Search

When the highest religious ideals and the right order of the world is the subject of conflict, how do you treat those with different views?

To get the gist of this particular rite, we have to look at the story of Hajar.

Yom Kippur is a curious holiday. Widely known, among Jews and non-Jews alike, it is one of the few Jewish holidays also widely observed among the non-observant—probably out of guilt, but possibly out of a vague sense that this is an important day, and fasting is an important thing to…

There is sometimes an unnecessary rift between leading ideas and leading people politically.

Municipal laws cannot preempt federal immigration law, court rules.

…or How Not to Choose One

Last week a curious headline began to make the rounds online: “Jesus had an ugly sister-in-law.” It was the title of a blog post about the “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,” a papyrus fragment that caused a…

Sarah Palin did an about-face on the “hopey-changey thing” last week in Jacksonville when, as the headliner for the Evening of Hope, she and the other speakers on the program promoted lots of change—of the religious right kind.

Artist and theologian Mary Button went to Kenya for a Youth Peace Summit, made banners and signs with kids from all over Africa, bought a skirt that commemorated Barack Obama’s election, and came home to create a series of paintings on her experience.

Last week the nation (and much of the world) watched Terry Jones, pastor of a minuscule Florida congregation, threaten to burn copies of the Qur’an on September 11, abruptly change his mind. But while much of the media attention to this story has actually revolved around, well, the media attention itself, this is a good time to ask ourselves what it means, historically and symbolically, to burn a holy book. And what does book burning have to do with the crucifixion?