Nothing New Under the Sun

By MANYA A. BRACHEAR Chicago Tribune CHICAGO — Leaders of the United Church of Christ and the National Council of Churches called on pastors Thursday to initiate a nationwide sacred conversation about race May 18, also known as Trinity Sunday on Western Christian liturgical calendars. Gathered at Trinity United Church of Christ, the focus of intense media interest in recent weeks, officials also said they would clamp down on reporters' access ...

By Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy's challenge to, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines. In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a ...

By Martin E. Marty Through the decades, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. has called me teacher, reminding me of the years when he earned a master's degree in theology and ministry at the University of Chicago — and friend. My wife and I and our guests have worshiped at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where he recently completed a 36-year ministry. Images of Wright's strident sermons, and ...

Several years ago while I was in Richmond, the Lord allowed me to be in that city during the week of the annual convocation at Virginia Union University School of Theology. There I heard the preaching and teaching of Reverend Frederick G. Sampson of Detroit, Michigan. In one of his lectures, Dr. Sampson spoke of a painting I remembered studying in humanities courses back in the late '50s. In ...

March 11, 2007 Jodi Kantor The New York Times 9 West 43rd Street New York, New York 10036-3959 Dear Jodi: Thank you for engaging in one of the biggest misrepresentations of the truth I have ever seen in sixty-five years. You sat and shared with me for two hours. You told me you were doing a “Spiritual Biography” of Senator Barack Obama. For two hours, I shared with you how I thought he was the ...

By Roy S. Johnson Tuesday, Jan 8, 2008 4:38 pm EST What is it about Duke? Okay, maybe that's not fair. But it did make me scratch my head and wonder when I read what Kelly Tilghman (pictured with Arnold Palmer), a former Blue Devil golfer, said on the Golf Channel last Friday during her gig as co-lead announcer for the network's telecast of the Mercedes-Benz Championship, the PGA Tour's ...