Q & A: John Piper on Racism, Reconciliation, and Theology after Trayvon Martin’s Death @ChristianityToday

John Piper was one of the first and the few white evangelical pastors to make a public statement on the controversial shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. Not only is his passion for racial reconciliation informed by… Read More

Religion + Life with Elaine H. Ecklund, Part 1 @TheHighCalling

“Social scientists are always thinking of big theoretical projects. As a social scientist, I’m very interested in how individuals who are different from the institutions that constrain them bring change to those institutions.” That’s how Laity Leadership Institute… Read More

Taking Aim at Technology Instead of the Problem @TheHighCalling

What would you do if your teenager posted a note on Facebook essentially calling you a tyrant and saying she’s tired of being your slave? I would be horrified, but since my children were grown before the advent… Read More

Photojournalism from Whitney Houston’s Home-going Service

For more photos from Whitney Houston’s Homegoing Service, click here. Trying to Get the Money Shot at Whitney Houston’s funeral (photo by Christine A. Scheller). More from Reporting on Whitney Houston’s funeral here.

What I Wrote This Week @UrbanFaith: February 13 – February 17

On Location at Whitney’s Farewell: What reporting on location at Whitney Houston’s semi-private, gospel-filled funeral taught me about spiritual battles, grace, and celebrity. Marriage Is for Black People, Too: Ralph Richards Banks’ book ‘Is Marriage for White People?’ made him… Read More

Aging Well with Dr. Dan Blazer, Part 6: Holistic Mental Health @TheHighCalling

When my son first began exhibiting symptoms of anxiety and depression as a sophomore in high school, my husband and I both worked at a California mega-church whose leaders openly preached against psychiatry and psychology. The message reached… Read More

A Quarter Century of Jersey Shore HIV/AIDS Response @NJShorePatch

I well remember when the thought that I could have AIDS first occurred to me. It was 1986 and I was newly married. I had gotten pregnant by an East African man two years earlier and my husband had… Read More

Aging Well with Dr. Dan Blazer, Part 5: Social Supports & Storytelling @TheHighCalling

Stories help us make sense of the world. True stories told by our elderly relatives help us understand ourselves, and the telling also helps the storytellers make sense of their lives, says Laity Leadership Institute Senior Fellow Dan… Read More

What I Wrote This Week @UrbanFaith: January 9-13

Religion Wins Big; Pastors Protest Loss: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious schools can fire ministers and more New York City pastors were arrested while protesting fallout from the court’s decision not to hear a Bronx church’s appeal…. Read More

Aging Well with Dr. Dan Blazer, Part 4: Geriatric Depression @TheHighCalling

Depression causes more disability than any other psychiatric disorder,” Laity Leadership Institute senior fellow Dan Blazer, M.D. said his 2005 book The Age of Melancholy: Major Depression and Its Social Origins.  In fact, depression is as disabling or more… Read More

What I Wrote This Week @UrbanFaith: January 2-6

Immigration News: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: News on the immigration front has been ugly this week, with deportation mistakes making headlines, but it’s not entirely bad. Bigotry Charges Haunt Iowa Caucuses: As Republican voters in Iowa prepare to… Read More

Aging Well with Dr. Dan Blazer, Part 3: The Role of Perception in Geriatric Health @TheHighCalling

Proverbs 23:7 says, “As [a man] thinks in his heart, so is he” (NKJV). When it comes to geriatric health, this statement has repeatedly proven true. “Self-perceptions of older adults about their health and well-being may be at… Read More