area Technical College in Madison, Wisconsin, had been able to keep her chin up: working from home and online learning felt ...

by Zoë Kirsch

Arkansas governor signs medical

conscience objections law

On March 26, Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson signed into law legislation allowing doctors to refuse to treat someone because of religious or moral objections, a move opponents have said will give providers broad powers to turn away LGBTQ patients...

by Andrew DeMillo

Uyghurs in Turkey protest Chinese foreign minister’s visit

Hundreds of Uyghurs staged protests in Ankara and Istanbul on March 25, denouncing Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to Turkey and demanding that the Turkish government take a stronger stance against human rights abuses in China’s far-weste...

by Mehmet Guzel and Suzan Fraser

Gender pay gap among Episcopal clergy shrinking but persistent

In 2001, when the Church Pension Group first started publishing differences in average compensation between male and female full-time Episcopal clergy, men earned 18 percent more than women....

by Egan Millard

People

Mary Novak to lead Network lobby

Catholic social justice lobby Network has chosen Georgetown University law professor Mary Novak to take over the group after longtime leader Simone Campbell retires....

by Jack Jenkins

People

Evangelical pastor Luis Palau dies at 86

Luis Palau, an evangelical pastor who was born in Argentina and went on to work with Billy Graham before establishing his own powerhouse international ministry, died March 11. He was 86....

by Gillian Flaccus

Lectionary

May 9, Easter 6B (John 15:9–17)

What would the insurance-mandated boundary trainings that I’ve attended make of Jesus’ intimacy with his disciples?

by Melissa Earley

May 2, Easter 5B (John 15:1–8)

The vine branch doesn’t put “make grapes” on its to-do list. It just makes them.