Lavanya Ramanathan: The modern-day Trapp family singers were hanging out on the craggy patio of a D.C. cafe, each wearing some variation on skinny jeans, bangs and combat boots. Melanie, 25, had wrapped herself in a leopard-print trench coat, while Sofi, 27, was clad in a cropped red leather jacket. Amanda, 24, was in head-to-toe black. And then there was August, just 21, who let his hair do all the statement-making, his bleached-blond wisps of his bangs swooping over one... Read more

Mark Berman: During his visit to the United States last week, Pope Francis used an address before Congress — one of the most high-profile platforms from which the pope could speak to this country and its leaders — to call for an end to the death penalty. In the two weeks following the pope’s remarks, five states plan to execute six death-row inmates, a burst of lethal activity the country has not seen in more than two years. The executions scheduled over the next nine days... Read more

By Geoff Holsclaw, colleague at Northern Seminary. We don’t live in an oral culture. Not even a written culture. We live in a visual culture. So why preach from a text in an image driven culture? What good can a Sunday sermon have when everyone is bombarded by other messages all week long? What is preaching for anyway? With these and many other questions in mind, the 2015 Missional Learning Commons will explore The Mission of Preaching (NOV. 6-7, Chicago, IL), hosted by Northern Seminary. DETAILS... Read more

A must read: When the nation’s top nutrition panel released its latest dietary recommendations on Thursday, the group did something it had never done before: weigh in on whether people should be drinking coffee. What it had to say is pretty surprising. Not only can people stop worrying about whether drinking coffee is bad for them, according to the panel, they might even want to consider drinking a bit more. The panel cited minimal health risks associated with drinking between three and five cups per day. It also said that consuming as... Read more

A clip from Tara Beth Leach’s post at Missio Alliance: We have short hair and we have long hair; dirt is under our fingernails from toiling under the sun just to make a living and our fingernails are nicely manicured with pink nail polish; we enjoy high tea and we sometimes enjoy a beer at the pub; we stay at home with the children, care for our husbands, and support their careers, but we also choose wear the blue pant suits... Read more

Before the victims are named the victims’ tragedies are known as well as the anguish of the families, the stun of students, teachers, staff and administration, and the shock to the community. Reports that the gunman demanded that students identified their religion and then shot those who said they were Christian chills us. Hate can’t be legislated out of society, violence will be done by those who choose the path of hatred and violence. How madmen can gain access to... Read more

By John Frye Have you ever had the experience of looking into a mirror when there was also a mirror behind you? What did you see? You saw yourself receding into an infinity of reduced reflections. If we imagined that the space was instead time, you could see yourself in the vast, expansive past. You might, if you could see that far, find yourself included in Mark 3:13-19 where the Gospel writer reports Jesus’calling the Twelve into discipleship. These verses... Read more

By Michelle Van Loon: I’ve been watching various corporations, universities, NGOs and non-profits respond to the demands of the Boycott, Divest & Sanctions (BDS) movement. The stated goal of the BDS movement is to apply political and economic pressure on the State of Israel in order to “encourage” the two-state solution, but there are a whole lot of people involved in the movement who appear to wish to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel right off the map. Some of them might be... Read more