7/17/19 7/17/19

The limits of toleration: China’s crackdown on religion

The crackdown, part of a broader effort in recent years to restrict China’s fast-growing religious groups, includes detaining over one million ethnic minority Muslims in internment camps in the far western region of Xinjiang, removing crosses from churches, conducting surveillance inside churches, closing churches and demolishing church buildings.

7/16/19 7/16/19

Baptist World Alliance affirms women, decries religiously-motivated violence

The Baptist World Alliance calls upon Baptists to “Repent from the teachings and practices” that “have prevented women from flourishing as human beings created in the image of God and full members of the body of Christ,” and to be open to the Holy Spirit’s power to provoke transformation so that Baptists might affirm “the God-given calling of women for service in the church.”

6/21/19 6/21/19

Having a mission in life

Unlike the career development target of identifying skills, interests and needs to be fulfilled, a mission in life identifies the value to which you choose to dedicate your energy and focus. Few things contribute to purpose in life more than having a sense of mission and carrying out our assignment from God.

6/20/19 6/20/19

What is the sense of our small effort?

The upheaval we’re experiencing—from a toxic public discourse to the airing of grievances to the gridlock on important issues—can feel overwhelming and make us feel so small. We can wonder, perhaps even worry, about the sense of our small efforts.

6/19/19 6/19/19

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s “Reconstruction: America after the Civil War” (Review)

History may be presented as abstract and distant, but this documentary reminds us that we’ve already gone too long as a nation in making the Reconstruction era just that. Without a greater appreciation of the past, we repeat its sins.