(OPINION) This isn’t a column about Leslie Van Houten. This is a column about the often competing virtues of justice versus mercy. But the news event that started me thinking (again) about those dueling impulses was the recent announcement that Van Houten, a former member of Charles Manson’s “family,” will soon be paroled from prison.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in covers the death of Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(ANALYSIS) I have found it healthy and important to watch Fox News and read The New York Times. Both are highly influential in their respective partisan bubbles. Both impact the world around us, for better or worse, and that’s of great importance in a world were journalistic objectivity is a relic of a pre-internet world.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The two-day Seneca Falls Convention marked the beginning of the movement for women’s suffrage, which would be granted 70 years later by the ratification of the 19th Amendment of the Constitution. And it likely wouldn’t have happened without Quakers.
Read More(FILM ESSAY) Unfortunately, Gerwig directing Narnia is a colossal mistake. Gerwig’s filmography shows that she not only doesn’t share Lewis’ worldview but actively despises it. Having her make a Narnia movie would be like Ayn Rand directing a Spider-Man movie when she doesn’t believe in self-sacrificial heroism.
Read More(ANALYSIS) This “religiosity gap” remains relevant. A new Pew Research Center analysis noted that, in the 2022 midterms, “The gap in voting preferences by religious attendance was as wide as it's been in any of the last several elections.”
Read More(OPINION) The need for after-abortion healing resulted in many groups taking on this critical work in the 1990s. Organizations such as Project Rachel, Rachel’s Vineyard, Forgiven and Set Free, SaveOne and Surrendering the Secret have since helped countless women and men begin their healing journeys.
Read More(OPINION) Why would anyone wonder about the sacred spot where God through Moses revealed the Ten Commandments and other biblical laws? Just look at the name. Doesn’t everybody know that Mount Sinai must of course be on the Sinai Peninsula and, specifically, at a long-venerated location there? And yet some insist the true location is in Saudi Arabia.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On July 11, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise — the human rights watchdog reviewing complaints about possible human rights abuses by Canadian companies working outside Canada in the garment, mining, and oil and gas sectors — announced the launch of two separate investigations into allegations of Uyghur forced labor in the supply chains and operations of two Canadian companies.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Many Christians believe that Jesus Christ was both human and divine, and will return to the Earth to reign over a righteous kingdom of his chosen people. Similarly, Rastafarians are of the view that Emperor Selassie is God, or Jah, who manifested in human form, and that they are God’s chosen people. They borrow generously from the King James Bible, braiding their theology around Black and African identity and culture.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in explains the Trump factor in the 2024 GOP presidential race. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(ANALYSIS) With the world around us getting better, why do so many faith-based films insist the world is getting worse? And what does that say about the religious right in America?
Read More(ANALYSIS) The Sparkle Creed was circulated in 2021 by the Rev. Rachel Small Stokes of Immanuel United Church of Christ in Louisville, Kentucky. A Shower of Stoles website biography notes that she was raised United Methodist, served as a missionary in that denomination and trained for the ministry.
Read More(OPINION) On Aug. 16, 1967, in Atlanta during his annual report to the 11th Convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Martin Luther King Jr. entitled his speech “Where Do We Go From Here?” and thus the question I have for ministers, Black and White today.
Read More(OPINION) For the past decade, a handful of megachurches have dominated worship music. They include Elevation Church, Australia-based Hillsong, and California’s Bethel Church — all churches that have had their share of scandal and controversy. Still, most worship leaders have carefully compartmentalized the controversy and have continued to use their songs — and, in effect, financially support these churches.
Read More(OPINION) Why do U.S. power-brokers, and journalists themselves, pay little or no heed to ardent pronouncements by the World Council of Churches and the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA?
Read More(ANALYSIS) Religious switching is a fascinating topic. It’s happening every single day, thousands of times. Without any fanfare or big declarations, people leave religion behind or chose a different faith when taking a survey. And yet we only have a very basic understanding of the mechanisms that make all that happen.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in starts with a major story that receives too little attention. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(REVIEW) The encore performance at Christ Cathedral of “Fiat Lux” was billed as “Pacific Symphony & Pacific Chorale in concert with Paul Jacobs,” and the opening pieces were programmed to additionally celebrate the refurbishment of the cathedral’s Hazel Wright Organ, the fifth-largest pipe organ in the world.
Read More(OPINION) In the new film, Jones confesses: "I don't believe in magic, but a few times in my life I've seen things, things I can't explain." But after a life wrestling with sacred mysteries, he concludes: "It's not so much what you believe. It's about how hard you believe it."
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