Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse reflects on his pancreatic cancer diagnosis and limited prognosis. In a Hoover Institution interview, Sasse speaks candidly about pain, mortality and Christian hope, urging believers to face death without despair while serving others with whatever time remains.
Read MoreLewis’s 1945 novel “That Hideous Strength” was marketed as fiction, but it read like more like a prophecy. Lewis’ warning at the time cuts deep for modern-day readers. The danger is not artificial intelligence itself. The danger, Lewis argues, is what happens when humans regard tech tools as oracles. It’s about what happens when humanity stops kneeling before God and starts bowing to its own tools.
Read More(ANALYSIS) What do you envision when you think of meekness? You probably see a mousy doormat, someone sheepishly acquiescing to the will of the stronger. When Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” you might think that those wimps will hand it over without a whimper or word of objection to stronger, more ambitious people.”
Read MoreThe Fifth Circuit ruled in Roake v. Brumley that Louisiana may proceed with its Ten Commandments school display law, holding that challenges are premature because no specific display yet exists. The court did not decide on the constitutionality, stressing that any judgment depends on the context and implementation of future displays.
Read More(ANALYSIS) After 188 years of illustrious efforts worldwide, the PCUSA’s foreign mission agency is disbanding. The denomination said it would no longer dispatch a corps of career missionaries overseas, though it will continue to aid international partners.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Understanding others requires charitable interpretation: Seeing them as protagonists doing their best within imperfect circumstances. While we can misjudge by overlooking faults or inventing virtues, it is often worse to dismiss others outright. Balancing agency and generosity fosters humility, productive disagreement and cooperation across personal, cultural and political divides.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Respondents were first asked the standard question: “What is your present religion, if any?” They were given about a dozen response options, ranging from Protestant to Catholic to Jewish to agnostic. After answering that question, respondents were given a follow-up battery that asked: “Aside from religion, do you consider yourself to be any of the following in any way (for example, ethnically, culturally, or because of your family’s background)?”
Read MoreThe Rev. Jesse Jackson’s life was not without controversy. Still, the civil rights icon’s immense influence was evident in the wake of his passing.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel will undergo a three-month restoration. The monumental fresco, completed in 1541, is famed for its dramatic imagery, bold nudes and layered Christian and pagan symbolism. A digital reproduction will be displayed to visitors during conservation work.
Read MoreWhile most “Crossroads” podcasts focus on religion angles in major news stories, this week’s episode focused, you guessed it, on a short news “brief.” The problem is that we are talking about a brief about a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod story that, if the details had been accurate, was worthy of an A1 feature.
Read MoreAs the Diocese of Jackson advances Sister Thea Bowman’s cause for sainthood, Catholics reflect on her prophetic witness. A Mississippi teacher, scholar and evangelist, she challenged the church to recognize Black faith and everyday holiness — urging believers to see saints not only in Rome’s past, but in their own families.
Read More(ANALYSIS) It’s become my hobby horse at this point — non-denominational Protestant Christianity. I swear, it’s somehow gotten more legs than the “nones” in the larger cultural discussion about religion.
Read More(ANALYSIS) People love to talk about “profound” philosophers. Socrates with his questions. Nietzsche with his hammer. Marx with his systems. But George Santayana rarely gets the same reverence, despite the unsettling precision of his view of modern life. Santayana is hard to place, which may be why he is often skipped.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Once again, Muslims across the globe are nearing the arrival of Ramadan — a sacred month in which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. Ramadan is a time of strengthening our faith, cleansing both body and soul, counting our blessings and giving whatever we can to those less fortunate.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Former Irish President Mary McAleese argues that infant baptism violates children’s human rights by imposing church membership without consent. Critics respond that parents possess religious freedom in child-rearing, note historical and biblical defenses of infant baptism, and compare similar birth rituals across Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Each Valentine’s Day, Hindu nationalist groups in India target couples, framing public affection as a cultural threat. Drawing on theories of moral panic, moral foundations and crowd psychology, this anxiety about social change, identity politics and purity-based values combine to justify moral policing and restrict personal freedom.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Fifteen years ago, Egyptians from all walks of life took to the street to demand “bread, freedom, social justice.” They were protesting the oppressive 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak. Egypt had been under martial law for 31 years. This meant that political opposition was silenced, and opponents were often imprisoned and tortured. Police brutality was the norm.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Love and hate seem like obvious opposites. Love, whether romantic or otherwise, involves a sense of warmth and affection for others. Hate involves feelings of disdain. Love builds up, whereas hate destroys. However, this description of love and hate treats them as merely emotions.
Read MoreWhile reading some of the outraged commentary about the spectacular staff cuts at The Washington Post, I keep thinking of the immortal words of King Theoden of Rohan, when facing dark waves of evil during the Battle of Helm’s Deep. All together now: “How did it come to this?”
Read MoreU.S. Army soldier. Republican congressman. Executive pastor. That was former U.S. Rep. Steve Russell’s career path before his 2022 recruitment to lead a North Carolina-based international ministry known as JAARS — which stands for Jungle Aviation and Relay Service.
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