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Click In Remembrance Of Me
With a scrap of bagel and a sip of Crystal Light, Beth McDonald gave communion to her husband. Then, after a blessing, he gave communion to her. Music played as the celebrant intoned the ancient words, “Do this in remembrance […]
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✴︎ Newsweek
Forgive Me, Pepsi, For I Have Sinned
Why do you choose Coke over Pepsi, Corona over Bud, Crest over Colgate? You don’t think much about these choices, you say; your gut decides. Marketing guru Martin Lindstrom says otherwise. Your preference for Macs over PCs is embedded in […]
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What’s God Got to Do With It?
In her new book, “Love Your Life,” Victoria Osteen tells the following story. When she and her husband, Joel, were courting, he came over to her house for dinner. She knew he was the son of a prominent Houston pastor […]
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Obama’s Other Pastor
In the early summer of 2000, the Houston megachurch pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell got a phone call that would change his life. The George W. Bush campaign was on the line, wanting to know if Caldwell would introduce his friend the […]
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A Battle Over Billy Graham
The Evangelist Billy Graham turns 90 next month, and in this final chapter of his life, a number of laudatory books and movies are scheduled for release. One of these, a biopic called “Billy: The Early Years,” arrives in theaters […]
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Arguing Against the Atheists
Sometimes I argue in my mind against the new generation of professional atheists, and the arguments go something like this. First, if 90-odd percent of Americans say they believe in God, it’s unhelpful to dismiss them as silly. Second, when […]
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A Religious-Right Revival
Since 2004, the story goes, evangelicals have softened. Sure, they still care about abortion and gay marriage. But a new, outspoken generation also cares about global warming, Darfur, illiteracy, human trafficking, preventable disease. The era of divisive religious rhetoric, characterized […]
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A Close Encounter With God
If it’s Tuesday, it must be Knoxville. Or maybe it’s Houston or Amarillo. William (Paul) Young has been on the road so long, he can’t be sure. Six months ago Young was working three jobs to pay the rent on […]
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New Evangelicals
One midwestern college has made a radical commitment to “green.” All the paper towels in the lavatories are from recycled materials. Campus police drive hybrids. Prairie grasses have been planted to cut down on mowing. There’s hormone-free milk and local […]
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Pass the Manischewitz, Please
It was a Saturday afternoon in July, and according to the police report, the young man was driving drunk. So drunk, in fact, that he drove into the oncoming lane, rolled his car, crashed into a cottage and then tried […]