Holiness and humanity drew the kids to him ROME — Once you get past the shock of the sheer mass of humanity that has descended on this ancient city — imagine 2 million people waiting patiently in lines that encircle Wrigley Field, snake through the streets of Wrigleyville and then stretch south on Clark Street for about a mile and you start to get the picture — the next thing that strikes you are the kids. And speaking as a... Read more

Finding hope even in Schiavo’s barbaric death ‘Terri Schiavo dies.” Those words greeted me as I groggily signed on to my computer first thing Thursday morning. The news made me want to dive back under the duvet and stay there. Perhaps permanently. I don’t know about you, but my heart just aches. These are desperate times. I’m not sure how we got here, how we arrived at this particular dark moment in history. But increasingly I’ve been thinking that, as... Read more

Marvelous ‘Millions’ a film about faith, real miracles Why do some people believe in God — in a world beyond the one we can see — while others don’t? Are some folks simply missing that “God gene” in their hardwiring, or does life experience mutate it into disbelief? “Millions,” a gorgeous, tender, and clever new film by Danny Boyle, the British director of often violently visceral films such as “Trainspotting” and “28 Days Later,” raises these questions with equal parts... Read more

MTV’s ‘Spiritual Windows’ mix faith with rock ‘n’ roll Has MTV found some religion? Last weekend, while I was spending quality time with Ashlee and/or Jessica Simpson on the music cable channel, a bunch of commercials flipped by, and I thought I saw something. Something strange. Out of place. It looked like a few seconds of footage taken in a room of Muslim men, bowing in prayer, with some funky Eastern-type music playing in the background. And then words appeared... Read more

What’s a sermon worth? About $190, scalpers say Everyone knows the hottest ticket in Chicago for the month of May is U2’s four-night stand at the United Center. But you may be surprised to learn about the unlikely fellow who’s rolling into town a few days before the Irish rockers and has sent equally rabid fans scrambling for tickets to see his, um, show. His name is Joel Osteen. And he, too, is a rock star — of sorts. The... Read more

God is everywhere — except pages of Rolling Stone Jann Wenner and his minions at Rolling Stone magazine can print — or not print — whatever their little hearts desire. Therein lies the beauty and the blessing of a free press. But while the powers that be at Mr. Wenner’s venerable rock ‘n’ roll pop culture publication were well within their rights (legal or otherwise) when they refused to run a half-page advertisement for a new translation of the Bible,... Read more

Disasters like tsunami can test or strengthen faith A few years ago, I met a sweet, earnest, kind man whose name, if I remember correctly, was John. John is a thirtysomething, born-again, churchgoing, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christian. Not too long before I met John, his young wife, who was a Christian like her husband, walked out of their suburban home, was struck by lightning, and died. One evening, when we were at dinner with a group of people and he’d had... Read more

What they said about God in ’04 Lots of folks had lots to say about religion, spirituality, morality and God in 2004. Here (in no particular order) are some of the best — or at least some of the most intriguing — spiritual thoughts I’ve heard this year: _____________________________________________________________________ “Having to prove you’re Christian is like having to prove you’re not a pedophile.” Mancow Muller “You can get there by aeroplane, across the water, whatever — get there. Get to... Read more