The largest humanitarian crisis in the world isn’t happening in Ukraine, or in Gaza, but in Sudan. There, 33.7 million people (out of a total population of 55 million) are in dire need of aid, and the world has forgotten…
Sing a new song: Reflections on Band Aid at 40
When it comes to Christmas music, I prefer mine sacred and sung by an English university choir. I haven’t really been “into” popular Christmas music or pop stars’ Christmas records (sacred or secular) since I was a kid — with…
Experts detail how famine and disease are taking a second toll on Gaza
Global hunger experts are alarmed by the severity of famine conditions already present in the Gaza Strip and by how rapidly starvation is spreading through the population of the war-torn Palestinian territory. “Uniquely distressing about the Gaza situation is the…
Palestinians join Jesus in crying, ‘I thirst,’ Lutheran pastor says in Good Friday sermon
A Palestinian minister’s Good Friday sermon portrayed Israel’s continuing massacre of Gazan civilians as a mirror image of the passion and subsequent crucifixion of Jesus at the hands of a brutal foreign power. “Today, we place the cross in the…
Negative emotions increased worldwide in 2020, and not just because of COVID
New research shows that 2020 gave much of the world’s population a whole lot more to frown about, and not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 Gallup “Global Emotions” survey, which tracks negative and positive experiences, reports that…