During the Vietnam era, Chuck Colson and others on Richard Nixon’s White House staff became experts at analyzing aerial photographs of antiwar rallies. So Colson knows how many bodies it takes — give or take 100,000 — to form a shoulder-to-shoulder mass from the Capitol to the Washington Monument and beyond. Thus, he believes there were 1.5 million praying, singing, weeping, hugging and Bible- waving men on the National Mall during last fall’s Promise Keepers “Stand in the Gap” rally.... Read more

There comes a time in most Jewish debates when matters hit a final snag and someone says, “We need to ask a rabbi about that.” These kinds of questions tend to be both practical and theoretical, nitpicky and cosmic. In that spirit, the organizers of next week’s Jewish Web/Net Week (www.JWW.org) are asking this question: How many Jews have to be camped on the Internet to somehow equal the spiritual clout of the 600,000 who gathered 3,700 years ago at... Read more

It was the right sermon to the right flock at the right time. “My father was certain that Cain and Abel were the first Baptists because they introduced fratricide to the Bible,” said Bill Moyers, a Baptist preacher turned media guru, hours before Bill Clinton’s first inauguration. Moyers was speaking at the First Baptist Church of Washington, D.C., and the congregation included Clinton and Al Gore, who are both Southern Baptists. “At the core of our faith is what we... Read more

Since “worship service” sounded stuffy, ads for the new Saturday night gathering called it a “celebration.” Greeters handed out “celebration folders” instead of bulletins. Clergy wore jeans and polo shirts instead of vestments and the faithful sang along to slides projected on a wall, instead of using hymnals. The call to worship became a “warm up” and the service ended with a “see you next week” benediction, followed by pizza. The “action words” — that’s the sermon — led into... Read more

Papal tours are like Rorschach tests: observers tend to see what they want to see. Pope John Paul II addresses many of the same subjects wherever he goes — from eternal life to family life, from human economics to holy sacraments. But the full texts of his Cuba sermons show that he remains much more interested in the Good News than the evening news. Nevertheless, John Paul is enough of a diplomat to know that calling the U.S. trade embargo... Read more

It is the Most Rev. Frank Tracy Griswold III’s custom to begin his day at 5 a.m. with prayer and yoga, a heels-over-head ritual that symbolizes what some call his Zen-Benedictine approach to faith. The graceful, bookish cleric didn’t stand on his head in the National Cathedral during the festive rites in which he was installed as the Episcopal Church’s leader. But the new presiding bishop did challenge his church to wholeheartedly embrace the ambiguity of modern life. Each person... Read more

TOKYO — The Rev. Wes Calvery came to Japan 44 years ago during a wave of missionary work that washed over a proud, broken land. It was almost impossible to get wary Japanese — steeped in centuries of Shinto and Buddhist traditions — to go anywhere near foreign churches and foreign clergy. Today, young people flock to his Sharon Gospel Church west of Tokyo for one reason: to get married. They want a wedding that looks and sounds like the... Read more

TOKYO — She smiles down from rows of advertisements that frame the ceilings of Japan’s crowded commuter trains and from giant posters in shopping malls. She is the woman in white and she is everywhere in Japanese media. In these glowing images, it is her wedding day and she is joyful, lovely, passionate and modern. She wants a Christian wedding. “Everyone wants the white dress. It’s America and Cinderella and all the movies we grew up with. It’s what a... Read more

The U.S. State Department churns out many newsworthy reports, a few of which make news while the rest vanish into circular files. In July, the state department finally released its first report on religious persecution in 78 nations. A spokesperson reminded reporters that it was Congress that mandated the 56- page document’s emphasis on the persecution of Christians. The state department, stressed John Shattuck, doesn’t view this “as more important than other topics involving religious freedom.” On Capitol Hill, critics... Read more

After the shock, came grief and after the grief, came waves of praise and admiration that raised Princess Diana from superstar, loving mother and humanitarian to mass-media sainthood. It didn’t take long for a few commentators to ask a blunt, but obvious question: Would the death of a living saint such as Mother Teresa produce anywhere near the same outpouring of emotion around the world? Then Mother Teresa died. It was impossible for editors and producers to avoid comparisons between... Read more