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July 27, 2022

Volume 139, Issue #15

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Features

Interviews

Getting to yes on paid family leave

“We decided that we would be the last committee in the Episcopal Church to deal with this issue.”

Amy Ziettlow interviews Devon Anderson

Pastors, like everyone else, need paid family and medical leave

When I was diagnosed with cancer, I was shocked to find I had no paid leave or legal job protection.

by Amy Ziettlow

When my dad killed God

My dad, Bill Hamilton, was a beloved divinity school professor. That all changed when God died and we got run out of town.

by Don Hamilton

Is God still dead?

The legacy of 1960s radical theology

by Lloyd H. Steffen

My mother said she was pro-life—and worked at Planned Parenthood

There will always be people like her, who are willing to tell the truth that life is choice.

by Erin S. Lane

A letter to my Black daughter after the fall of Roe

Your body is not a public domain.

by Reggie Williams

When abortion is mere abstraction

What’s missing from the debate is the wisdom of first-hand experience.

by Amy Frykholm

Fantasy and reality after Roe

One can imagine an anti-abortion politics that started with economic solidarity or righteous fury at male sexual license. But the thought experiment only demonstrates its own absurdity.

by Benjamin J. Dueholm

Books

A prophetic word against neoliberalism

It runs our lives while pretending it isn’t there, says Rodney Clapp. He is having none of it.

by Frances Kitson

Can you like Dostoevsky?

Philosopher and linguist Julia Kristeva asks but does not answer this question about the Russian novelist’s complex work.

by Rebecca Bratten Weiss

Animal midrash

Jewish scholar Laura Duhan-Kaplan opens our eyes to biblical birds, insects, and mammals.

by Sally Dyck

Billy Graham’s transatlantic brand

America’s pastor stepped into a historical moment framed by the Cold War and secularization.

by Andrew Finstuen

Departments

First Words

Good citizenship starts on the playground

Through play, children acquire fundamental skills for living cooperatively with others.

by Peter W. Marty

Faith Matters

Three reasons progressive Christians shouldn’t give up on conversion

Is it the baby or the bathwater?

by Samuel Wells

My last note from the global church

This specialized column made more sense 14 years ago than it does now.

by Philip Jenkins

On Art

Toward Hydra (top) and Matisse Chapel, Vence (bottom), by Eleanor Ray

Brooklyn-based and Southwest-informed, Eleanor Ray’s paintings are small works of attention—often around six by eight inches, oil on panel. Among her influences is philosopher Simone Weil, who understood attention as prayer....

art selection and comment by Lil Copan

From the Editors

Roe v. Wade was a compromise

It established a right—a limited one—to make your own decisions in a complex ethical area.

News

People

Indonesian church leader, politician Willem T. P. Simarmata dies at 68

Willem T. P. Simarmata, Indonesian politician and moderator of the Christian Conference of Asia, died June 17 at the age of 68....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

SCOTUS takes divisive course on religious issues

Earlier this year, as Republicans and Democrats clashed over Christian nationalism, religious exemption requests, and access to communion, the Supreme Court showed that it’s still possible to tame the partisan tensions suffusing religious freedom ...

by Kelsey Dallas

Methodists in Texas, Mexico respond after mass death of migrants

After the deaths of 53 migrants in San Antonio, United Methodists in Texas and Mexico are responding with lament, prayer, and renewed efforts to follow Jesus’ command to welcome the stranger....

by Heather Hahn

Columbia Theological Seminary students object to firing of Black administrator

Black students at Columbia Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian Church (USA) seminary in Decatur, Georgia, are protesting the surprise firing of a beloved admissions director, saying it’s the latest in a series of firings of faculty and administr...

by Kathryn Post

A study of Jewish LA finds a growing and diverse community

About half of Jewish households in Los Angeles include an immigrant to the United States or someone whose parent is an immigrant, according to a new demographic report released by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles....

by Alejandra Molina

What if hospice services weren’t just for the dying?

Gloria Foster wasn’t ready for hospice, even though, with a prognosis of less than six months to live, she qualified for it....

by Michael Ollove

People

Uyghur activist Nury Turkel to head US religious freedom commission

Nury Turkel was unanimously elected chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom on June 21....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

People

Kim L. Coleman reelected president of Union of Black Episcopalians

Kim L. Coleman, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia, has been elected to a second three-year term as president of the Union of Black Episcopalians....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins