Editorials

In their accounts of the divine creation, the mysterious opening pages of the Bible twice indicate that the work men and women do is neither a penalty nor a curse but an essential human experience toward which these creatures were naturally oriented even before the Fall. In the first chapter of Gene

The execution of Saddam Hussein roused condemnation by the United Nations and European Union leaders. But this widespread international criticism also cast a spotlight on the use of capital punishment in the United States, where public dissatisfaction has been growing. An overview of the current situation follows.

Sometimes a nation ought to pause in order to celebrate a major collective achievement. And the approaching presidential primary season may well be one of those times. After more than 200 years when only one segment of the populationnamely, white, non-Hispanic males who, with just two exceptions, we

Fifty-three years ago, the moral issue that most preoccupied the national conscience was not posed by a misbegotten war abroad but by racial discrimination against African-American school children at home. At that time, the 16 states that made up what the U.S. Bureau of the Census called the Souther

Many nursery rhymes began as coded verse that once circulated among the dissenting populace under autocratic rulers. A number of famous verses date to the Tudor monarchy. Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary satirizes Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary), her garden a veiled reference to the graveyards where Protestant m

International alarm over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions skyrocketed after that country’s nuclear test last fall. Given the rapid increase in nuclear aspirations among so-called rogue nations, the alarm is warranted. But as winter’s cold descends, the fact that many North Koreans f

On Dec. 31, Christians traditionally give thanks to God for the blessings they have received during the year that is ending. On Jan. 1 and on the feast of the Epiphany a few days later, they might equally well give thanks for the gifts of faith and intelligence that will guide them through the new y

When the Bush administration took the nation to war in Iraq, like the mythical Pandora it set loose a host of ills upon the world. The invasion opened the way for sectarian strife and civil war in Iraq; it assisted the advance of Shiite Islam across the Middle East; and it increased Israel’s v

The most commonplace symbol of our Christmas celebration is a light shining in the darkness: a candle in the window, a star on top of a tree. The symbol is so familiar that we can sometimes fail to appreciate its distinctive message. Many lights shine in the darkness. Some of them can be brutal and

"We can’t pull out; we can’t win. Like a tar pit, Iraq has trapped the United States. If American troops remain there, few observers expect things to get better; and they may well grow worse. If the troops pull out, problems will certainly worsen for nearly everyone: for Iraqis abov