Watch and wait
Election night could provide a quick White House winner, or a flood of mail-in ballots and social division could delay results for weeks
Voices
Marvin Olasky
The Obama depression
Washington news keeps marching in like a lion, and only the Lamb can stand against it. Throughout the election campaign I wanted to think the best of Barack Obama. Because of his stand on a...
Andrée Seu Peterson
Expert nonsense
The year is 2173. Milo Monroe (Woody Allen) is being slow-thawed on a table surrounded by doctors. "Has he asked for anything special?" "Yes, this morning for breakfast. He requested something cal...
Janie B. Cheaney
Boastful dunces
Do you recall this story? "A large wooden horse is brought by Aeneas from Troy, which Queen Dido thinks is a sign of appreciation. When the wooden horse is opened up and a number of Greek soldiers...
Joel Belz
Cap-and-trade charade
If the Obama administration is really as serious as it says it is about imposing "cap-and-trade" policies on industries that threaten to pollute our air with sticky, inky carbon, then why not go a...
More at stake
A Sudanese priest recently had an eye-opening introduction to the U.S. Episcopal Church. John, a clergyman from the Episcopal Church of Sudan, sent an inquiry to the "justice missioner" on the web...
Mindy Belz
Stifling the messengers
This is a tale worthy of the Bard when he wrote, "O cunning enemy that, to catch a saint, With saints dost bait thy hook." Matthew Smith is a self-described convert to Islam, a 32-year-old ...
The Editors
Mailbag
Unmistakable irony In President Obama's stirring inaugural address ("The Obama era," Feb. 14), he predicted "defeat" for "those who seek to advance their aims by . . . slaughtering innocent...
Culture
Movies & TV
Royal letdown
It's easy to see why Christians might be excited about the new series Kings, premiering on NBC March 15. Since the golden age of the silver screen, Old Testament stories, with their sin, intrigue,...
Video
Wire cuts
The cruelest villain in The Wire is human nature. Drugs are certainly part of the problem, political corruption is certainly another part, but one of the show's biggest surprises is how often the ...
Notable CDs
Notable CDs
Since 1964, this album by the definitive Irish folk-music group has existed as a bowdlerized, 39-minute single disc. But the Clancys and Makem deliberately sequenced their shows for maximum dramat...
Notable Books
Notable books
LaHaye and Jenkins are following the commercial success and critical failure of the Left Behind series with The Jesus Chronicles. Mark's Story takes place over at least 30 years, from Christ's dea...
Movies & TV
Don't watch
Is it a bad sign when you walk out of a theater wondering if you've ever seen a worse movie? I appreciate good graphic novels (What's black and white and read all over?, June 28, 2008) and ...
Movies & TV
Camera therapy
Jan Troell's latest film, Everlasting Moments (not rated), follows a young Swedish woman in the early 20th century who struggles to make a life for her family despite her husband's philandering an...
Books
Par for the course
In routine game and match coverage, sportswriters often puzzle over the Christian faith of star athletes and coaches. Sometimes the reporters can't grasp the faith, so they stick to the sport and ...
Dispatches
Quotables
Quotables
"Luxury shame is very real." Travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt on wealthy Americans cutting back on their vacations, even though they could afford lavish trips, during hard economic ...
The Buzz
The Buzz
Eugenics A California fertility doctor, Jeff Steinberg, backed down from his plan to let parents pick the eye and hair color of the embryos they implanted. Steinberg, director of The Fertil...
Quick Takes
Quick Takes
Compliments of the president There was a surprise name included in the House of Representatives version of a spending bill that was passed by congressmen on Feb. 25. Listed as a cosponsor f...