By Brent Walker I write this column as the first 100 days of President Obama’s administration come to a close. What can be said about its church-state record at this early but highly symbolic juncture? A lot has been written…
U.S. border a bleeding scar for migrants
By Miguel De La Torre Feb. 20 marked the one-year anniversary of Josseline’s death, a 14-year-old girl whose demise went unnoticed. She died of thirst and exposure to the elements of Arizona. She died because of prevailing United States policies….
Obama at Notre Dame — a textual analysis
By David Gushee The very fact that President Obama offered a commencement speech at Notre Dame revealed bitter conflicts within the American Catholic community and similar clashes within evangelicalism. {mosimage}Obama did not create these fierce internal rifts within American Christianity….
The right supports can reduce abortion rates
By Glen Stassen Shirley Bogard was an impressive teenager in the Kentucky Baptist church where I was pastor. The church awarded her its scholarship for the most deserving teenager so she could train as a nurse. She was a devoted…
Right or wrong?
By Cynthia Holmes A friend of mine recently was terminated from his job. In the exit interview, he was accused of misusing company e-mail by the way he identified some of his co-workers and supervisor. Isn’t this an issue of…
On becoming an ordinary Christian
By Benjamin Cole When you grow up in Grayson County, Texas, there are two events on your annual calendar that demand your attention. The first is the annual “Battle of the Ax” wherein the Sherman Bearcats take on the Denison…
A pop quiz for biblical literalists
By Miguel De La Torre No one reads or interprets the Bible literally — regardless as to what they profess. To do so is simplistic, if not dangerous. All of us read our bias, our theology, and our social location into the…
Supreme remorse
By Benjamin Cole The elevation of David Hackett Souter to serve as the 105th justice of the United States Supreme Court was, to borrow a phrase from Eliot, the whimper that ended the world for conservatives. Confirmed by a 90-9…
A Christian’s lament over the Pew torture poll
By David Gushee Dear Jesus, Everyone seems to be talking about the poll put out last week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. They found that 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants believe “the use of torture…