News doesn’t happen on a 9-to-5 schedule. Particularly during the 24/7 era of social media, journalists find themselves on the clock pretty much all the time.
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(OPINION) The trend of converting underused houses of worship into affordable housing is sweeping America. The state of California last year passed a law rewarding faith-based organizations that use their surplus properties to build 100 percent affordable housing. Maryland, New York and Virginia are considering the same, and the cities of Atlanta, Pasadena, San Antonio, San Diego and Seattle have passed similar legislation.
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(OPINION) Just tell the truth. If I couldn’t do anything else, I could do that, I figured. With some trepidation, I started writing candid pieces about our situation. Renee’s illness. My struggles with caregiving. How God’s apparent absence was battering my faith. How guilty I felt because I couldn’t fix any of it.
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Does God Almighty want President Joe Biden to exit the race? Does God Almighty want a second term for former President Donald Trump? America’s presidential candidates keep invoking a higher power in the 2024 campaign.
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(OPINION) While I can’t demonstrate this statistically, I have been documenting it anecdotally, and it seems that the lid has been taken off and hidden views are now being shared openly.
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(OPINION) I hate seeing my fellow church members joining in with the howling masses. I hate that my kids see it. These are the things I can do without. And, to borrow another line from Mr. Smith and Mr. Orzabel: “In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul.” Social media serves as a kind of release valve. I understand that. But reactionary posts rob us of perspective.
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(OPINION) We forget that Christians with no political power whatsoever, believing in a risen Christ who never sought nor espoused any earthly power, changed the world in a generation. They did it without a bully pulpit, without a 24/7 news cycle, without social media. Amid war, disease and disaster, they fed the hungry, rescued abandoned babies and created hospitals to care for the sick and dying.
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(OPINION) For those who freeze or feel lost concerning the global and local experiences of hate, bigotry, racism, white nationalism, homophobia, ecological devastation, violence, Christian Dominionism, misogyny, poverty, war and the abundance of inhumanity, here are some suggestions about practicing an engaged life.
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(OPINION) If just 5% — or 6%, or 7% — of Americans feel committed enough to darken the doors of their churches for even an hour a week, then we no longer need to worry about becoming a post-religion culture. We’re there. Secularization has won.
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(OPINION) As we all sit here stunned watching the footage of the attempted assassination of President Trump, it really is a time for reflection. Are we contributing to this atmosphere of hatred and violence? What kind of emotions do we stir up with the words we speak and the memes we post? What are we fomenting? To what end?
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While religion in public schools keeps making national headlines, “released time” Bible classes are less well known. But they, too, have gained legislative attention in several states recently.
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(OPINION) There is a new challenge for pro-life voters as we approach the 2024 elections. On the one hand, it’s impossible for a truly pro-life voter to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate given the radical, pro-abortion stance of that party. That holds true as well for the positions of President Biden, which continue to lurch farther to the left. But now that the RNC has embraced the watered down platform crafted by the Trump team, do we acquiesce and vote GOP?
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(OPINION) Destructive criticism kills. It tears down without building up. It is loveless and unkind. It uses unequal weights and measures, straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel. It is self-righteous, mean-spirited and lacks a redemptive heart.
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(OPINION) I’ve long argued it’s difficult — really, next to impossible — to practice Christianity effectively without becoming (and staying) an active member of a local church congregation. Not only Christianity but the other major faiths are, by intention and maybe by definition, communal pursuits rather than solitary ones.
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(OPINION) In the early days of the war, we were united in purpose. I didn’t know what to expect now. My Ukrainian brothers and sisters must be exhausted, I thought. And they have to know that support has wavered in the U.S. — that some politicians have called for my country to drop its financial support for Ukraine. Would I find tired, resentful faces this time?
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(OPINION) Since 2016, in private conversations and in responses from newspaper readers, the question I’ve probably been asked more consistently than any other is: “How do you account for White evangelicals’ devotion to Donald Trump?” So I’ve taken stabs at answering that question. But more often than not I’ve ended up shrugging and saying, “I don’t know. I don’t get it, either.”
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(OPINION) On June 14, U.S. Catholic bishops apologized for the mistreatment and trauma caused through the church’s role in American Indian boarding schools. While the apology is all well and good, it is very little and very late for thousands of Indigenous families in America.
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In Weekend Plug-in, columnist Bobby Ross Jr. reflects on his parents’ 60th anniversary — and what their legacy of faith and love has meant to him.
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(OPINION) We are living in times of great shaking, times of refining and purifying. How should we respond? In the words of the gospel song, and in the spirit of Isaiah 6, we should say, “Take the coal, touch my lips, here I stand.” Let the cleansing begin with me.
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(OPINION) This week I call attention to another vital principle. Our subject for today, ladies and gentlemen, is humility. I’ve been mulling over an essay by Frank Bruni that appeared in The New York Times. He’s a professor of journalism and public policy at Duke University, and a contributing writer for the Times’ opinion section.
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