On Nov. 5, Todd Strandberg was at his desk, fielding E-mails from around the world. As the editor and founder of RaptureReady.com, his job is to track current events and link them to biblical prophecy in hopes of maintaining his status as “the eBay of prophecy,” the best source online for predictions and calculations concerning the end of the world. […]
Is Obama the Antichrist? Read More
It’s abortion, stupid. For conservative Christians in this election the most important religious issue isn’t gay marriage, stem-cell research or Christmas trees on courthouse lawns. It is abortion (as it has been for at least the past 35 years, since the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade). When they walk into the voting booth on Tuesday, can they look
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 by James Dobson and Jerry Falwell, is past. Eager to help care for the planet, these Christians are building bridges
A Religious-Right Revival 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 spiritual ascent, a poetic metaphor.
Everything Old Is New Again Read More
Recent popular books by atheist authors have spawned a new generation of Christian apologists. The latest rebuttal is “The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It and Why It Matters,” by Chuck Colson, the convicted Watergate felon turned prison reformer. Colson was Nixon’s special counsel, a man so ruthless that, according to legend, he once said he’d kill his
A Reformer Who Keeps ‘The Faith’ Read More
In his new book “The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus” the Rev. Peter Gomes pushes Christians to see beyond what he says is the “domesticated” view of the Christian Lord and embrace instead the gospel message of radical good and radical justice. Gomes decries the slogan “What would Jesus do?” as superficial and self-justifying, preferring instead “What would Jesus have me
Reverend Gomes’s “Scandalous Gospel” Read More
Have you finished reading? What do you think? Is Harry Potter a Christian story after all? Harry has made news, ever since his arrival on the scene in 1998, for provoking the ire of some right-wing Christians who believe his magical powers and wizardly aspirations
BeliefWatch: Christ-like Read More
Last Monday, as Christians around the globe prepared for Holy Week and Easter, the Italian-American artist Cosimo Cavallaro was leading a car chase through the streets of New York City. With reporters trailing close behind, Cavallaro drove a refrigerated truck through narrow, clogged streets until he finally lost his pursuers and came to rest at an undisclosed
BeliefWatch: Sweet Jesus Read More
Steve Prothero is the kind of professor who makes you want to go back to college. During an hour lecture of his Boston University course “Death and Immortality,” 200 students sat rapt last week as his train of thought led him from the Docetics (early Christians who believed that Jesus was all-God, not flesh), to reincarnation, to Disney World, to
The Gospel of Prothero Read More
In Jerusalem, that ancient and holy city, people’s houses are built on bones. For thousands of years, hundreds of generations of Jews, Muslims and Christians have been laid to rest in its rocky soil. Tova Bracha has always known that the tiny, rose-bordered concrete plot next to her apartment building covers an ancient Jewish burial tomb, but she never thought
Raiders of the Lost Tomb Read More