Articles

Imagine that your legal church edifice is suddenly seized and bulldozed by the government. It happened to Seventh-Day Adventists in Turkmenistan.

I love nature —trees, flowers, animals, and birds. For many years, though, I was terrified of certain bugs, especially spiders.

Church had become a chore for me. I didn't feel any connection to the town my church is located in, which is about ten miles from where we live, and I was bothered by some differences in opinion among the membership.

Mary Baker Eddy's groundbreaking book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, was first published 125 years ago. For more than a century, this book has met humanity's increasing demand for a more spiritual understanding of health, a better basis for lasting relationships, and a greater sense of security and peace.

In the Bible, the Hebrew and Greek words that are frequently translated as church or synagogue originally referred to a meeting rather than a building. In general, church signifies a meeting called for a purpose.

The tensions between churches' interest in people's moral and spiritual well-being and nations' efforts to govern their citizens are longstanding and ongoing. Jesus himself faced these tensions.

My parents and my family are all Muslims. In fact, my father was a Muslim imam and preacher.

It's an almost standard human trait to seek good, though most of us have our own notion of what good is. From a spiritual point of view, true, pure good equals God.

When we were children, all my sister and I ever wanted was to have long, flowing hair so that we could flick it aside the way movie stars did. We would walk around with our pillowcases tied to our heads, pretending we had long hair.

From the book God's Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion in Politics ©2000 by Stephen L. Carter.