A country up for grabs
Myanmar’s military toppled the civilian government. Now the country’s diverse population is banding together in protest
Birmingham +50
Relations between blacks and whites have improved in what was once a hotbed of racist violence, but a lot of work remains
Help on wheels
South Regional winner: Beltline gives kids a chance to earn a bike and learn a work ethic
Against the tide
E.W. Jackson gained his values from his father. His race for statewide office will test whether those values can still win elections
Listening and leading
Christopher and Mary Anne Yep fight the contraceptive mandate and make female employees happy
Voices
Mindy Belz
Failure to thrive
One day your mom takes you to see the doctor, squeezes your hand, and tells you it’ll be OK; then suddenly it’s you taking her, squeezing her hand, and filling out all the papers she feels too lou...
A sober anniversary
By the time you read this America may be embroiled in another war in the Middle East. Whether or not America bombs the Assad regime in Damascus cannot be a result of an analysis of Syria, its pres...
Marvin Olasky
Crossed-up career
Singer-songwriter Christopher Cross at age 62 has on his website an impressive listing of accomplishments: five Grammy Awards, one Oscar, one Golden Globe Award. The problem—if it is a problem—is ...
Andrée Seu Peterson
I miss taboos
I was at a meeting mainly attended by middle-aged women but also by a moppy-haired 20-something male who was friendly and engaging. After a while I noticed a vague anxiety in myself, which I final...
The Editors
Mailbag
‘Blind, exiled, brave’ Aug. 10 One New York University professor explained that school’s persecution of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng by saying one shouldn’t “bite the hand that fee...
Joel Belz
Details, details
“Wasn’t that a wonderful answer to prayer!” exclaimed someone after a remarkable development. “Indeed it was,” responded an overly honest friend. “Don’t you wish we had prayed about it?” ...
Janie B. Cheaney
Alabaster cities
“Nice buildings in this town.” Two guys occupy the seat in front of me, and as the bus pulls out of the Greyhound station I catch their conversation: “Uh-huh.” “Never been here before. Did you see...
Notebook
Lifestyle
Redeemed and restored
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Sept. 13-14: The Western Wall of the ancient Jewish temple packed with people praying and sometimes placing petitions to God on tiny scraps of paper that they ins...
Houses of God
Bradley United Methodist Church
The “fishing church” is an outreach program of the Bradley United Methodist Church in Greenfield, Ind. Holding summer services on a well-stocked, 10-acre fishing lake puts new ...
Sports
Falling Angel
Dozens of fans stood in line outside a downtown Disney restaurant in December, waiting to get a glimpse of newly signed slugger Josh Hamilton, and maybe even get an autograph from the 2010 MVP. Si...
Money
Quantitative chaos
One of the unintended consequences of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s $85 billion a month bond-buying program called Quantitative Easing has been the havoc it has created in the international currency ...
Technology
Tracking device
A creepy NBC news video segment from 2010 made new rounds on Facebook recently. It explained how smartphone photos embedded with GPS coordinates could inadvertently reveal a child’s location on an...
Science
Heat seekers
Warning: Climate alarm about to sound. An international panel of hundreds of scientists is due to present a major report on global warming to world leaders in late September. A leaked copy of the ...
Religion
Hijacked message?
As Americans observe the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered at the 1963 March on Washington, African-American leaders are divided over the role of gays...
Culture
Notable Books
Notable Books
“Science” does not occur in a vacuum; it’s the product of human minds and ambitions, tossed into a whirlwind of human activity. The “For Kids” series published by Chicago Review illustrates this p...
Movies & TV
Getaway
Any B-level chase movie worth its celluloid has several essential ingredients. Take Getaway. Morally ambiguous yet sympathetic protagonist? Check. Pretty girl? Check. Fast cars? Check. Bad guy wit...
Q&A
Our national insanity
We rarely run an interview in two separate issues, but it’s worth making an exception for theologian John Piper, who this spring concluded 33 years in the pulpit of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Min...
Documentary
The March
It’s difficult to dramatize the process of organization, even organization of an event as historic and important as the 1963 March on Washington. But PBS tried with The March. The hour-long...
Music
One more look
“I wanted to call it Surviving in a Ruthless World,” said Bob Dylan in 1984, explaining why he’d called his then-latest album Infidels. “But someone pointed out to me that the last bunch of albums...
Books
Gospel dignity
Tim Chester’s Good News to the Poor (Crossway, 2013) is good news for readers thinking through the relationship of evangelism to social action. Chester cogently argues that the two are not “corres...
Movies & TV
Marvelous mystery
Ever since Downton Abbey became a word-of-mouth hit, the television industry has been on the lookout for the next British import to strike a chord with American audiences. Though on the surface it...
Movies & TV
Foyle's War
It doesn’t take a sleuth to discover why British mystery series Foyle’s War has made it to an eighth season on PBS’s Masterpiece Theater. For a decade now, creator Anthony Horowitz has combined a ...
Notable CDs
Notable CDs
Having grown weary of CCM’s more market-driven expectations, this now-erstwhile Sparrow Records’ star has gone Kickstarter-Campaign indie, the better to pursue what she considers her true calling:...
Dispatches
Human Race
Human Race
Acquitted Authorities in Pakistan dropped charges against the Muslim cleric suspected of framing Christian teenager Rimsha Masih for blasphemy after six out of eight witnesses withd...
Looking Ahead
Looking Ahead
Sept. 20 Google faces a Sept. 20 deadline to amend its unified privacy policy for French users after the French government concluded in June that Google violates a local data protect...
Quick Takes
Quick Takes
Mixed signal Time Warner Cable is serving up technology from the past to some 3 million customers: a free set of bunny-ear antennas for their televisions. The cable giant, which blacked out...
Quotables
Quotables
‘Voter IDs have nothing to do with race, and they are free to anyone who needs one.’ Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott after the Justice Department announced it will sue the state of Texas...
News
Dispatches
SEPTEMBER 2: U.S. long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, 64, walks to dry sand, completing her 53-hour swim from Cuba as she arrives in Key West, Fla., on Sept. 2. Nyad is the first person to swim from...
News
Crisis begets crisis
A chemical weapon never dies. Ask residents of Ypres, the Belgian town where Germans deployed mustard gas for the first time in July 1917: “Where I live we find up to 250 tons of artillery shells ...
News
Picture placement
Following a controversy earlier this summer concerning the use of graphic abortion photos (“Blood on the Streets,” July 27), Biola University president Barry Corey wrote an open letter Aug. 20 apo...