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January 1, 2020

Volume 137, Issue #1

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Features

First Person

A congregation’s commitment to live out “We do”

We say these words a lot. Lately I’ve noticed what it looks like when we follow through.

by Kimberly Knowle-Zeller

First Person

When a father and husband walked out, grace called him home

I preached a word of judgment. The stranger in the back row heard grace.

by Bruce K. Modahl

Readers Write

Lapse: Essays by readers

We gave our readers a one-word writing prompt: “Lapse.”

The Sons of Confederate Veterans want their due

They’re wrong.

by Pete Candler

Books

What if we treated all of creation—plants and stars, soil and rivers—as our kin?

Biblical scholar Mari Joerstad and indigenous activist Nick Estes challenge our human-centered worldview.

by Isaac S. Villegas

How did American racism get to this point?

Joel Goza explores America’s addiction to racism and racialized poverty.

by David P. Gushee

A lapsed Catholic’s unexpected devotion

Searching for the Mary statue from her childhood, Sonja Livingston found much more.

by Amy Frykholm

Jia Tolentino’s critique of social media, its grip on us, and the people it makes rich

Our lives are shaped by the information we consume—and we can’t do much about it.

by Rachel Pyle

Does Matthew correct Mark’s story? Or complete it?

Matthew D. C. Larsen challenges long-held assumptions about the Gospels.

by Greg Carey

Departments

Screen Time

Queen and Slim challenges assumptions about race, justice, and what matters

Melinda Matsoukas’s film rolls terror and hope into one story.

by Kathryn Reklis

Faith Matters

In Advent and Christmas, desolation and consolation reside together

This time of year, our inner landscapes can seem as bleak as the outer ones.

by Debra Dean Murphy

First Words

Has family become an idol?

The Bible gives no sense that the family is an end in itself.

by Peter W. Marty

On Art

Consider the Lilies, by Charalambos Epaminonda

Icons in the Byzantine style traditionally depict their subjects as fixed for all time in recognizable poses against symbolic backdrops....

art selection and comment by John Kohan

From the Editors

If Trump is impeached, it will be hard for Senate Republicans to vote to convict him

They need to do it anyway.

News

Legal think tank looks at religious liberty advocacy on the left

Christian conservatives have unfairly co-opted religious liberty as their political issue, says a new report from the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Columbia Law School....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

WCC group commits to action on climate change

On December 10, the World Council of Churches’ Interfaith Liaison Committee presented the UN’s climate change summit with a declaration of its commitment to climate justice....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

People

George Clements, noted Catholic priest, dies at 87

George Clements, a civil rights activist whose life was turned into a made-for-TV movie after he became the first Catholic priest to adopt a child, died November 25 at age 87....

by Emily McFarlan Miller

People

LGBTQ pioneer Louie Crew Clay dies at 82

Louie Crew Clay, a longtime advocate for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the Episcopal Church, died on November 27 at age 82 with his husband by his side, according to Elizabeth Kaeton, a close friend....

by Egan Millard