I also realized that the free will response didn’t get God off the hook; it just pushed His presence into the distance a little further. I remember thinking: With a word, He could have altered the plane’s direction to miss the building. In an instant, He could have alerted security screeners’ eyes to the terrorists... Continue Reading

Yale professor of theology Miroslav Volf spoke on reconciliation and the role of religion in conflict. He recited “Death Fugue,” a poem by…Paul Celan: “We shovel a grave in the air. There you won’t lie all too cramped”—unaware of the deaths happening in the air only blocks south. Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, dawned cloudless, breezy,... Continue Reading

“Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are both affiliated with fervid subsets of evangelical Christianity – and Rick Santorum comes out of the most conservative wing of Catholicism – which has raised concerns about their respect for the separation of church and state, not to mention the separation of fact and fiction.” A New York Times... Continue Reading

An example of that influence is when someone tends to the sick, risking infection. In earlier times, that selfless person might actually have put themselves at risk of death, which doesn’t make sense from an evolutionary perspective particularly if the sick person is not family. Religious beliefs shape key behaviors in ways that evolutionary theory... Continue Reading

Faith-based groups must now pay for search giant’s tools. Brian Young had big plans for his church’s IT strategy. But his vision suffered a serious setback this summer after Google Inc. altered its nonprofit program to prohibit all churches and religious organizations from participating. For years, the search and software giant individually offered some of... Continue Reading

The state ended its contracts with the charities this summer after passing a law recognizing same-sex civil unions. The state of Illinois informed Catholic Charities, an arm of the Catholic Church, that its policy of limiting foster and adoptive parents to heterosexual married couples violates the new civil unions law. (WNS)–A county judge in Illinois... Continue Reading

In 1991, 30 percent of respondents said they strongly agree that religious leaders should not influence voters in an election. In 2008 those number rose to 44 percent. Southern Baptist ethicist Dr. Richard Land says survey data in the recently published American Religion: Contemporary Trends are too vague to accurately suggest Americans do not want... Continue Reading

An example of that influence is when someone tends to the sick, risking infection. In earlier times, that selfless person might actually have put themselves at risk of death, which doesn’t make sense from an evolutionary perspective particularly if the sick person is not family. Religious beliefs shape key behaviors in ways that evolutionary theory... Continue Reading

For black Northerners, the reverse migration makes economic — and emotional — sense. Thomas Clark was one of those committed New Yorkers. “For me it was the whole urban dynamic of being in a big city, being in the financial center of the world,” said the former New York state banking official and onetime president... Continue Reading

Some New York politicians and religious leaders are criticizing Mayor Michael Bloomberg for not offering clergy members a role in the high-profile ceremonies marking 10 years since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, The Wall Street Journal reported. “This is America, and to have a memorial service where there’s no prayer, this appears... Continue Reading