One thing your mind needs more than anything else

May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Strutting peacock

Scientist, philosopher, and atheist gadfly Daniel Dennett offers some helpful guidelines for those looking to better engage ideas. His seven tools, excerpted from his new book, Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking, should prove helpful to a large number of readers. The advice ranges from "Answer rhetorical questions" and "Employ Occam's Razor" to "Beware of deepities," that is, statements that sound profound but are merely ambiguous. Those of us interested in Dennett's least … [Read more...]

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Egypt intensifies crackdown on Christians, dissidents

May 11, 2013 By 2 Comments
President Morsi

A Christian schoolteacher in Egypt has been detained by authorities for allegedly insulting Islam and Muhammad. Demyana Emad is twenty-three and teaches social studies at the Sheik Sultan Primary School in Luxor. She denies the charge and claims extremists urged students to falsely accuse her. The allegation is troubling. Last year another Christian teacher, Bishoy Kamel, was sentenced to six years in prison on similar charges, including insulting Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. Covering … [Read more...]

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What all Christians can learn from one brave priest

February 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Priest intervenes with between police and rioter

Amid ongoing economic and political unrest, Greek riot police have hit the streets to deal with violent anti-austerity protests. From those struggles comes a moving picture shared by Abbot Tryphon of All Merciful Savior Monastery on Vashon Island, Washington. An Orthodox priest scurries between the police and a protestor armed with a bottle. It could just be glass, but it looks like an unlit Molotov cocktail. I've seen similar shots of police moving across ground streaked with fire. … [Read more...]

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What to do when the world sucks you in

February 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Sirach

Christians have adopted terms like pilgrim, sojourner, and resident alien to describe our identity in the world. We are in it, but not of it. Sometimes, however, the lure of the world is as overwhelming as its subtleties are undermining. We can easily find ourselves both in and of the world. How do we prevent that from happening? The Jews of the diaspora (the dispersion) found themselves in a similar situation, and they provide us a helpful and straightforward answer to our problem. … [Read more...]

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The spiritual legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

January 20, 2013 By 22 Comments
MLK

In the fall of 1956, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech and asked his audience to imagine that the Apostle Paul had penned an epistle to American Christians just as he had done nineteen hundred years before to believers in Rome, Galatia, and Colossae. What would he say? Since the apostle usually wrote to encourage and convict, what faults might he seek to correct? According to the imaginary letter that King presented, Paul took particular offense at disunity in the church, … [Read more...]

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Vandalized church in Israel holds harsh memory

January 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Kafar Bir'em church

Vandals desecrated a church and cemetery in the Galilee village of Kafar Bir'em, spraying graffiti and dousing the building with incendiary fluid just days after Christmas. The graffiti included the word "Revenge" in both English and Hebrew, racist language, stars of David, and a cross next to a phallic symbol. The same village suffered a similar attack several weeks prior, according to the Committee for the Uprooted of Kafar Bir'em. Haggai Matar reported on the desecration here. Acts … [Read more...]

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Should government coerce charity?

January 2, 2013 By 17 Comments
Should government coerce charity?

When it comes to the question of social justice, there is more at play than the needs of the poor. Charity requires not only a recipient but also a giver, and that increases the issue's moral complexity. From the earliest days of the church, care for the poor was central. It's there in the New Testament writings, in Christ's own words even. It's there in the Didache, which directs Christians to spend time with the lowly (3.9) and give their firstfruits to the poor (13.4). And great pastors … [Read more...]

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The ordinary courage of Charlie Brown

December 26, 2012 By 4 Comments
charles Schulz

Faith takes courage. Sometimes that courage rises to the level of the heroic, but other times -- most of the time, really -- it's the little displays that make the difference. When Peanuts creator Charles "Sparky" Schulz was given the opportunity to create his now-famous A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965, he decided to include a brief scene in which Linus explains the meaning of Christmas to Charlie Brown by reciting the Nativity story from the Gospel of Luke. The backstory on this moment … [Read more...]

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Islamist constitution spells trouble for Egypt’s Christians

December 23, 2012 By 2 Comments
Banner: "Down with Muslim Brotherhood Invasion." lilianwagdy, Flickr.

Egypt has approved a new, pro-Islamist constitution, and while Christians prepare to celebrate the Nativity of Christ they and other minorities foresee bleak and repressive days ahead. Voter turnout in the two-stage nationwide referendum was reportedly limited, and Christians were particularly underrepresented, "as low as 7% in some areas," according to one report. Intimidation by Islamists kept many from the polls. In one instance, an estimated 50,000 pro-constitution marchers swept through … [Read more...]

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Exposing China’s newest crackdown on Christians

December 21, 2012 By 8 Comments
China and Christians

China is none-too-comfortable with Christians, and a newly released government document reveals a deeply ingrained bunker mentality about outside religious influence, especially in the country's universities. "Resisting foreign use of religion to infiltrate institutes of higher education and preventing campus evangelism is an important and imperative/urgent/pressing strategic task," says the document, which was issued by the Communist Party Central Committee's General Office. Obtained and … [Read more...]

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