The Christian Century back issues from August 2008:
The reach of grace.(Editor's DESK)
Aug 12, 2008; ... STUDENTS OF Shakespeare know that the bard didn't create his material solely out of his own imagination, but instead masterfully recrafted stories that were centuries old. And Shakespeare's own dramas have been repeatedly reimagined in contemporary settings. Two novels receiving critical ...
Eternal torment?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 12, 2008; ... Thank you for publishing the opinions of Christians of different theological perspectives on hell--a neglected topic among many of us (June 3 symposium). It gives the CENTURY credibility, especially when so many liberal Christian publications do not even mention the subject. While we can ...
Faith-based doubts.
Aug 12, 2008 ... Not many policy proposals from the 1990s can be trotted out a decade later in almost exactly the same form. But Barack Obama's plan to launch his own faith-based initiative closely echoes proposals endorsed years ago by Al Gore and George W. Bush. John DiIulio, one of the godfathers of the ...
Choosing hell.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... CHOOSING HELL: Walpola Piyananda, a Sri Lankan who was ordained a Buddhist monk at age 12, studied at Northwestern University and lived on the campus of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. He says he was treated respectfully by most seminarians except for one, who told him, in front ...
Tough love.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... TOUGH LOVE: During the 1979-1981 Iranian hostage crisis, Firoozeh Dumas's father watched on TV as students held Americans captive in their own embassy. When he would see the image of the Ayatollah Khomeini, her father would ask, "In which part of the Qur'an does it say you can take ...
Good grief.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... GOOD GRIEF: Since 2000 the Parents' Circle Family Forum has brought together more than 1,000 Israelis and almost 5,000 Palestinians who are mourning the death of family members who died in the conflict in the region. Robie Damelin's son, for instance, was killed by a Palestinian sniper ...
Targeting Muslims?(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... TARGETING MUSLIMS? Current guidelines from the U.S. Department of Justice require that the FBI have some evidence of wrongdoing before pursuing an investigation. But according to Juan Cole, some proposed changes in those guidelines would be tantamount to allowing ethnic or religious ...
[Cartoon].(CENTURY marks)(Cartoon)
Aug 12, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Can you give him ...
Downsides of the Ivy League.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... DOWNSIDES OF THE IVY LEAGUE: The advantages of going to an elite school like Columbia or Yale are obvious, says William Deresiewicz, who has taught English at both Ivy League universities. Graduates from such schools have greater potential of getting rich. But there are disadvantages of an ...
Mormons exposed.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... MORMONS EXPOSED: Chad Hardy, the creator of a controversial calendar featuring shirtless Mormon missionaries, has been excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hardy, a former Mormon missionary himself, said the "Men on a Mission" calendar was intended to ...
Think twice about ethanol.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... THINK TWICE ABOUT ETHANOL: Before you buy a car that uses E85 (ethanol-based) fuel, consider this: ethanol-burning vehicles consume 25 percent more fuel ....
Tracking homosexuals.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... TRACKING HOMOSEXUALS: A Christian online news outlet run by the American Family Association automatically changes the word gay to homosexual. So an AP story about sprinter Tyson Gay's qualifying run for the summer Olympics in China ...
Is that you, father?(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... IS THAT YOU, FATHER? A man passing himself off as a priest was caught trying to hear confessions in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The man was wearing clerical garb and was carrying documents that claimed he was a ...
Century marks.(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... "Wars never end, really. The Crusades aren't quite over yet. Our Civil War certainly isn't over yet. I don't think we can afford this kind of behavior anymore. Nobody's talking about the ecological damage of war. " --Farmer, writer and environmentalist Wendell Berry, in an ...
Top 10 ways to know when the economy is really bad.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008; ... 10. The White House trades in the presidential limo for a Toyota Prius. 9. You climb into your car, but then decide, "Shucks, it's only five miles. I'll walk." 8. Home heating oil gets so expensive that Al Gore moves into a one-bath bungalow. 7. Your ...
Running on hope: Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer.(Interview)
Aug 12, 2008; ... IN JUNE, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, a professor in the justice and peace studies program at St. Thomas University in Minneapolis, ended his bid for the US. Senate after Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party picked Al Franken as its nominee. Nelson-Pallmeyer was endorsed by 35 percent of ...
Two Annes.(Poem)
Aug 12, 2008; ... <Pre> Two Annes (For Hutchinson and Bradstreet) One took the colony by the heels, slapping its flankuntil it issued a broad cry of rage. Tall and forbidding,she waxed both sharp and sweet, flying in the angryface of magistrates, chafing the tender heartsof the ...
Will evangelicals respond to Obama's overtures?(CENTURY news)(Barack Obama)
Aug 12, 2008; ... Heather Rosema of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is precisely the kind of Christian voter that Senator Barack Obama covets. Rosema, 41, chose George W. Bush in 2000, when she put greater emphasis on issues like abortion and gay marriage. This year, she intends to vote for Obama. ...
Churches using Internet for social networking.(CENTURY news)
Aug 12, 2008; ... Social-networking Web sites like Facebook and MySpace are redefining the way many Americans build and maintain relationships--and also how their churches communicate. In recent years, making social contacts through such sites has become ubiquitous among the under-30 crowd, and ...
NCC: race poll shows need for 'sacred conversations'.(CENTURY news)(National Council of Churches)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... A RECENT POLL indicating sharp national divisions along racial lines should remind Americans of the need for "sacred conversations on race," said the head of the National Council of Churches. The New York Times/CBS News poll released July 16 found that 40 percent of blacks ...
John Templeton, backer of religion-and-science studies, dies at 95.(CENTURY news)(Obituary)
Aug 12, 2008; ... John Marks Templeton, who first made his mark as a pioneer international investor, is being remembered in religious circles for his commitment to the most prominent prize in religion: the annual Templeton Prize. His passionate interest in the relation between religion and ...
Move to block Bush institute at SMU fails.(CENTURY news)(Southern Methodist University)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... A LONG-SHOT ATTEMPT to block a George W. Bush policy institute on the Southern Methodist University campus fell short at a regional United Methodist meeting in Dallas. University president Gerald Turner praised the delegate votes July 17 to affirm deals that SMU and the church's ...
Danish court rejects suit over Muhammad cartoons.(CENTURY news)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... An appeals court in Denmark has voided a lawsuit against the newspaper that was the first to print controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2005. The Western High Court in Aarhus said in June that critics did not prove that the Jyllands-Posten newspaper was ...
Church of England may allow women bishops despite threats of split.(CENTURY news)
Aug 12, 2008 ... The Church of England is facing the threat of a major split and years of turmoil over a vote by the church's General Synod to allow the consecration of women as Anglican bishops. The vote on July 7 authorized the formation of a group to draft a code to be put to a Synod vote ...
Retired UMC clergy offer to perform gay marriages.(CENTURY news)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... Adding fuel to the growing controversy over gay marriage in California, a group of retired United Methodist clergy has volunteered to perform same-sex marriages, a move that conservatives call a "surrender to popular fashion." At the church's California-Nevada Conference's ...
Lutherans to apologize for Anabaptist persecution.(CENTURY news)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008; ... The Lutheran World Federation is preparing to formally ask forgiveness from Anabaptists--Mennonites, Amish and similar believers--for 16th-century persecution, including torture and killings. The decision to prepare the statement was made by the LWF Council, the world body's ...
Three bishops say Iowa migrants deserve better after raid, floods.(CENTURY news)
Aug 12, 2008 ... Iowa bishops from three denominations have demanded an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy in the wake of a government raid on a large kosher slaughterhouse and allegations of worker mistreatment during relief efforts after June's floods. "We are concerned that we would ...
Interfaith initiative.(CENTURY news)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] INTERFAITH INITIATIVE: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah speaks during the opening of the three-day International Conference on Dialogue near Madrid on July 16. Though Islam is the official state religion of Saudi ...
Nikki Stephanopoulos.(People)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... Nikki Stephanopoulos, a longtime spokesperson for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and mother of Washington political insider George Stephanopoulos, retired this month. Stephanopoulos began in 1983 as an ...
Jorge Lara-Braud.(People)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Aug 12, 2008 ... Jorge Lara-Braud, 77, a Presbyterian lay pastor, teacher and social activist, died June 22 after a fall near his Austin, Texas, home. The Mexico City native converted from Catholicism while studying at the PCUSA-related Pan-American School in Kingsville, Texas ....
Reflections on the lectionary.(LIVING BY The Word)
Aug 12, 2008; ... Sunday, August 17 Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28 THE PROBLEM WITH Matthew 15:21-28 lies in the portrait of Jesus as neither the Jesus we have come to know and love nor, if we are honest, a Jesus we particularly like. The optional verses in the lectionary (Matt. 15:10-20) ...
If the truth were told.(Fox TV's 'Moment of Truth')
Aug 12, 2008; ... EARLIER THIS YEAR the Fox network, showing either the effects of the writers' strike or the signs of social decay, offered a gem of televised exploitation--the kind that repulses you but you can't help watching. The game show The Moment of Truth features contestants who have previously ...
The risks of writing: an interview with Ron Hansen.(Interview)
Aug 12, 2008; ... NOVELIST RON HANSEN is known for working with a variety of themes and in a variety of genres. His first novels, Desperadoes (1979) and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (1983)--recently made into a film starring Brad Pitt--were set in the wild West. Mariette in ...
Life without parole: the story of Liam Q.
Aug 12, 2008; ... IN 1981, at the age of 17, my friend Liam Q. did what many adventurous Kansas farm boys do: he joined the U.S. Navy to see the world. His test scores marked him for further training in a technical specialty, but Liam wanted to steel an aircraft carrier, so the navy made him a helmsman ....
Upside of a downturn.(Faith MATTERS)
Aug 12, 2008; ... LIKE EVERYONE ELSE I know, I am feeling the pinch of a straitened economy. I eat out less often, I drive less far and I write fewer checks to my favorite charities. These are all middle-class concerns, I know (does anyone admit to being upper-middle class?), which is why I hesitate to ...
Piety and power.(religious book)(Book review)
Aug 12, 2008; ... Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite. By D. Michael Lindsay. Oxford University Press, 352 pp., $24.95. God in the White House: A History--How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush ....
Islam: Past, Present and Future.(Book review)
Aug 12, 2008; ... Islam: Past, Present and Future. By Hans Kung; translated by John Bowden. Oneworld, 800 pp., $39.95. Shortly after the attacks of September 11, President Bush declared that the perpetrators had "violated the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith" and ...
Speaking Conflict: Stories of a Controversial Jesus.(Book review)
Aug 12, 2008; ... Speaking Conflict: Stories of a Controversial Jesus. By David Buttrick. Westminster John Knox, 222 pp., $24.95 paperback. In 2000 David Buttrick began a project that focused on the language of Jesus and the ways in which attention to Jesus' language can ...
Basketball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Paint.(Brief article)(Book review)
Aug 12, 2008 ... Basketball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Paint. Edited by Jerry L. Walls and Gregory Bassham. University Press of Kentucky, 304 pp., $27.95. The impulse to philosophize about sports is often best suppressed--or confined to the back porch. But this ...
God Against Religion: Rethinking Christian Theology Through Worship.(Brief article)(Book review)
Aug 12, 2008 ... God Against Religion: Rethinking Christian Theology Through Worship. By Matthew Myer Boulton. Eerdmans, 260 pp., $28.00 paperback Faith is grounded in acts of worship, yet patterns of worship are also supremely human constructs and, inevitably, prideful ...
The Dark Knight.(Movie review)
Aug 12, 2008; ... The Dark Knight. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger. As a boy, I was a slave to DC Comics. When the new issues of Superman, Batman, Action, Adventure and World's Finest hit the stands, I was off to the drugstore to ...
Public stewards.(IMPRESSIONS)(Gary Hart)
Aug 12, 2008; ... FORMER COLORADO senator Gary Hart has drafted a policy blueprint for the next U.S. president. Hart, a Democrat who began his political career in 1971 as national campaign manager for George McGovern, is politically well prepared to make this proposal. Even more important, his proposal is ...
Embarrassing questions ...(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 12, 2008; ... Like Barbara Brown Taylor ("Faith Matters," June 17), I have taught undergraduate religion courses for many years. My experiences have confirmed what I suspected the first time I was exposed to a scholarly interpretation of the Old Testament set forth at my church by a woman who had taken ...
Cantus firmus.(M.E.M.O)
Aug 12, 2008; ... <Pre> To Dietrich Bonhoeffer Executed by the Nazis in April 1945 Your faith I find impossible to emulate In the true God whose eyeIs on the sparrow, and also me, but Perhaps I may be permittedTo learn something of your very human grace, Your ...
Taking awe breaks.(Editor's DESK)(Editorial)
Aug 26, 2008; ... I LOVE LIVING in a big city: the energy, the pace, the sirens. I love being able to walk or ride a bus to work, or catch a train to the airport. I love crowded sidewalks, tourists craning their necks to see skyscrapers, businesspeople with briefcases and iPods weaving their way through the ...
Unprepared leaders.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 26, 2008; ... William Willimon's article "First call" resonates with my own experience (June 17). In many instances there is a wide disconnect between seminaries and the local parish. The majority of pastors come to the local scene with a mind-set of nurturing and managing, not leading. It is as if they ...
Hope for all ...(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 26, 2008; ... Thank you for Jurgen Moltmann's exquisite scholarly response to Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Spe salvi ("Horizons of hope," May 20). Moltmann shows that the pope has a more narrow sense of the economy of salvation than is stated in Vatican II's Gaudium et Spes ....
Defending stein ...(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 26, 2008; ... In his review of the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, Jason Byassee distorts narrator Ben Stein's intention regarding Darwin's theory (May 20). Byassee argues that "flag-waving opposition to Darwin is mindless." Stein argues throughout the film that Darwin never assumes that his ...
Revelations in Iowa.
Aug 26, 2008 ... August 26, 2008 For the past several months the debate over U.S. immigration policy has centered on the tiny town of Postville, Iowa. In May, government officials descended on the town and arrested almost 400 immigrants who worked at a kosher meat processing plant. Close to 300 ...
A democratic Jonah.(CENTURY marks)(Leah Daughtry)(Brief article)
Aug 26, 2008 ... On Sunday mornings you may find Leah Daughtry preaching to her small Pentecostal, African-American church in Southwest Washington, D.C. During the week she serves as chief of staff to Howard Dean, chair of the Democratic National Committee. Dean appointed Daughtry the chief executive of ...
Up against a brick wall.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 26, 2008 ... Randy Pausch went with his family to Disneyland as a child, and ever since, he had aspirations to work there. Upon getting a doctorate in computer science, he applied for a job with Walt Disney Imagineering. But he was told that the company had no openings that fit his qualifications ....
Gas prices driving you buggy?(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 26, 2008 ... If high fuel prices are tempting you to join the Amish and trade in your car for a horse and buggy, think twice. They're about as dependent on fuel oil as the rest of us. While most Amish shun the use of modern technology, many of them have turned to microenterprises such as furniture ...
Deceptive advertising.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 26, 2008 ... An ad produced by the American Petroleum Institute claims there is "enough untapped oil in the U.S. to fuel more than 60 million cars for the next 60 years." While ...
Familiar refrain.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 26, 2008 ... When Peter Hawkins, a professor at Boston University, asked the students in his entry-level course on the Bible if they had ever heard of the 23rd Psalm, about five hands went up. After he recited the text, almost everyone recognized parts of it, even if they didn't know the source. For ...
True believers.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 26, 2008 ... In a religious knowledge test for Saudi Arabian fourth graders, students are asked a multiple-choice question: "Is belief true in the following instances?" The options given: "(a) A man prays but hates those who are virtuous. (b) A man professes that there is no deity other than God but ...
Blurred lines.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 26, 2008 ... Until the beginning of the 20th century, children were routinely excluded from public libraries so they would be protected from what was then considered morally corrupting literature. Anne Carroll Moore helped to change that by establishing a children's library, first in Brooklyn, and then ...
Hateful talk.(CENTURY marks)(Jim David Adkisson)(Brief article)
Aug 26, 2008 ... A search of Jim David Adkisson's house turned up books authored by right-wing talk-show hosts. It included Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder, by Michael Savage; Let Freedom Ring, by Sean Hannity; and The O'Reilly Factor, by Bill O'Reilly ....
Loaves and fishes.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 26, 2008 ... Charisma magazine reports that when evangelist Marilyn Hickey conducted meetings recently in Cairo, Egypt, 2,400 Kentucky Fried Chicken meals appeared out of thin air. Boxed lunches had been ordered for 3,500 ...
Transitions.(CENTURY marks)
Aug 26, 2008 ... This issue marks the end of Martin Marty's M.E.M.O column, which has been a fixture on our back page for an astonishing four decades. Though we say farewell to M.E.M.O. we are not saying farewell to Marty as a contributing editor--his writing in various genres will continue to appear in ...
This, perhaps above all, is how George Bush should be remembered.(CENTURY marks)(Brief article)
Aug 26, 2008; ... "This, perhaps above all, is how George Bush should be remembered: as the president who embraced torture." --Columnist Eugene Robinson, who thinks the next ...
When a coffeehouse chain becomes a default option for people having trouble finding jobs that provide affordable insurance.(CENTURY marks)(Quotation)(Brief article)
Aug 26, 2008; ... "When a coffeehouse chain becomes a default option for people having trouble finding jobs that provide affordable insurance, it's time to fix our nation's broker health-care system." ...
The Chinese at worship: official and underground Christianity.(Travel narrative)
Aug 26, 2008; ... IN THE 1950s, the communist government of China expelled all foreign missionaries. Many Americans have seen black-and-white photos of missionary families sitting next to piles of luggage on the wharves of Shanghai, waiting to sail home. We know much about this event because the ...
When my daughter asks why.(Poem)
Aug 26, 2008; ... <Pre> When my daughter asks why Maggie, her grandparents' dog,can't come with us to the zoo,we say she's not feeling welland try to leave it at that,bring up tigers and polar bears,offer Twizzlers and juice,but all she wants is the dog,asks if ...
Trust betrayed: a crisis in congregational life.
Aug 26, 2008; ... IT WAS WEDNESDAY. Time to visit my youth intern again. I really, really disliked Wednesday mornings. As I walked out of the office, I said, "Be back around noon," to my administrative assistant. She knew where I was headed and smiled in support. I took my time driving across ...
Small prayer in a hard wind.(Poem)
Aug 26, 2008; ... <Pre> Small prayer in a hard wind As through a long-abandoned half-standing houseOnly someone lost could find, Which, with its paneless windows and sagging crossbeams,Its hundred crevices in which a hundred creatures hoard and ...