3+ day, 15+ hour ago  (563+ words) World Chocolate Day is here to bring a little sweetness to your summer. This is a snack that many people enjoy. But have you ever stopped to wonder where this substance originates or how it's made? Do you know the…...

4+ hour, 54+ min ago  (236+ words) Celebrating America's anniversary in the shadow of an unpopular president, an unnecessary and humiliating war, and an economy that hits ordinary people with both stagnation and inflation. Oh, wait'I'm not talking about today!" I'm referring to 1976!" America's Bicentennial, in the…...

1+ day, 16+ hour ago  (535+ words) My main exhibit is a book written in 1875 by Joseph Lightfoot, which was notionally a commentary on St. Paul's Epistles To The Colossians And To Philemon: A Revised Text With Introductions, Notes, And Dissertations. Lightfoot himself was a dazzling scholar…...

17+ hour, 32+ min ago  (342+ words) As part of my own reflection on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I agreed to review a new anthology published yesterday: A Nation Wrestles With God: American Prophets, Philosophers, and Firebrands, edited by Ilan Stavans, professor of humanities…...

19+ hour, 7+ min ago  (603+ words) Queer isn't the opposite of straight. Queer is the opposite of conformity. That is why this word matters. And that is why, now more than ever, it is worth defending. But something changes when our personal preference becomes a public…...

20+ hour, 7+ min ago  (464+ words) " The PRRI Remonstrance: "New poll: 250 years in, Americans prefer religious diversity." According to a new poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, 64% of Americans do not want to live in a primarily Christian nation. Instead, they prefer an America of…...

2+ day, 14+ hour ago  (100+ words) I received a note today from a book marketer. It's the second of its sort I've seen directed at me. I really liked what it offered as a summation of Zen at the End of Religion. All the bold face…...

2+ day, 19+ hour ago  (972+ words) Two recent articles reinforce what we discussed here last week about Christianity and "aliens" (See part 1 here and part 2 here). These pieces also work as counterparts to one another. "Religious groups are more prepared for aliens than you think," Jack…...

6+ day, 13+ hour ago  (821+ words) What happens when people stop applauding President Trump? Ask John Cornyn, among others. Many years ago, I read Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn's'epic work,'The Gulag Archipelago. It's a terrifying and eye-opening autobiographical history of the extensive prison system in the former USSR,…...

4+ day, 18+ hour ago  (829+ words) In a recent exchange between two Catholics'one progressive and one more conservative'the progressive accused the conservative of dismissing "imagination in the spiritual life" and called that dismissal "a significant danger signal." According to the progressive, the conservative favored "the legislative…...