The latest example of Iran’s ongoing Baha’i  persecutions was described in yesterday’s New York Times as “a sweeping crackdown on its Baha’i community, a long-persecuted religious minority.” According to residents, rights groups, and the government itself, “dozens of people” have been arrested, and Baha’i properties have been destroyed.

Homer’s "Odyssey", swashbuckling though it is, is often regarded as a spiritual quest, a “return from darkness and death to light and life … a timeless metaphor.” Mine was not nearly so dramatic, but it did transform me. Wednesday marks the second anniversary of my first FāVS column, so I’d like to share highlights from my personal odyssey.

The science of embryology describes the beginnings of life as the process of embryonic development, starting with “fertilization…creation of a zygote, a single cell resulting from the fusion of … egg and sperm.”

Yet our adolescent democratic republic remains unfinished. Despite its influence on the world stage, it struggles to live up to the potential embodied in its name

In the wake of conflicting judicial decisions over two and a third centuries, it’s time to revisit the founding document of the most successful extant democratic republic in history – and make both even better.

Speakers explained “their spring holy days, how they celebrate them and how they relate to creation care” at a Hope for Creation Conference in Spokane’s Cathedral of St. John. Common themes included reflection, renewal, recentering, responsibility, new life, seasonal cycles, and a need to care for the Earth to ensure that those cycles continue.