Features
Exporting democracy: Bush's security strategy
America is at war. This is a wartime national security strategy required by the grave challenge we face—the rise of terrorism fueled by an aggressive ideology of hatred and murder, fully revealed to the American people on September 11, 2001. This strategy reflects our most solemn obligation: to protect the security of the American people.
—George W. Bush, introducing the National Security Strategy for 2006
Hot and bothered: Facing up to global warming
As I write these words, the season’s first named storm—Alberto—is developing in the Caribbean. We’re now in what everyone refers to as hurricane season, which is joining winter, spring, summer, autumn, Christmas and football as a fixture on the calendar. (It probably has a brighter future than winter.)A few years ago, words like these would have been scoffed at by most mainstream Americans, treated as the unlikely emanations of radical greens. (Trust me on that.) But within the past year or so the tide has turned. Katrina had something to do with that. So did Al Gore.
Liberating word: The power of the Bible in the global South
Today, as the center of gravity of the Christian world moves ever southward, the conservative traditions prevailing in the global South matter more and more. To adapt a phrase from missions scholar Lamin Sanneh: Whose reading—whose Christianity—is normal now?
Outlaws in the outback
Great westerns have always wrestled with moral issues. John Ford’s The Searchers tackles racism; Howard Hawks’s Red River, loyalty; Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch, honor; Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, revenge; Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, redemption.
Books
Beware of the scribes
Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus has caused something of a sensation....
Where God Was Born
Near the end of Where God Was Born, Bruce Feiler and his wife, Linda, are sitting in an obliterated Jewish c...
Healing in the History of Christianity
I accept religious healing as a real biological phenomenon, although one prey to pious exaggeration,” writes Amanda Porterfield, professor ...
BookMarks
Roughgarden, who teaches biological sciences and geophysics at Stanford University, attempts to sort fact ...
Departments
Snookered: A call to look to the Bible for the Word of God
It’s been said that a fundamentalist is an evangelical who got mad....
Carry-on reading: Summer book suggestions
It’s summer, a time when most preachers are lucky enough to enjoy an extended Sabbath. For me, summer affords the opportunity to do the kind of reading I know I need to do but am not able to get to in the midst of the normal schedule....
Sojourners: God's people are to regard immigrants with love
A few years ago, after government officials decided to return some unearthed Indian artifacts to the present-day descendants of their original owners rather than ship them to a museum, a Saturday Night Live spoof put this act of generosity ...
A school in Tibet: Altruism remains a mysterious force
On an ordinary day some ten years ago, when I was in the midst of a long-forgotten project, a call came from preschool: “You need to pick up Andy....
Wartime scripts: Making the weak appear to be the aggressor
On the night of June 10, two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen fashioned makeshift ropes from knotted bed sheets, then hanged themselves in their Guantánamo Bay prison cells....
News
UCC's marketer leaves; so do Puerto Ricans: Ad campaign increased visibility and controversy
The United Church of Christ, whose often-daring progressive stances on full inclusion of homosexual worshipers in church life stir controversy inside and outside the denomination, suffered two losses last month....
Trying to understand Osama bin Laden: Vanderbilt professors discuss writings and threats
Some reading groups choose great fiction or fast-moving mysteries. At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, one group of professors chose the writings and threats of Osama bin Laden as their discussion material....
NCC urges closure of Guantánamo center following suicides: Proposes sending delegation to the prison
The National Council of Churches and its online site FaithfulAmerica.org have reiterated a demand for the closure of the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, following the suicides of three prisoners there....
Catholic bishops change words of the liturgy: Translation closer to Latin text
At the start of every Roman Catholic mass, the priest welcomes the congregation with the words, “The Lord be with you.” The collective response, “And also with you,” a fixture for decades, will soon be changed to “And with your spirit.”...
Souper Bowl and eBay auction raise money for needy: Innovative events successful for social ministry funds
Souper Bowl of Caring, the ecumenically promoted antihunger campaign that plays off the name of the annual professional football championship game, has collected $4.8 million, with donations still not fully reported as of last month....
Lone Christian in Palestinian cabinet quits after violence: Factional fighting prompts tourism minister's resignation
The only Christian cabinet member in the Palestinian government headed by the Islamist Hamas movement has quit his post because of growing factional violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip....
Century Marks
Most valuable payer: Dwyane Wade was the Most Valuable Player in the recent NBA basketball finals, in which his team, the Miami Heat, beat the Dallas Mavericks. Wade, who just completed his third year of professional basketball, is already being compared to Michael Jordan, the best player of all time. But perhaps Wade should be known for another trait: he tithes 10 percent of his $3.03 million income to his home church in Chicago (www.time.com).
Presbyterian compromise: Ordaining gay clergy is a local option
At the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly in June, delegates agreed to a delicate compromise on the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy, an issue that has torn the denomination for nearly three decades.>Episcopalians seek compromise to avoid schism.>Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exhorts Southern Baptists to support the United States in spreading freedom.>Christian Reformed urge churches to raise moral questions about preemptive military actions.For detailed coverage on these denominational conventions, visit our news page.
'Restraint' promised on gay bishops: Episcopalians seek compromise to avoid schism
Hoping to stave off schism within the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church has agreed to “exercise restraint” before electing any more openly gay bishops....
Female head bishop faces critical time: Anglicans express hope and concerns
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams reached electronically across the Atlantic to express to Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to be elected as presiding bishop of the U.S....
SBC cheers Rice's speech on freedom: Envisions America's role in worldwide spread of justice
In an address received like a campaign stump speech, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exhorted Southern Baptists at their annual meeting to support the United States in spreading freedom around the globe....
Young conservatives, bloggers help pick new SBC president: Agree on inerrancy and wish to consider new ideas
In an unusual three-way race for leadership of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, pastor Frank Page of South Carolina was elected in an upset as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, giving hope to many younger conservatives tha...
Southern Baptists vow 'total opposition' to alcoholic beverages: Controversial amendment restricts board options for alcohol users
Southern Baptists—a group rarely associated with heavy drinking—have gone overwhelmingly on record in “total opposition” to consumption of alcohol....
Christian Reformed speak up for peace, stall on women: Conscientious objector standards urged
The theologically conservative Christian Reformed Church, in its first major statement on war in two dozen years, urged its churches to raise moral questions with governments about weapons of mass destruction and preemptive military actions....
Lectionary
Wrecking crew: Ephesians 2:11-22
The world is full of walls. Everywhere we go, there are fences, gates, partitions and other ingeniously constructed barriers—all aimed at keeping something or someone in and keeping something or someone else out. We need walls.
Capital T: Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-29
The other day I was sitting in a coffee shop and couldn’t help overhearing an interesting and intense debate on the other side of the room. An older gentleman was trying his best to aid an inquisitive college student who had some hard-hitting questions. She asked about scripture, about authority and about the church. One question kept popping up: “What is the difference between truth for you, truth for me and truth with a capital T?”