Painting of The Shop, by Pastor Eric Blauer Tracy SimmonsTracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in …

I can’t say one person’s suffering and stolen dignity has less value than another, near or far. Daryl Geffken Should we give locally or internationally? /blogs/daryl-geffken/should-we-give-locally-or-internationally Tracy SimmonsTracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons …

Many Christians will walk out of church on Sunday with a palm leaf folded into a small cross. The palm is a reminder of John 12:12-23, when a crowd used them to welcome Jesus to Jerusalem. Later, many in that crowd urged for his execution. Palm Sunday marks the beginning …

The townspeople came to joke that they could set their clocks by the professor’s afternoon walk. Immanuel Kant was so regular with his walks he became as predictable as the spring flowers in Königsberg. His philosophical work, on the  hand, dropped onto Western thought with a mushroom cloud of destruction, …

Numerous churches suffered from plummeting donations after the recession began in 2008. But in the past year, a majority of congregations experienced giving increases because of a better economy, higher attendance and more church teaching on giving, according to a press release. Trends in 2011 included higher budgets, greater attention …

Parts of the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare,” could easily end up on the chopping block this week. With it would go the “individual mandate”, or a requirement to either be covered or pay a tax, while expanding Medicare for a portion of the population meeting a certain level of …