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In yet another cringe-inducing moment for Christianity, a sports radio host here in central Iowa opined on the air that a Jewish baseball player conflicted about playing on Yom Kippur could resolve his problem by converting to Christianity. Steve Deace's suggestion, made on station KXNO (AM-1460), was directed at Los Angeles Dodger slugger Shawn Green. Because his team was locked in a tight pennant race with San Francisco and was scheduled to play the Giants on the holiest day in…

I witnessed this yesterday, in Morocco. I was on the train from Rabat to the Casablanca airport, on my way home to New York. Some of us stood by the doors with our luggage on the crowded train. A few feet away stood a young couple holding each other, crying. At the next stop he got off the train. He stood and waved, smiling, and then in one motion, as the train pulled away, he put his hands to his…

The current presidential campaign, especially Ron Reagan Jr.'s speech at the Democratic National Convention, has brought embryonic stem cell research back to the public consciousness. Not surprisingly, but nonetheless disappointingly, the partisan rhetoric of a presidential campaign has done little to clarify this complex matter. Instead, the debate has fallen into clichéd categories and simplistic separations. Embryonic stem cells are the amazing, unique cells found in the inner cell mass of early embryos. Removing the stem cells destroys the embryo.…

"This is your mother. I really need you to call me as soon as you get this message."The cell phone signal was not good at the lake. But it was good enough to tell me that my vacation was about to be over. I made the call. It was worse than I expected. My sister and her husband had died together. My mom knew few details: another car coming out of nowhere, and a tumbling, bouncing violence that no amount…

Relatively new in the church's liturgical calendar, Christ the King Day (the last Sunday before Advent, November 21 this year) merits a new hymn. Here a text by Francis Fike, the Poetry Editor of Perspectives, is paired with a musical setting by John Hoyer, Music Librarian at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. The hymn was first sung by the choir and congregation of Hope Reformed Church in Holland, on Christ the King Day, November 23, 2003. We have asked Francis…

Have rifle sales started to soar at the local Wal-Mart? Are friends discussing white water rafting and rock climbing for the first time? Are church council disagreements now settled with fisticuffs instead of votes? If you answered yes to one or more of the previous questions, chances are that the men in your community have just finished reading John Eldredge's Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul (Thomas Nelson, 2001). And your community is not alone: the…

"What is the kingdom of God like?" Jesus often said. "To what shall we compare it?" And whenever Jesus began to speak like this to his disciples, he spoke to them about the kingdom in parables."It is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then, in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of God is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who, on…