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March 10, 2021

Volume 138, Issue #5

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Features

Seven questions I ask before posting to social media

I begin with, Is it worth it?

by Bruce Reyes-Chow

Readers Write

Drop: Essays by readers

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

How My Mind Has Changed

I’m a philosopher. We can’t think our way out of this mess.

I’m throwing in my lot with the poets and painters, the novelists and songwriters.

by James K. A. Smith

Critical Essay

The righteousness of the prude and the righteousness of the lover

Martin Luther went looking for God—and found Christ on the cross.

by Richard Lischer

Books

How the dream of a Judeo-Christian America shaped the culture wars

Healan Gaston excavates a label that has both divided and united us.

by John G. Turner

You don't have to doubt in secret anymore

Brian McLaren says religious doubt isn't the death of faith. It's the birth of faith beyond belief.

by Martin Thielen

Is there an American caste system?

Caste is more complex than Isabel Wilkerson suggests. But she excels at forcing open our eyes to the horrific realities of racism.

by Sandhya Rani Jha

Departments

Faith Matters

When we are Simon of Cyrene

We’ll crack apart. We’ll change.

by Debie Thomas

The most Baptist state isn’t Mississippi. It’s Nagaland, India.

In the remote northeast region, Christianity has flourished for generations.

by Philip Jenkins

On Art

In All Seasons, by Lanecia Rouse Tinsley

Lanecia Rouse Tinsley, a multidisciplinary artist in Houston, Texas, is director for justice and the arts at projectCURATE and cofounder of the ImagiNoir Group, a think tank of Black activists, creatives, and educators....

art selection and comment by Lil Copan

First Words

Sin is like a suitcase abandoned at the baggage claim

Lent beckons us to claim those forgotten things we’d packed away.

by Peter W. Marty

From the Editors

What the US has wrought in Yemen

Biden’s announcement of the end of American involvement is refreshingly clear and straightforward—assuming it pans out.

News

Biden order reestablishes White House faith office

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on February 14 relaunching a White House office aimed at fostering cooperation between the federal government and faith-based and secular community organizations....

by Alexandra Jaffe

Protesters call proposed French antiradicalism law anti-Muslim

Activists rallied on February 14 in Paris to demand that the French government abandon a bill aimed at rooting out Islamist extremism that the protesters say could trample on religious freedom and make all Muslims into potential suspects....

Marriage and divorce amid pandemic: Experts weigh in

For many US couples yearning to be married, the pandemic has wreaked havoc on their wedding plans while bolstering their teamwork and resilience....

by David Crary

London Haredim roll up sleeves to fight COVID

As people across England huddled indoors amid freezing temperatures and a national lockdown, nearly 300 elderly adults from the Haredi Jewish community, often called the ultra-Orthodox, lined up outside a health center in northeast London to be ...

by Danica Kirka