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July 14, 2021

Volume 138, Issue #14
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Features

First Person

How I learned to love church coffee

“The coffee is much better now that we attend a Lutheran church,” I told my husband, wailing.

by Kay Lynn Northcutt

Green burial as an act of faith

A growing number of Christians are embracing natural burial practices.

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

Critical Essay

Encountering Alice Neel’s paintings of mothers while pregnant

Her complex portraits reveal an alchemy of desire, pain, power, and weakness.

by Catherine Ricketts

Reflection

Living between the Bible’s first and last prayers

Most days I hover somewhere between Adam’s “I was afraid” and John of Patmos’s “Come, Lord Jesus.”

by Timothy Jones

picture of Israel's Knesset

What will Israeli politics look like after Netanyahu?

The promises and dangers of Israel’s new coalition government

by Mordechai Beck

Books

Lisa Donovan tells the stories behind the recipes

Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger exposes the misogyny within the restaurant industry.

by Celeste Kennel-Shank

In a secular age, Bonhoeffer’s “religionless Christianity” is evergreen

Peter Hooten considers the concept in relationship to the theologian’s entire body of work.

by Clint Schnekloth

For BLM cofounder Alicia Garza, organizing is about doing the work no one wants to do

Someone has got to do the dishes.

by Aelijah Lynch

A psychological thriller about four Israeli women and their biblical role models

Sarah Blau’s protagonists are childless by choice. Herein lies the danger.

by Beth Kissileff

Departments

First Words

Faith is a gift to relax into

The Greek word for faith, pistis, isn’t about assenting to beliefs. It’s about trust.

by Peter W. Marty

Faith Matters

Is there no other prophet to consult?

Amid our dying empires and institutions, we might recall the story of King Ahab.

by Brian Bantum

On Art

Jesus Feeds the Hungry, by Milen Litchkov

Almost 1,200 years of Eastern Christian culture are represented in this tinted drypoint by Milen Litchkov....

art selection and comment by John Kohan

Screen Time

Like Hamilton, In the Heights jolts the audience into new perspectives

Still, I wish Lin-Manuel Miranda had asked more of us.

by Kathryn Reklis

From the Editors

Critical race theory is a gift to Christians

The good news about collective and institutional sin is that, like individual sin, it can be redeemed.

News

Court sides with Catholic foster care agency

In another victory for religious groups at the Supreme Court, on June 17 the justices unanimously sided with a Catholic foster care agency that says its religious views prevent it from working with same-sex couples....

by Jessica Gresko

US Catholic bishops OK steps toward possible rebuke of Biden

The US Catholic bishops overwhelmingly approved the drafting of a “teaching document” that many of them hope will rebuke Catholic politicians, including President Joe Biden, for receiving communion despite their support for abortion rights....

by David Carr

In Nashville, an eventful annual meeting for Southern Baptists

More than 15,000 Southern Baptist Convention leaders and pastors gathered in Nashville, Tennessee, June 15–16 for the first annual meeting of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic....

by Adelle M. Banks, Bob Smietana, Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

LDS Church and NAACP seek to advance work with new initiatives

Top leaders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints an­nounced $9.25 million in new educational and humanitarian projects on June 14 as they seek to build on an alliance formed with the NAACP in 2018 as part of the faith’s efforts to ...

by Brady McCombs

Mennonites launch new peace center in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Peace Center in Brooklyn, New York, officially opened on June 19 with hot dogs and Icees at a stoop-side cookout....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

People

E. Anne Henning Byfield begins tenure as head of AME church

Elizabeth Anne Henning Byfield began her tenure as president of the African Methodist Episcopal Council of Bishops on June 15. In this position, Byfield serves as the titular head of the denomination....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

People

Robert Schuman, former French statesman, one step closer to sainthood

Robert Schuman, a French statesman who paved the way for the bloc that eventually evolved into the European Union, has moved ahead on the Catholic Church’s path toward possible sainthood....

by Frances D’Emilio

People

Zahid Quraishi is first Muslim judge appointed to federal court

The US Senate made history on June 10 by confirming the first presidentially appointed Muslim American judge to a federal court....

by Joseph Hammond

People

Edwin Poots resigns as leader of Northern Ireland's government

The leader of the senior party in Northern Ireland’s government, Edwin Poots, resigned on June 17 after colleagues revolted over a deal to ap­point new leaders to the Protestant-Catholic power-sharing administration....

by Jill Lawless

Lectionary

August 1, Ordinary 18B (John 6:24–35)

“Trust me!” Jesus says, and the more he says it, the less the crowd is inclined to go along.

by Daniel Schultz

July 25, Ordinary 17B (2 Samuel 11:1–15)

Scripture does not accept David's behavior for business as usual, and neither should we.

by Daniel Schultz

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