Jun

29

Is Your Church Ready to Blog?

June 29, 2007 | 5 Comments

Walk into almost any church, and the hierarchy is visually clear: up front on a stage, pulpit or podium stands the person ready to impart wisdom. Sitting quietly in rows are the worshipers, hoping for a good sermon. Why does this arrangement sound familiar? It’s exactly the structure used to describe “old media” like newspapers: […]

Jun

25

Humanizing Iran, and Other Ways to Save the World with Summer Reading

June 25, 2007 | 2 Comments

If you liked Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, or any other novel strung poignantly between two continents, you’ll find much to like in Yamsin Crowther’s debut novel, The Saffron Kitchen, published several months ago by Penguin, which traces the bittersweet story of a young Iranian too headstrong […]

Jun

22

Women’s Issues Make Zaid Shakir Look Away

June 22, 2007 | 1 Comment

When interviewed tonight on Bill Moyers’ Journal, Imam Zaid Shakir appeared relaxed, looking straight at Mr. Moyers with his light brown eyes. But when the subject turned to the question of the divine mandate for wife-beating, Imam Shakir appeared flustered.
Moyers read to Shakir a translation of the Koranic verse 4:34, which, in the Yusuf Ali […]

Jun

19

Is Circumcision a Christian Practice?

June 19, 2007 | 7 Comments

Male circumcision rates in the
U.S. have dropped steeply over the last few decades, as an Associated Press article by Rachel Konrad highlighted this week:

According to data from the National Health and Social Life Survey, the
U.S. circumcision rate peaked at nearly 90 percent in the early 1960s but began dropping in the ’70s. By […]

Jun

14

Fred Thompson’s Faith: Churches of Christ 101

June 14, 2007 | 8 Comments

When James Dobson told U.S. News & World Reports’ Dan Gilgoff he didn’t think GOP presidential hopeful Fred Thompson was “Christian,” that sparked a have-you-seen-Fred-Thompson-at-church contest and other blogosphere debates over Thompson’s religious beliefs. Though the former Tennessee senator was baptized in the
Church of
Christ, he married his second wife, Jeri Kehn, at a United Church […]

Jun

11

An Independent Muslim-American Press? Texas Entreprenuer Is Making It Happen

June 11, 2007 | 3 Comments

As a father of two and a full-time real estate developer in Austin, Texas, Shahed Amanullah has also been able to squeeze in a side-project over the last few years: opening up the American Muslim community to debate and criticism.
After 9/11 attacks, the American-born Amanullah, now 39, watched his community “circle the wagons” under a barrage […]

Jun

4

The Holiness and Horror of Amish Life: Journalist Joe Mackall Writes about His Extraordinary Neighbors

June 4, 2007 | 2 Comments

Joe Mackall has lived a mile away from the Shetler family for more than 16 years, driving Mary, Samuel and their growing family of nine children to the doctor when needed, sharing the family’s grief over a child’s death, and gradually bridging the divide between his own “English” (non-Amish) culture and their insular world of […]

FireStats icon Powered by FireStats
Close
E-mail It