A country up for grabs
Myanmar’s military toppled the civilian government. Now the country’s diverse population is banding together in protest
Uncommon uprising
A math problem sparked a statewide revolt against new public education standards in Indiana.
Bearing fruit
International winner: HOPE International’s effort to help Haitians learn to save money looks beyond financial returns
Delayed and confused
WASHINGTON—After years of debate and controversy, Obamacare goes live on Oct. 1. That’s when the law’s health insurance exchanges can be...
Rapid response
Trail Life USA acts quickly to fill the void left by a changed Boy Scouts of America
Voices
Joel Belz
On a mission
If I’ve heard the question once, in the 27 years since we launched WORLD magazine, I’ve heard it a hundred times: “Tell me,” folks will ask, in a great variety of contexts, “is WORLD a business en...
Mindy Belz
Who stands with Syria's Christians?
So quickly the headlines turn from Syria and the Middle East to debt ceiling debates and budget resolutions. Are you really going to be led around by your nose from one story with no legs to anoth...
Janie B. Cheaney
Certain about uncertainty
When the Apostle Paul found himself in Athens, he was distressed by the multiplicity of idols on display. The Athenians were eager to recognize all possible deities—even an “unknown god”—while off...
The Editors
Mailbag
‘Be less than you can be’ Aug. 24 I am blind and currently on SSDI, a much better program than SSI. I started a PR firm with five partners and hope to earn enough to get off governmen...
Marvin Olasky
Head games
Political correctness so dominates most reference works that it’s hard to find accurate reporting of even nonpolitical subjects such as pre-Columbian art. For example, Wikipedia’s article on the c...
Andrée Seu Peterson
Crimes against the party
“I am so ashamed and disgusted with myself. I want to apologize. I have been offensive. I have apologized to my coach … and to my teammates. I owe an apology to the fans and to this community. I a...
Notebook
Science
Milky Way compass
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork,” Psalm 19 asserts. The latest mystery from the heavens involves the arrangement of beautiful gas clouds emitted by...
Religion
A church divided
The gay marriage controversy in Britain’s Anglican Church focused recently on a quite practical question: Can gay and lesbian civil partners both register as parents on a baptismal certificate? Wh...
Lifestyle
Connect the dots
Sex trafficking is the issue du jour on college campuses. Students attend documentaries, hold charity walks, and put on bake sales to raise money for safe houses and victim restoration. Special sp...
Houses of God
Wai'oli Hui'ia Church
The Wai’oli Hui’ia Church on the island of Kaua’i in Hawaii traces its roots back to the Wai’oli Mission, which American missionaries established in 1834. The current building dates to 1912, and t...
Sports
League trauma
Much NFL reporting so far this fall has emphasized good and poor performances by well-known quarterbacks. Old Peyton Manning throwing for seven touchdowns in the first game of the year and out-pas...
Money
A dog with two tails
The summer ended not with a bang but with a whimper, at least on the stock market. The Dow was down more than 5 percent during August. For the three months between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the ...
Technology
Emergency reel
One of the latest optional gadgets in a firefighter’s arsenal: a miniature camera. Clipped to a helmet, the camera allows a firefighter to record an emergency response, as when he enters a burning...
Culture
Notable CDs
Notable CDs
Packaging aside, similarities abound between this new six-disc box and the 1993 five-disc box it supplants. Both contain all the hits and many of the same album cuts, and a good chunk of the new b...
Notable Books
Notable Books
Fourteen-time Grammy winner Ricky Skaggs displayed a gift for music early in his life, leading to a Grand Ole Opry debut at age 7 and a place in Ralph Stanley’s band as a teen. Though Skaggs avoid...
Movies & TV
A focus on quality
“High quality” is not a phrase commonly associated with Christian movies and for good reason. Many Christian filmmakers in recent years have relied on wholesome messages rather than overall excell...
Movies & TV
Rush
Rush is an apt title for director Ron Howard’s latest film about a pair of race car drivers in the 1970s, as that is exactly what viewers will experience—a serious shot of adrenaline. Based on the...
Movies & TV
Box Office Top 10
Cautions: Quantity of sexual (S), violent (V), and foul-language (L) content on a 0-10 scale, with 10 high, from kids-in-mind.com S ...
Q&A
A right kind of busy
Kevin DeYoung is a pastor in East Lansing, Mich., and the author or co-author of excellent books including The Hole in Our Holiness, Why We’re Not Emergent, and What Is the Mission of the Church? ...
Music
Mississippi haymaker
The only biblical name dropped on Sean Michel’s latest album, Electric Delta—besides the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that is—is Hosea. But one look at the long-haired, ZZ Top–bearded gospel-...
Books
Skeptical reads
What’s not helpful: The Religions Book (DK, 2013) is pretty but dumb, with oversimplifying throughout. It has sections on a variety of beliefs, but flattens everything so those who turn the pages ...
Movies & TV
Sleepy Hollow
Arguably Hollywood’s most time-honored tactic for injecting a sense of the mystical and mysterious into a production is borrowing from the Bible. Sometimes the gambit scores (Raiders of the Lost A...
Dispatches
News
Wages of war
When a group of Sudanese children discovered an unexploded grenade in the South Kordofan region of Sudan earlier this summer, they made a tragic mistake: They picked it up. The grenade exploded, k...
Human Race
Human Race
Died Afghan authorities believe Islamic militants shot and killed Sushmita Banerjee, 49, an Indian woman who made a dramatic escape from the Taliban in 1995. Banerjee, also known as Sayed K...
Looking Ahead
Looking Ahead
Sept. 30 American Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito face a retrial today in Italy in connection with a gruesome 2007 murder. The two were acquitted of the crime in 2011...
Quick Takes
Quick Takes
The price of liberty Tired of taking off your shoes, ziplocking your liquids, and checking your dignity at the head of every airport security line? Transportation Security Administration of...
Quotables
Quotables
‘I’m just waiting for the frogs and the locusts to come.’ Seaside Heights, N.J., police chief Thomas Boyd, after a Sept. 12 fire destroyed the city’s boardwalk and about 80 businesses ...
News
Dispatches
SHOOTING RAMPAGE: An officer guards the gate at the Washington Navy Yard the day after a gunman opened fire on office workers in the cafeteria and in the hallways, killing 12. Wednesday Sept. 4 ...