Not Ours
There’s a fictional story that makes the rounds every once in a while: An elderly woman is looking for her car in a parking lot. When she finally locates it, she is shocked to discover three men sitting inside. She reaches into her purse and pulls out a gun, causing the frightened men to flee. The woman feels quite proud of herself as she gets in the car. Attempting to put her key in the ignition, she finds it doesn’t fit. Checking her license plate, she realizes the car isn’t hers. She had unjustly driven away the men from a car that was rightly theirs!
Myth No More
We were sure that we, and our civilization, had grown out of the nursery myths of God, angels, and heaven.” Peter Hitchens said those words in describing his younger years when he and his brother Christopher Hitchens, who would become an outspoken atheist, were moving from nominal faith to atheism. Peter ceremonially burned a Bible at age fifteen to declare his disbelief in God.
The Kingdom We Long For
I remember the way grief hung so heavy the morning after news broke of the deadliest mass shooting in US history in 2016.
Offering Refuge and Hope
My friends Shelah and Jade Acker are the founders and directors of Refuge and Hope, a faith-based ministry serving the urban refugee community in Kampala, Uganda.
Taking the Hate
“I stopped believing in God because of the Bible,” said the soup kitchen volunteer. “I couldn’t get over how many times it says God hates people!” I know that volunteer and find him to be a thoughtful young man. But is he right?
Justice and Mercy
In the wake of the devastating earthquake that destroyed much of Haiti in 2010, one philosopher wrote, “For those who believe in an all-good, all-powerful God, we’ve seen that they face a question that remains pressing after all these centuries, and which is now horribly underscored by the horrors in Haiti. If a deity exists, why didn’t he prevent this?”
the God who acts
Gloria Bentivegna has been a faithful Christian for most of her life, and she raised her son Sal the same way. Sal grew ambivalent about his faith, however. He required physical evidence to believe in God, and so he became an agnostic. One day, at the slot machines, Sal offered an “off the cuff” prayer: “God, I don’t know if…
faithful lament
Last year we watched with sorrow and concern as an earthquake, tsunami, and ensuing nuclear disaster rocked Japan. MSNBC captured a particularly heart-wrenching photograph of 4-year-old Manami Kon having the sad occasion to practice her recently learned ability to write. Manami slowly penned a letter to her mom who had been missing since the quake: “Dear Mommy, I hope you’re…
justice
Two of my neighbors, Eugene and Lorraine Williams, have lived a story we all need to hear. Back in 1958, they bought a house on Ridge Street, and the welcome from their white neighbors wasn’t exactly warm—most of them moved away. Soon the Williams family also realized their third-grader Scheryl would be bussed to a black school across town, while…
