So much has been made about Barack Obama’s religion. But what does he believe, and how did he arrive at those beliefs? In 1981 Barack Obama was 20 years old, a Columbia University student in search of the meaning of life. He was torn a million different ways: between youth and maturity, black and […]
Barack Obama talked to NEWSWEEK’s Lisa Miller and Richard Wolffe about how faith plays into his everyday life. Excerpts:
‘I Am a Big Believer in Not Just Words, But Deeds and Works’ Read More »
In 1981 Barack Obama was 20 years old, a Columbia University student in search of the meaning of life. He was torn a million different ways: between youth and maturity, black and white, coasts and continents, wonder and tragedy. He enrolled at Columbia in part to get far away from his past; he’d gone to
Newsweek Cover Story: Barack Obama Finding His Faith Read More »
The question comes off like an old “Monty Python” gag. What musical group in Britain is more popular than Paul Simon or the Ting Tings? The Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz. Several weeks ago, a group of Cistercian monks who live in a 12th-century monastery near Vienna, who wear cowls and wake at 5 each morning
Vienna’s Newest Boy Band Read More »
While in the secular world some colleges are debating whether to designate special restrooms for transgendered students, Christian colleges are pondering whether to allow gay students to organize at all. Andy Swenson is an unlikely revolutionary. Raised in a conservative Lutheran household, he grew up believing that homosexuality was a sin. He arrived on the
Joining the ‘Out’ Club Read More »
Jerry Falwell’s widow Macel remembers her husband in a new book, and wonders how the religious right is doing without him. When the Rev. Jerry Falwell died a year ago at age 73, his obituaries were like the mixed reviews of a blockbuster movie. While acknowledging his power and influence—Falwell founded the Moral Majority in
‘If He Were Here, It Would Be Different’ Read More »
Politicians have long sought the counsel of faith leaders. Obama’s got 100 dialing in to pray for him. The Houston mega-pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell—who presided over Jenna Bush’s wedding last month and has offered spiritual counsel to her father—is a Christian VIP, so busy that his cell-phone voicemail says, “Do not leave messages here.” But on
His Mobile Ministry: The Houston mega-pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell Read More »
Though Saddleback’s pastor, Rick Warren, helped draft the document and was rumored to be among the signers, he is not. What if the evangelicals wrote a manifesto and nobody cared? It was supposed to be a decisive document, a credo that unified American evangelicals around the Christian principles that form the foundations of their faith.
The Milquetoast Manifesto Read More »
It’s just a church. It’s a two-story yellow-brick building in a crummy but not terrible Chicago neighborhood. There’s red wall-to-wall carpet throughout, and high behind the altar are two modest stained-glass windows. There are three services on Sunday and Bible study on Wednesday nights. The pews are filled with “church ladies” in sweater sets and
The House That Wright Built Read More »
It should come as no surprise that N. T. Wright believes that the resurrection really happened. As the Anglican bishop of Durham, a commitment to the idea of a risen Jesus would seem to be part of the job description. Among many Western Christians, however, the word “resurrection” means something else: a supernatural event, a
Everything Old Is New Again Read More »