The Smart Shepherd

Place: New York City. Time: 9 o'clock on a Sunday morning. It's fair to say that many, if not most, of the inhabitants of Manhattan-mostly single, professional, well educated and young-are sleeping it off somewhere. Half of America has roused itself by now and is heading off to church, but in the city that never sleeps, the Sabbath is a time for slumber.

Looking for God in the Storm

God is not an abstraction at Union University. Here, business classes might begin with a prayer. Biology students are encouraged to take creationism as seriously as they do evolution. So what does it say about the nature of God that the campus was shredded Tuesday by a barrage of tornadoes? What does it say that no lives were lost, despite $40 million in damage?

Rebuilding for the Future

Sometimes churches spend too much time talking about what we need to do and not enough time doing what needs to be done. Sometimes we seem to value planning and discussing more than we value doing.

Sharing the Faith with Jerry

The Rev. Jerry Falwell died recently. So, too, did Yolanda King, who was the eldest child of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Falwell was the founder of the movement known as The Moral Majority and one of the originators of that group that is referred to either as "conservative, evangelical Christians" or as "the religious right." Ms. King and her family represented the entirely opposite side of American public and political life. It could be said in truth that Jerry Falwell and Martin Luther King, Jr. spent most of their lives working for a vision of America that would have looked entirely different depending upon which one of them would have prevailed.

The Mustard Seed Kingdom

"He said therefore, 'What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches'" (Luke 13:18-19, NRSV).

Men Suffer Abortion Loss Too

Jason Baier talks often to the little boy he calls Jamie. He imagines this boy -- his son -- with blond hair and green eyes, chubby cheeks, a sweet smile. But he'll never know for sure.

Reverence for Tolerance?

In a world fraught with ethnic, religious, and sectarian tensions, "tolerance" is a familiar mantra.

Infants Go to Work

A cooing baby in the next cubicle? It may sound like a recipe for distraction to some, but programs that allow parents to take their infants to work are growing across the country.