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3 weeks ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Peter W. Marty |Brian D. McLaren |David Dault
The Texas Senate has approved a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms in public schools. This follows hard on the heels of a similar bill in Louisiana that is presently tied up in the judicial system. These initiatives seem likely to race each other to the US Supreme Court. It is understandable, in some ways, that many Christian policymakers want this text from the Hebrew Bible displayed in the spaces where their children are educated.
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3 weeks ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Peter W. Marty |Brian D. McLaren |David Dault
I’ve lived a majority of my life in the American South, and to me, our food is sacred: ribbons of wilted leafy greens specked with onion, fresh-picked field peas singing of summer sun, and peaches that drip sweet abundance down our chins. I can imagine my ancestors–some of whom were enslaved people–enjoyed these southern staples too, especially during times of celebration.
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3 weeks ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Peter W. Marty |Brian D. McLaren |Liz Charlotte Grant
Audrey’s Children, a feature-length biopic about Audrey Evans, a pioneering British American pediatric oncologist and a devout Episcopalian who co-founded Ronald McDonald House Charities with members of the Philadelphia Eagles and McDonald’s, will have a limited theatrical release beginning March 28.
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4 weeks ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Peter W. Marty |Brian D. McLaren |Liz Charlotte Grant
What’s the Bible for? We asked dozens of writers to respond to this question in seven words or less, as well as to expand on their response in a few sentences. To see all of the responses together as they are posted, bookmark this page. Telling us about people following GodThe Bible is a witness and guide to communities of people who believe they have heard from God and thus have a unique relationship with God.
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1 month ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Liz Charlotte Grant |Amy-Jill Levine |Peter W. Marty
Photo: Jens Domschky / iStock / Getty Jesus may have been an excellent carpenter. Or maybe he wasn’t. It’s possible that he made perfectly level tables but wobbly chairs. Or, if he was a stone mason, which the Greek word translated as “carpenter” in Mark 6:3 allows for, he may have chiseled stone with great precision but laid slightly crooked walls. We can’t know these details of his early life, of course. But let’s turn to the art world to broaden our perspective.
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1 month ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Liz Charlotte Grant |Peter W. Marty |Brian D. McLaren
The plan we were pondering—as students at Ripon College in central Wisconsin, 60 years ago this month—seemed crazy at first. But it was the 1960s, and we were young and brimming with the idealism of the age. So we set out confidently to make our nascent plan a reality. Almost a thousand miles away, in Selma, Alabama, Martin Luther King Jr. was preparing to lead a 54-mile voting rights march to Montgomery, the state capital. It was a just cause, and we were eager to join in.
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1 month ago | 
christiancentury.org | Salman Rushdie |Mac Loftin |Liz Charlotte Grant |Peter W. Marty
“Where do you feel least safe?” the gun violence expert asked the crowd at the Chautauqua Institution amphitheater last July. This question held more than a hint of irony. Two years earlier, another speaker had been stabbed on that same stage in upstate New York, causing him injuries that nearly took his life. Salman Rushdie, best known for his novels, has now turned to the genre of memoir to discuss that attack and its effect on him and his family. This is Rushdie’s second memoir.
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1 month ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Liz Charlotte Grant |Debie Thomas |Peter W. Marty
To receive these posts by email each Monday, sign up. For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century. “Shall I go to heaven or a-fishing?” I’m pretty sure Thoreau didn’t intend this as a serious question. For mature, well-grounded, enlightened folks in his day and ours, fishing is the clear favorite.
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1 month ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Liz Charlotte Grant |Debie Thomas |Peter W. Marty
What’s the Bible for? We asked dozens of writers to respond to this question in seven words or less, as well as to expand on their response in a few sentences. To see all of the responses together as they are posted, bookmark this page. Connecting God’s people across millennia through storyPortions of the Bible horrify me with what they call God’s action and God’s will. Yet if I spurn those sections, consistency requires rejecting the gorgeous ones also—and the parts that are essential to my life.
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1 month ago | 
christiancentury.org | Mac Loftin |Liz Charlotte Grant |Debie Thomas |Peter W. Marty
What’s the Bible for? We asked dozens of writers to respond to this question in seven words or less, as well as to expand on their response in a few sentences. To see all of the responses together as they are posted, bookmark this page. The Bible is for play, seriouslyEmily Dickinson, my favorite biblical interpreter, once wrote, “I have lately come to the conclusion that I am Eve, alias Mrs. Adam.
