The Christian Century back issues from July 2007:
Bravo!(From the editor/publisher)(Obituary)
Jul 10, 2007; ... HIGH ON the list of people I have most admired is Mstislav Rostropovich, the great Russian cellist who died in April. I admired him first for his courage. In 1970 Rostropovich expressed his support for artistic freedom and human rights in a letter to Pravda, the state-run newspaper of the ...
Hired guns.
Jul 10, 2007 ... CAN YOU OUTSOURCE A WAR? The U.S. seems to be trying to do it in Iraq. As part of its overall streamlining of the armed forces, the Bush administration has relied to an unprecedented extent on private companies such as Halliburton, Blackwater and Custer Battles to support and prosecute the ...
True friends.(Century marks)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... TRUE FRIENDS: Richard Rorty, perhaps the best-known American philosopher of his generation, died last month. The grandson of Walter Rauschenbusch, who was the father of the Social Gospel movement, Rorty was an atheist who revived American philosophical pragmatism. He believed that there is ...
Feels so good.(Century marks)(giving money to charity)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... FEELS SO GOOD: A team of economists and psychologists at the University of Oregon have discovered that giving money to charity activates parts of the brain that have to do with the experience of ...
Saint Franz?(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... SAINT FRANZ? Franz Jagerstatter, a German Catholic conscientious objector during World War II, was beheaded in 1943 for his refusal to cooperate with the Nazis. The Vatican recently recognized him as a martyr for the faith, opening the way for his beatification and ...
Shoot the messenger.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... SHOOT THE MESSENGER: The army assigned the ask of investigating the Abu Ghraib prison scandal to Major General Antonio M. Taguba, a Filipino-American known for his integrity. Since his retirement from the army in January, Taguba told journalist Seymour M. Hersh that early on in the ...
American roulette.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... AMERICAN ROULETTE: The fate of inmates on death row rests more on sheer luck and politics than the merits of their cases, according to a study by the Cincinnati Enquirer. The Enquirer staff analyzed every death penalty appeal since 2000 in the Sixth Circuit Federal Appeals Court, which has ...
Plain box.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... PLAIN BOX: Ruth Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham, was buried last month in a casket made by Richard Liggett, a convicted murderer in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Made of birch plywood with a cross on the top and brass handles on the sides and lined with a fabric-covered foam ...
Little eyes.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... LITTLE EYES: Sixty-five percent of parents claim that they closely monitor their children's media use, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. Parents are especially confident about monitoring their kids' use of the Internet, with 73 percent saying they know a lot ...
Revised unstandard version.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... REVISED UNSTANDARD VERSION: "And Jesus said unto them, 'And who do you say that I am?' They replied, 'You are the totaliter aliter, the vestigious trinitaturn who speaks to us in the modality of Christo-monism. ... You are he who heals our ambiguities and overcomes the split of angst and ...
Program your PDA.(Century marks)(personal digital assistant)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... PROGRAM YOUR PDA: A display in Jerusalem of manuscripts by Sir Isaac Newton indicates that the great scientist saw no conflict between science and religion. Among the three-centuries-old papers is one in which Newton, using ...
Icon you not.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... ICON YOU NOT: In June, an image of Jesus could seen on a car window in Texas; the word Allah was visible in a sliced tomato in Britain; the ...
Benedict says.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... The Vatican's Ten Commandments for drivers: I. You shall not kill. II. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm. III. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events. IV ....
When you are oppressed, it is so very easy to turn on yourselves.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007; ... "When you are oppressed, it is so very easy to turn on yourselves. At home, we had horrendous instances of internecine conflict. And you would say, 'For goodness sake, do we not ...
There's more than enough blame to go around....(Century marks)(Quotation)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007; ... "There's more than enough blame to go around .... But you have this undeniable situation among the Palestinians where those who are moderate are not effective and those who are effective are not moderate." --David Makovsky of the ...
Survivor.(YAU-MAN CHAN ON REALITY TV)(Interview)
Jul 10, 2007 ... REALITY TELEVISION is not known for its portrayal of virtue. And Yau-Man Chan is not someone you might expect to progress to the final four on Survivor: Fiji, the 14th season of the reality television show that is famous, and sometimes infamous, for its stark portrayals of human strength ...
Lightening.(Poem)
Jul 10, 2007; ... <Pre> Lightening That bones will brittleIs my truth,And that all littleCells, forsooth, Will fail and fall,And falling, leaveMy brain's recall.So I receive Lightness of being,And a ...
Loose change.(IF THIS COIN COULD SPEAK)
Jul 10, 2007; ... IN 1986, having been married to me only one year, my wife was casting about for an interesting birthday present. She wandered into a coin shop and found a case of coins from antiquity. She already knew me well enough to know that I would be fascinated by them. The owner didn't know much ...
Dream in Sighisoara, Romania.(Poem)
Jul 10, 2007; ... <Pre> Dream in Sighisoara, Romania in the train station at last asleep (all gone down to grays--sky --uniforms the platform itself and farmers back from the war who won't know their ...
Raunchy family values.('KNOCKED UP')(Movie review)
Jul 10, 2007; ... A FRIEND OF mine has an idea for teaching youth about sex: have them view one of those graphic birthing videos that the hospital has for first-time parents, the kind that shows the crowning and the afterbirth, the agony and the joy. The kids will get the idea. Knocked Up shows ...
Dilemma on sheltering immigrants.(News)
Jul 10, 2007 ... THE DOUBLE-EDGED question vexes many local congregations in the middle of the immigration debate: What is legal--and what is right? That dilemma has permeated church discussions in Portland, Oregon, after 167 suspected illegal workers were detained in a June 12 raid at the Fresh ...
Episcopalians won't reverse pro-gay stances.(News)
Jul 10, 2007 ... In a clear rebuff to conservatives in the global Anglican Communion, Episcopal Church leaders have rejected a September 30 deadline setby overseas Anglicans to roll back their church's pro-gay policies, arguing that such decisions can be made only at the U.S. church's triennial ...
Christian reformed OK female ministers.(News)
Jul 10, 2007 ... The Christian Reformed Church quietly made history last month as its Synod voted to remove the word male from its requirements for church office. After 37 years of back-and-forth struggle, delegates opened the way for women to become ministers in any of the CRC's 1,000-plus U.S. and ...
Woman pastor called to large SBC church.(News)(Southern Baptist Convention)
Jul 10, 2007; ... The 2,700-member First Baptist Church of Decatur, Georgia, has become the largest church associated with the Southern Baptist Convention or the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to hire a woman as senior pastor. In a business session after Sunday morning worship June 17, nearly ...
Antihunger momentum.(News)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... ANTIHUNGER MOMENTUM: Religious leaders gathered at Washington National Cathedral last month for a colorful convocation dedicated to reducing hunger and poverty throughout the world. Nearly 1,000 worshippers from 45 states sand and prayed June 11 under the cathedral's soaring arches as (l ...
Ruth Graham, an evangelist's wife.(News)(Obituary)
Jul 10, 2007 ... Ruth Bell Graham, 87, evangelist Billy Graham's independent and strong-willed wife, who had been plagued with ill health in recent years, died June 14 at her home in Montreat, North Carolina. Considered the intellectual of the family, she published several collections of poetry and prose ....
Seven of 10 Republicans skeptical on evolution.(News)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... Republicans are far more likely to doubt the theory of evolution than Democrats, according to a new Gallup Poll. Sixty-eight percent of Republicans say they doubt that humans evolved from lower life forms over millions of years, while only 40 percent of Democrats hold that view ....
SBC meeting rejects human-caused warming, government solutions.(News)(Southern Baptist Convention)
Jul 10, 2007 ... The Southern Baptist Convention has rejected scientific claims that humans are to blame for global warming and dismissed governmental efforts to reverse it. The delegates (called messengers) did not object to claims in the SBC annual meeting's global-warming resolution that ...
Christians in Iraq are in peril, church leader warns.(News)
Jul 10, 2007 ... A Christian leader from Iraq has warned that Christianity may disappear from his country if no action is taken to stem the hardships faced by this minority community in the predominantly Muslim country. "Members of all religions--including both Islam and Christianity--are ...
Iraqi imams blame U.S. for sectarian strife.(News)
Jul 10, 2007 ... As the last U.S. troops in President Bush's military buildup were deployed in Iraq in mid-June, a number of Shi'ite and Sunni clerics called for unity among Muslims, with some imams using their sermons to blame the U.S. military presence for sectarian tensions. Defense Secretary ...
Methodist-Muslim deal.(News)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... METHODIST-MUSLIM DEAL: The United Methodist Committee on Relief is joining with Muslim Aid, a British Muslim charity, on relief projects around the world in a partnership that was to be announced June 26 in London. The two charities ...
Massachusetts lawmakers June 14 voted to kill a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, leaving opponents of such marriages discouraged.(Briefly noted)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... Massachusetts lawmakers June 14 voted to kill a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, leaving opponents of such marriages discouraged. The state legislature, meeting in a joint session, voted 151-45 to block the proposed amendment from being placed on the 2008 ballot ....
Trinity Broadcasting Network has become the new owner of the Holy Land Experience, a biblical theme park in Orlando, Florida.(Briefly noted)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... Trinity Broadcasting Network has become the new owner of the Holy Land Experience, a biblical theme park in Orlando, Florida. "This marriage will bring an unprecedented synergy to both ministries, and the production that is done there will be seen by a worldwide audience," said Paul F ....
A senior Vatican official has said Catholic organizations and individuals should withhold donations from Amnesty International because of the human rights group's recent decision to support abortion rights in certain cases.(Briefly noted)(Brief article)
Jul 10, 2007 ... A senior Vatican official has said Catholic organizations and individuals should withhold donations from Amnesty International because of the human rights group's recent decision to support abortion rights in certain cases. Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for ...
Living by the word: kitchen relief.(Luke 10:38-42)(Essay)
Jul 10, 2007; ... Sunday, July 22 Luke 10:38-42 EVEN A CURSORY investigation of art through the ages that contains images of Mary and Martha will uncover a common thread. Invariably, Mary and Martha are snarling at one another, having been forever pitted against one another by the Gospel of Luke ....
Living by the word: prayer power.(Luke 11:1-13)(Essay)
Jul 10, 2007; ... Sunday, July 29 Luke 11:1-13 IT IS HARD for average people to muster the kind of confidence that Jesus expresses in his three-part lesson on prayer. Your kingdom come: The kingdom seems light years away. Give us each day our daily bread: People die of hunger all the time, even ...
Expecting miracles: the prosperity gospel in Africa.(Prosperity Pentecostalism)
Jul 10, 2007; ... THOUGH VIRTUALLY all forms of Christianity in Africa are experiencing explosive growth, the churches growing most spectacularly are the ones that are Pentecostal or net-Pentecostal or "Pentecostal-like." After 23 years of visiting African churches, I would venture another generalization: ...
Trespassing the labyrinth.(Poem)
Jul 10, 2007; ... <Pre> Trespassing the labyrinth They will not see me, living out ofsight down the hill, the white-robed army of monks at prayer, themakers of incense and beds and meals with the smell of God aboutthem. They might feel me step into their pilgrimage, balancing ...
Empowered: the entrepreneurial ministry of T. D. Jakes.(pastor of The Potter's House)(Interview)
Jul 10, 2007; ... IT IS 11:30 a.m. on a clear, sunny Sunday morning in southern Dallas, and traffic is heavy on Highway 480 near West Kiest Boulevard. Just off the exit ramp, a lot of Range Rovers and Cadillac Escalades are navigating a maze of orange cones in vast parking lots that could belong to the ...
Abandoned boat at sunrise.(Poem)
Jul 10, 2007; ... <Pre> Abandoned boat at sunrise Up north, my wife, Felice, slippedaway with emphysema, and my workcruised on without me--accounts balanced,mortgages afloat. My sleep donedown here in Florida, I standlooking out a darkened windowno one's looking ...
Security check: does God protect us?(faith and security)(Essay)
Jul 10, 2007; ... SOME PASSAGES in scripture seem to promise God's protection for the good and the faithful. For example, Psalm 121 says: "I lift up my eyes to the hills--from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps ...
Long goodbye: conversations with my mother.(accepting death)(Essay)
Jul 10, 2007; ... EVER SINCE she got to be the age I am now, my mother talked about how she was ready to die, was even eager for the joys--and rest--of heaven, about how she didn't understand why some people put up such a fight when their time came. But, after a year in the nursing home, my ...
A very little thing.(Poem)
Jul 10, 2007; ... <Pre> A very little thing A very little thing is rolling down the street at dawn, some littleyellow thing, a lemon, rolling down the center of the street fromthe little grove just up the hill. Has the cold of the morning snapped its hold upon the tree? Or did...
Foreign service.(Faith matters)(witnessing)(Essay)
Jul 10, 2007; ... I HAVE A recurring nightmare about the final exam on which my college graduation depends. Thinking I am prepared, I open a blue booklet only to discover that I am being tested in a language I do not know. I try to explain that there has been a terrible mistake, but the proctor is ...
Taste and see.(Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion)(Book review)
Jul 10, 2007; ... Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion. By Sara Miles. Ballantine, 304 pp., $24.95. SARA MILES describes herself as an unlikely candidate to walk into St. Gregory's Episcopal Church in 1999 at the moment when the congregation was receiving communion. With little knowledge of what ...
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony.(Book review)
Jul 10, 2007; ... Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. By Richard Bauckham. Eerdmans, 552 pp., $32.00. RICHARD BAUCKHAM, professor at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, poses a severe challenge to form criticism, the highly influential 20th-century methodology ...
Paris forever.(Paris, Je T'Aime)(Movie review)
Jul 10, 2007; ... THE CITY OF LIGHTS would seem the perfect setting for a compilation of 18 short films, each five to eight minutes long, about love and passion. But what makes Paris, Je T'Aime intriguing, beyond its role as a travelogue of Parisian neighborhoods, is that it offers a rare chance to observe ...
Scripture & homosexuality.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
Jul 10, 2007; ... THE CENTURY'S editors suggest that the prisms of "the holiness of God" and "the justice of God" give different readings on an issue like homosexuality ("The Bible in first person," April 3). But what if Jesus' teaching is both holy and just? Let me also ask William Stacy ...
Differing on child rearing ...(letters)(Letter to the editor)
Jul 10, 2007; ... IT IS THE smaller headline for Beth Felker Jones's article--"Christian child abuse"--that should have been in large, bold print ("Spanking away sin," May 1). And it is not "Christian" at all, but child abuse pure and simple. If Jones is aware of children being abused in this ...
Gaza showdown.(Impressions)(elections in Palestinian territories)
Jul 10, 2007; ... ON THE MORNING of January 25, 2006, I was with a group of American church people at a Palestinian Authority polling place in Bethlehem. Having observed many elections over the years, I have learned to detect the difference between enthusiastic reformers hungry for change and members of an ...
On a mission.(M.E.M.O)(mainline Protestant churches)(Critical essay)
Jul 10, 2007; ... WHEN ASKED, "Whatever happened to the mainline Protestant churches?" as I often am, I respond: Mainline decline is an old, tired story, but mainliners' mission is urgent. How are mainline churches recovering? By going local in order to turn global. Let me explain. Philosopher ...
Authority figures: advice to new clergy: be pastoral, then prophetic.(From the editor/publisher)
Jul 24, 2007; ... FOR THE PAST few years the religion department at the Chautauqua Institution near Buffalo has sponsored a program for new clergy and their families. This summer I was invited to meet with the group, especially to talk with them about prophetic and pastoral preaching. It was not ...
Bridging the racial divide.
Jul 24, 2007 ... FIVE DECADES AGO, third-grader Linda Brown could not attend school in her racially integrated Topeka neighborhood; the law required her to take a bus across town to attend a dilapidated school designated for blacks. Linda's case and others like it prompted a series of lawsuits that ...
Prophet without honor.(Century marks)(Abraham Joshua Heschel)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007 ... PROPHET WITHOUT HONOR: Probably no Jewish theologian was better known or more highly regarded by 20th-century American Christians than Abraham Joshua Heschel. He was not so highly regarded by his colleagues at the Jewish Theological Seminary, however, according to his daughter Susannah. In ...
Missionary position.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007 ... MISSIONARY POSITION: Although Darwin died an agnostic and is still assailed by conservatives for his groundbreaking work on evolution, cultural historian Mark Graham of Grove City College says that Darwin never was against religion. In fact, Darwin's first publication after his worldwide ...
Give it a rest.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007 ... GIVE IT A REST: Presbyterian pastor Pam Driesell points out there are two kinds of time: mechanical time and body time; we can go by the clock to know when it's time to eat or sleep, or we can pay attention to what our bodies are telling us about the need to eat or sleep. Driesell says ...
Unnecessary?(Century marks)(vice presidency)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007 ... UNNECESSARY? Some liberals and even a few conservatives would like to see Vice President Dick Cheney impeached for abuse of power. But Sanford Levinson, professor of law at the University of Texas, wonders why we need a vice president in the first place. Before the 1967 ratification of the ...
Getting Cheney correct.(Century marks)(Vice President Dick Cheney)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007 ... GETTING CHENEY CORRECT: John W. Dean, a former counsel to President Nixon during the Watergate crisis, warns against underestimating Vice President Cheney: "It has long been apparent that Cheney's genius is that he lets George W. Bush get out of bed every morning actually believing he is ...
Beknighted.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007 ... BEKNIGHTED: Church groups in Pakistan and India have condemned Britain's decision to honor author Salman Rushdie with a knighthood, and they say the action risks inflaming hatred against Christians in their countries. Indian-born Rushdie angered Muslims in many part of the world with his ...
Where would Jesus bike.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007 ... WHERE WOULD JESUS BIKE? Bicycling advocates in Chicago are seeking to close a network of boulevards on Sundays from May to October so they can be used by bikers, roller bladders and skaters. While the advocates have had little difficulty convincing civic authorities, they've met resistance ...
Batting for Jesus.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007 ... BATTING FOR JESUS: In August the Washington Nationals will become the fourth major league baseball team to stage a Faith Night. Fans who pay an extra $10 will be able to remain after the game to hear a concert by the band MercyMe, hear testimonies from some Nationals players, and visit ...
Better than 666.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007 ... BETTER THAN 666: It was projected that Saturday, July 7 (07/07/07), would be one of the hottest dates for a wedding in recorded history. TheKnot.com estimated that 38,000 couples from its online community would walk the aisle that day, more than triple the 12,000 who wed on a typical ...
Learning again.(Century marks)(Murray Sperber)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007 ... LEARNING AGAIN: Diagnosed with a heart ailment, Murray Sperber retired from Indiana University after teaching there for 33 years, and he thought he would miss teaching. When he came across a French language textbook he had used as a graduate student, he decided ...
It's good to have a good God.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007; ... "It's good to have a good God, a good lawyer and a good judge." --Marion Barry, a member of the District of Columbia's City Council and its former mayor, ...
It was then a question of making socialism more human.(Century marks)(Brief article)
Jul 24, 2007; ... "It was then a question of making socialism more human, now it's a question of making capitalism more human." --German theologian Heino Falcke, speaking at the 35th anniversary of a keynote ...