Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Christmas at church
Does your church make a big deal of Christmas? Celebrate Advent? Fill shoe boxes? Pull out all the stops in promoting an offering for missions? When I was a boy, Christmas was a time for the choir to learn and perform...
Bulgarian Priests Join Union over Late Paychecks
SOFIA, Bulgaria (RNS/ENInews) The decision by Bulgarian Orthodox priests to join a trade union because they haven’t been paid on time has angered at least one church hierarch, saying it goes against the church’s...
Muslim Women at Center of Suits over Hajj, Headscarves
(RNS) The federal government has filed suit against an Illinois school district for not allowing a Muslim teacher to make the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and the ACLU has filed suit on behalf of a Georgia woman who was...
Muslims not Laughing at Businessman’s Attempt at Humor
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) It was all a joke, says Chuck Biddinger, a small business owner in Roebuck, Ala., whose outdoor sign last week sported the phrase “BBQ Pork Restaurant Is Safest No Muslims Inside.” Muslims,...
Yes, Kentucky, There is an Establishment Clause
"Sometimes, you've got to laugh to keep from crying," my Presbyterian grandmother, God rest her soul, used to say. So it is with a $150 million Noah's Ark theme park proposed for my native Kentucky. The project, called...
What You Can Do to Stop Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is "the illegal and involuntary smuggling of a person across borders, often for the purposes of forced labor," according to Julie Clawson in "Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices."...
Explore the Everyday Life of Jesus This Advent
We recently spent a day with Stuart Murray-Williams looking at Anabaptist history, theology and spirituality and its possible implications for BMS World Mission. It was a fascinating day, well presented, easy to engage...
Market Bumps Raise Concerns About Church Pensions
(RNS) Religious denominations have long provided retired clergy and staff with secure pension payments—more secure, in some cases, than corporate retirement plans. But some recent bumps have drawn attention to the...
U.S. Jews, Evangelicals Help Israel Rebuild After Fires
JERUSALEM (RNS) American Jews and evangelical Christians are taking a central role in rebuilding the Carmel region in northern Israel after a deadly fire decimated large swaths of the Carmel forest and left many people...
Holder Denies Entrapment of Muslim Suspects
WASHINGTON (RNS) Attorney General Eric Holder defended the FBI’s recent undercover investigation of an Oregon Muslim terror suspect, saying Friday (Dec. 10) that critics who think it was “entrapment” are wrong. “Those...
Mosquitoes and Cell Phones Buzz Across Tanzania
Editor's note: This is the third of several dispatches on the Muslim-Baptist mission trip to Tanzania. Read the first here and the second here. Tanzania is a nation of contrasts, having the highest mountain in Africa...
Obama’s Compromise: Weakness or Wise Leadership?
President Obama's "tax deal" of recent days has produced a significant response. Republicans have expressed smug delight that he has "finally decided to work with them," as they chuckle at their success in adding...
To Embrace Reform, Churches Must Live With Chaos
The Christian faith has been marked by conflicts between reform movements and the establishment from the very beginning. (Consider Paul and the Judaizers.) Without a doubt, the Spirit of God tends to move in unusual...
Flash blog
Perhaps you've heard the term "flash mob." It's what happens when a group of people, often through communications on a social media website, gather in a public place and perform some sort of unusual or unexpected act...
Ex-cons Look to Clear Records in Hopes of Fresh Start and Ideally, a Job
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) It’s tough enough finding a job in this economy, but for Kerry Sifford, a trained security guard and graphic designer who was arrested years ago on a minor offense, it has been nearly impossible....
Turkish Church Fears Cover-up over Bishop’s Murder
WARSAW (RNS/ENInews) The head of Turkey’s Roman Catholic bishops conference has rejected medical findings that the man who brutally murdered his predecessor, Bishop Luigi Padovese, was insane. “The Turkish Justice...
Black Church Group Criticizes Congressional Tax Cuts
WASHINGTON (RNS) The newly launched Conference of National Black Churchescriticized Congress on Thursday (Dec. 9) for linking extension of unemployment benefits to tax cuts for the wealthy. “Based on our prophetic...
Western Society’s Fascination with Death, Violence
Not only outer space, but our inner spaces too, are being militarized. On the first day of its launch last month, the computer game "Call of Duty: Black Ops" sold 3.6 million copies and fetched more than $360 million...
WikiLeaks Brouhaha Raises Ethical Issues
Thanks to the era of instant information retrieval, Americans and the Western alliance have a huge problem: silencing Julian Assange as he brings to light 250,000 sensitive documents regarding national security. Shock,...
Obama Embraces Reaganomics, Puts Vulnerable at Risk
Religious leaders and congregations are strangely silent while a fierce debate is occurring about whether to allow reductions in tax rates to expire that were enacted in 2001 and 2003 at the behest of then President...
A season to remember
By John Pierce
For a brief moment today I was 10 years old again.