Other Opinions

J. Lawrence Turner writes that this Easter morning will be especially poignant and meaningful: It coincides with the 53 anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee.

Throughout the history of Christianity, representations of Pilate’s handwashing have often been used to shift blame for Jesus’s death to Jews, and have been part of a toxic legacy of Christian and western antisemitism.

Although more churches are using sign language interpreters, they’re still few and far between. This all contributes to the surprising fact that until only a few months ago, millions of American churchgoers have been without access to a fully translated version of the Bible in their native language.

As Holy Week began this year, a Gallup Poll found that church membership in the United States had declined to less than half of the population for the first time. But it’s not the whole story, and there are realities behind Gallup’s numbers that deserve exploration.

Thomas Reese writes that like the news today, Holy Week is filled with bad news. But in the midst of all this evil, there are flashes of goodness, and what gets us through Holy Week is that we know that the resurrection is coming.

Studies show that Christian Nationalist beliefs — that is, the merging of right-wing religious and civil ideologies — are the single greatest indicator of opposition to gun legislation reform. 

Selecting a few texts from Jesus’s teaching on welcoming the foreigner or the Apostle Paul’s teachings on the government does not provide the full story on the immigrant experience. In reality, their experience was politically and culturally complex.

Raymond Chang reflects on the Atlanta shooting at several massage parlors where Asian women were targeted. And he writes about how Christians can help address the important issues of racism.

Barely a month into his presidency and to surprisingly little notice, Joe Biden ordered air strikes on a military site in Syria. No matter the justification or the number of casualties, the Syria bombing was contrary to Biden’s election commitment to end forever wars. The deadly cycle continues apace.

Jamie Aten and Kent Annan write that part of the challenge of mourning our nearly 600,000 dead from COVID-19 in the U.S. has been honoring them while upholding social distancing recommendations.