Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Muslims Caught in Reality Show Crossfire Struggle to Understand Controversy
DEARBORN, Mich. (RNS) When Fordson High School football coach Fouad Zaban was asked to be on a reality show about Muslim family life, his impulse was to decline. “It doesn’t seem like it now, but we kind of like our...
Report Shows Christianity Shifting to Africa
(RNS) With 2.18 billion adherents, Christianity has become a truly global religion over the past century as rapid growth in developing nations offset declines in Christianity’s traditional strongholds, according to a...
U.S. Jumps to Top of Charity Index
WASHINGTON (RNS) Americans: the most generous people in the world. In this season of giving, that’s no idle gloat. According to a new study, the United States tops a massive global charity survey, rising from fifth...
Christians’ Views Differ about God-Inspired Scripture
A person identifying himself as a professor of biblical studies sent me an email in which he said he was going to use my recentarticle in his class on biblical interpretation as a demonstration of "the fallacy of the...
Alabama Clergy Urge Governor to Repeal Anti-Immigration Law
Six Alabama Catholic and mainline Protestant clergy have asked Gov. Robert Bentley to repeal the state's anti-immigration law. Writing the governor on Dec. 19, they urged Bentley in the Christmas season to show "great...
What Happened to Wise Men’s Gold? The Long-Awaited Answer
When the Persian astronomers found Jesus in Bethlehem, "they fell down and worshipped him," reads Matthew 2:11. "Opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh." The word "treasures"...
What does God do?
By John Pierce The faith tradition in which I was nurtured emphasized that God was interested and involved in my every move. All along the way, there was a sense of divine direction and evidence of opening doors that...
Ten Commandments Scroll Goes on Display in New York
NEW YORK (RNS) It is an irony of history that the Ten Commandments that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai on two stone tablets are found in their purest form on a strip of ancient parchment so delicate that it is...
Muslim Push Lowe’s Boycott over Reality Series
LOS ANGELES (RNS) The controversy between Muslim Americans and the Lowe’s home improvement chain will spill into 2012 with a planned boycott of Lowe’s for dropping its advertising from the TLC reality show...
Pope Certifies Miracles for Two U.S. Saints
VATICAN CITY (RNS) A 17th-century Native American woman who cared for the sick and elderly, and a Catholic nun who worked with lepers in Hawaii, are on the verge of becoming the newest American saints, after Pope...
Why You May Be Sitting with an Atheist in Church
Atheism shows up in my columns on occasion, partly as a refreshing alternative to the overcovered examples of "religion-in-American-public-life" which crowd the cable television channels and headlines: you know, like...
Discovering God’s Love As We Minister to Others
Editor's note: Trevor Barton lived in Mali in West Africa for three years as a teacher and friend. It was early morning. The African sun had yet to rise above the mountains, and the sky was the soft yellow of newly...
British Baptist: U.K. Should Favor EU Alignment
Christians should advocate the sense of interdependence that comes from close relationships in Europe. That's according to Tony Peck, general secretary of the European Baptist Federation, who spoke following the...
Lights, nativities, evangelize!
The Mormon Temple of Washington D.C. stands on a hill like a castle above the northern reaches of I-494. The imposing six-spired edifice, completed in 1974, is sheathed in white marble and with Moroni's trumpet...
On Dec. 25, Atheists Celebrate a Different Birthday
(RNS) Deck those halls with boughs of apples and top that tree with a finger puppet of Sir Isaac Newton. At least that’s what Robin Zebrowski does at her home in Beloit, Wis., where she and her husband, Joshua, observe...
Christopher Hitchens’ Atheism Was a Gift to Believers
WASHINGTON (RNS) Christopher Hitchens will be remembered as many things: an acerbic essayist, connoisseur of Scotch and cigarettes and roguish writer whose forceful pen was fueled by an imposing intellect. Yet his...
Obama Defends His Israel Policy at Jewish Conference
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (RNS) President Obama told a supportive crowd of Reform Jews here on Friday (Dec. 16) that no other administration in U.S. history “has done more in support of Israel’s security.” “Don’t let...
Atlanta TV to Show Trio of Baptists’ Social Justice Documentaries
Three interfaith and social justice documentaries produced by a Nashville-based nonprofit will air in the Atlanta-area market in early 2012. AtlantaInterfaithBroadcasters, which offers 24/7 programming in the 19-county...
Why Nativity Scenes Don’t Belong in Town Squares
In a slightly less direct way than the "patriotic" worship services around the Fourth of July, the Advent season brings the church/state issue to the table of our thinking. It provides us with an opportunity to clarify...
Making Christianity Fit Our Picture-Perfect View
My husband, Bill, a freelance photographer, almost always has a camera nearby and loves taking pictures. One crisp, beautiful day recently we drove past our church, festively decorated for Christmas. We stopped and...
‘Flock figures’
Photo by John Pierce. I only counted one of these in my backyard recently. By John Pierce A story in the local newspaper this morning was titled “Volunteers count when coming up with flock figures in...