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I’m coming to terms with the realization that I’m a big, fat fake. But at least I’m in good company.

Twenty-five years after the release of Paul Simon's seminal Graceland album, a new documentary film, Under African Skies, which premieres tonite (Friday, May 25) on A&E, chronicles its creation and the role that music — and artists — played in bringing about the end of apartheid.

Last week, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley made a morally indefensible decision. He signed HB 658, which intensifies the climate of fear that already hangs over Alabama like low dark clouds before a hurricane.

Image by olly/shutterstock.

I'm troubled by the way many Christians choose to take definitive and certain stances about complex issues, and the rhetoric they use to state and defend these positions, rhetoric that tends to divide rather than unite and close discussion rather than open it.

Flag/scripture image by Sergey Kamshylin / shutterstock.

The tendency for Christians often has been to begin with the politics and work backwards to find religious rationale for our political beliefs. As a result, most people read the Bible not to challenge our deeply held beliefs, but to affirm the decisions we've already made with our lives.

The Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United case didn't actually make corporations into people, but it did undercut the role of actual, live human beings in elections.

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On The Blog

  • As part of our ongoing series, "What is an Evangelical?" author Jennifer Grant used some creativity to get the message across.
  • Members of the G8 announced its commitment to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition which will seek to “lift 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years through inclusive and sustained agricultural growth.”
  • Every soul cries: “Am I worthy of connection?” We then allow the mass public to tell us the answer to that. Please note: that unstable analysis can never end well no matter how popular one may seem. This leads us to live in shame of who we are in which Brown describes shame as “the fear of connection.”
  • This unfathomable amount of money was approved by the House of Representatives in the National Defense Authorization Act. These funds will serve to bring suffering and pain to innocent people, further militarize the world and undermine peace and stability for generations to come—all on the backs of those who struggle at home.
  • Pundits and politicians who opine about the so-called war on women ought to take note of the lawsuits filed Monday against the Department of Health and Human Services contraception mandate by 43 religious groups, including several Catholic dioceses and colleges.
  • This week is one of those weeks where everyone seems to be talking, tweeting and blogging about the same video. I received it from several concerned friends with commentary like, “More bad news from North Carolina,” or “How can a loving God hate so much?” The video, which has quickly gone viral in the past 24 hours, is a clip from a recent sermon by Pastor Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, N.C.
  • How do you step out and take a risk — as a pastor, as an artist, as a parent, as a person — when the job description of a pioneer or a vanguard comes with the assurance of persecution? “Surrender the outcomes,” Rob Bell says.

In The Magazine

  • Detroiters often use the phoenix rising from the ashes as a metaphor for the city's resilience. Worms might be just as apt a symbol this time around.

  • Even al Qaeda can use re-branding.

  • Few people I know believe peace in the Holy Land is really possible—unless it begins with Israeli and Palestinian Christians.

  • An interview by Joanie Eppinga with Rebecca Barrett-Fox, a scholar who finds the appalling, the unexpected, and the human inside Westboro Baptist Church.

  • Hebrew scripture teaches us that the Spirit of God was not in the earthquake or the windstorm or the fire, but instead in the whisper—that still, small voice. Most assuredly it is. But I cannot help believing that every now and again the Spirit arrives with flapping wings and honking, too. Like that old gray goose.

  • Springsteen sings what politicians won't say: We were robbed and the thieves have escaped justice.

  • Fairness matters, especially for people on society’s margins—and that conviction goes far beyond tax equity to every aspect of public policy. For people of the Book, it’s much more important than politics; it’s a matter of faith.

  • The apostle's attack on elitism in Corinthian church and society speaks a clear message about inequality today.

Put Your Faith In Action

Featured Resource

E.J. Dionne Jr. Discusses His New Book: Our Divided Political Heart

See video

E.J. Dionne Jr. is a columnist for The Washington Post and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His new book, Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent, hit booksellers everywhere this week.

Election 2012