Catastrophe upon catastrophe in Syria
A long war has left Syria ill prepared for COVID-19—and outside forces, including the United States, might be making the battle more challenging
Blowing in the wind
From the Senate in the 1970s to the presidential campaign trail in 2020, Joe Biden has a long record of going where political pressures push him—and right now they’re pushing him aggressively leftward
The COVID-19 chasm
The pandemic divides Americans—even Christians
The COVID-19 chasm: Viral division
Some Americans take extra precautions. Some go on with business as usual
The COVID-19 chasm: The pandemic hits the heartland
Middle America is seeing spikes in cases and the exhaustion of fending off the virus
Voices
The Editors
Mailbag
Both sides, now ...
Janie B. Cheaney
The evil within
In the dark days of the pandemic, actor John Krasinski premiered a homemade video podcast called Some Good News (or, as it soon became known, SGN). Producing it in his living room with a title card...
Andrée Seu Peterson
Statues falling
For Christmas 1961 my mother bought me a nun’s suit from the St. Anthony Messenger magazine. ...
Mindy Belz
Are historic churches only buildings?
We Protestants often approach the “sacred spaces” of worship a little conflicted. The Reformers prioritized the inner life of the believer over the outward rituals of the faith. They replaced the...
Marvin Olasky
The demise of compassion
July 31 marks 20 years since a Philadelphia evening beckoned well for both Republicans and a grand old country that needed a new birth of freedom and compassion. Instead, these 20 years gave us big...
Notebook
Education
The class divide in college classes
With a month of unknowns left before the start of college classes, a clear class divide has opened between the college “haves”—those institutions with deep pockets and an elite brand—and all the rest....
Technology
From sound to sight
As Ashraf Hossain drives his blue SUV through the pedestrian-filled streets of New York City, he checks his rearview mirror every few seconds, scanning his surroundings. He tries to keep his eyes on...
Lifestyle
Serving the church together
16th in a series on long marriages ...
Sports
Stealing home teams
Nestled between farmland, a thriving shopping and restaurant complex that sprang up adjacently, and a busy interstate, a minor league ballpark sits empty and forlorn. ...
Culture
Movies & TV
Being a child actor isn’t just glitz and glamour
Would E.T. have been the wildly successful Steven Spielberg smash without Henry Thomas cast as the lonely, lovable 10-year-old Elliot who befriends the extraterrestrial? Can you imagine The Wizard of...
Movies & TV
Fear City documents the FBI’s successful bid to take down the Mafia
There’s almost something criminal about watching a mobster film without Al Pacino or Robert De Niro in it. The cinematic wise guy, with his cartoonish bravado and brazen thuggery, has enthralled...
Movies & TV
Ride Like a Girl is a not-so-easy rider
Many films focus on protagonists who overcome daunting obstacles to pursue life dreams. But Ride Like a Girl goes much deeper. ...
Movies & TV
Marie Curie is out of her element in Radioactive
“I want to tell you about radium,” Marie Curie, the Sorbonne’s first female professor, informs her class in 1906 in Paris. “A most remarkable element that doesn’t behave as it should.” ...
Movies & TV
Hollow action in The Outpost
It’s a little hard to understand what made The Outpost one of the best-reviewed releases of the last few months. Certainly the Afghan War drama, which hit streaming services on July 3, has the kind of...
Books
Dust off the bookshelf
Watership Down by Richard Adams: Before becoming a full-time author, British war veteran and civil servant Richard Adams invented this tale of talking rabbits for his two daughters. In 1972, he...
Books
What we ought to be
The Beautiful Community: Unity, Diversity, and the Church at Its Best by Irwyn L. Ince Jr.: In The Beautiful Community (available in paperback Aug. 4), Ince illustrates the foundation of multiethnic...
Q&A
Promise me anything
Sally Pipes is president of the Pacific Research Institute and the author of False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All (Encounter). I interviewed her on Feb. 6, just...
Music
Classical voices
Thomas Fortmann: Gimme Twelve by various artists: Fortmann is the kind of composer about whom it’s tempting to say that he’s “still finding his voice.” On the evidence of these seven neo...
Music
A musical patriot
The great Charlie Daniels was 83 when he died from a stroke two days after celebrating one of his favorite holidays: the Fourth of July. Who else but a proud, fiddle-playing lover of the Red, White,...
Books
Daniel Silva becomes Dan Brown
We interrupt our regularly scheduled reviews to warn readers who have absorbed my annual praise for Daniel Silva’s usually exquisite novels. Like clockwork a new book featuring Israeli spy hero...
