In June 2011, pro hockey player Gilbert Brule was driving in Vancouver with his girlfriend. As they passed two hitchhikers, Brule blurted out, “That’s Bono!” Brule’s girlfriend wasn’t buying it. “I didn’t believe him, so I kept driving.” Brule convinced her to turn around, and indeed... read more »

I’m often disappointed with kids’ Bible story books. They usually paint a sugary picture that presents the Bible as a very safe and manageable book. Often, you get a collection of pithy moralisms that you could get just as well (better, perhaps) from Aesop’s Fables. With this posture, the... read more »

Soon after a tornado disaster in the US, I saw aerial photographs of its path. Entire neighborhoods were flattened. From the high angle of the photographer’s shot, all of the wood and debris looked like scattered, splintered toothpicks, tossed violently over a wide swath of city blocks.... read more »

Gloria Bentivegna has been a faithful Christian for most of her life, and she raised her son Sal the same way. Sal grew ambivalent about his faith, however. He required physical evidence to believe in God, and so he became an agnostic. One day, at the slot machines, Sal offered an “off the cuff”... read more »

Some years ago, I hopped aboard a plane in Simferopol, Ukraine, for a flight to Moscow. Officials had told me a separate Russian visa was unnecessary. They were wrong. Russian military stopped me at the plane’s door upon arrival in Moscow, detaining me overnight until they could stick me on a... read more »

The Psalms are diverse prayers. The Psalter (the name for all the Psalms collected together) is a prayer and song book. Whatever we learn from a psalm, whatever questions raised or answers given—we must never forget that it is first a prayer. It contains intimate words spoken to God. Psalms have... read more »

In 2004, Iranian Ameneh Bahrami rejected Majid Movahedi’s marriage proposal. Days later, Movahedi attacked her, throwing acid in her face. Disfigured and blinded, she will always carry the scars of the crime. A court ruled that the penalty for the brutal attack would be an “eye-for-an-eye... read more »

Our city has become a gathering place for refugees. Some escape political persecution. Some have abandoned countries ravaged by decades of war. Some, seeking to provide for their family, have come to a place they didn’t know with the hope they would find peace. In a neighborhood just a stone’s... read more »

For 25 years, Irmela Mensah-Schramm has walked the streets of Berlin, Germany, cleaning away the racist propaganda of neo-Nazi groups. Since 1986, Irmela has painted over graffiti and scratched away stickers (36,000 in the past 4 years). She believes she can overcome neo-Nazi ideology one street at... read more »

Last year we watched with sorrow and concern as an earthquake, tsunami, and ensuing nuclear disaster rocked Japan. MSNBC captured a particularly heart-wrenching photograph of 4-year-old Manami Kon having the sad occasion to practice her recently learned ability to write. Manami slowly penned a... read more »