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They chuckled softly and wagged their heads remembering the times they'd been converted--gone to the front. Ed went three times; Junior only once. He'd tried time and again, but he was only eleven years old and they didn't take his raised hand seriously. Of course, he didn't wave it around, like in school to get the teacher's attention. Church was too serious for that. Perhaps they didn't see his small arm and hand, bent up at the elbow. But they…

SEDGES All winter, above, under snow, their hearts fed on dank earth, their fronds loved the wind. Between storms, a crow landed and squawked to them, cawed like an only friend. In warming, winter's dross was a hint of something more than promise and blind faith-- the curlew's cry, in portent, rent the still air, and the lake surface took it with calm rippling; while between the lake and the road three large wooden crosses, erected by a man who…

"By his foes derided, by his own rejected": only once in a great while do critics begin beating up on a film months before its premiere. I was half dreading the prospect of seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion, and it was with trepidation that I gathered the resolve to go to the theater. It had been buried daily under reams of criticism, all of which boiled down to three main complaints: it lacks context, it's too violent, and it's anti-Semitic.…

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ has stirred up more than its share of controversy. All the culture wars and disputes about the role of religion in public life have come to the surface in the debate surrounding this film. Among Christians, evangelicals have embraced the movie even as moderates and liberals have been more critical. But within the Christian community I am aware of strikingly little theological discussion concerning this film. This essay will offer some observations intended…