Opinion

Lauren Graeber uses a chocolate chip cookie recipe to explore theology and the traditions we pass down to our children. Because we are creatures who hunger, we will be fumbling in real and metaphorical kitchens all of our lives.

Kristel Clayville reframes the student loan forgiveness conversation around reconciliation. Except she thinks that the proverbial tables should be flipped: the government should be asking essential workers for forgiveness.

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell reflects on why our kids need church in ways that extend far beyond Bible stories and learning to be nice. There is no doubt our teens are being overcome by waves of anxiety, loneliness, and self-doubt – so how can the local church help without being just “one more thing” that teens have to keep up with or feel obligated to?

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor responds to comments by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler, who attacked Americans United for Separation of Church and State while he advocated for government prayers in public schools.

Contributing writer Greg Mamula offers the inaugural entry of a six-part series on the future of the church. In this first article, he focuses on how we should allow the full narrative of Scripture to shape our holy imaginations.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy explores why so many people have deserted their churches. He argues that many people are simply caught up in the currents of a secular age and have been swept away without a whimper of protest.

Kristel Clayville examines a recent New York Times guest essay where Tish Harrison Warren talked with Prof. Charlie Camosy about the “secularization of medicine.” Having worked in religiously affiliated higher education, seminaries, and churches, Clayville argues that hospitals are actually the places where she has seen and experienced the most open displays of religion and spirituality.

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell makes the case that as we feel the pace of the world quickening again, it is our obligation to fight the urge to keep up. Reconnecting to our wonder allows us to spend time with God in a way that is not transactional.

Juliet Vedral wishes she had Alicia Akins’ new book, Invitations to Abundance: How the Feasts of the Bible Nourish Us Today, to spark her imagination during a period of financial uncertainty and stress-related health issues. Besides the book’s rich theological content, it is a gorgeous work of literature – a feast in and of itself.

Lauren Graeber contemplates a pattern she has noticed: when writing on social media as a spiritual practice she is not talking about God as much by name. Is it possible that using explicitly Christian language is sometimes a barrier to inviting folks to engage with God?