Religion / Faith

Electing a black president has caused a rise in hate crimes, but no one is less popular than Godless blowhards.

Playing well with others

Posted Tue, Nov 18, 6 a.m.

Our Zen gardener suggests the path of dana paramita, a voluntary giving of one's wisdom, time, or assistance.

Questioning the promise of change

Posted Fri, Nov 7, midnight

By Bryan Myrick

In the wake of the historic 2008 election, a conservative blogger asks: To what degree is President-elect Obama's victory a mandate for the changes he will attempt to make?

A Portland Japanese Garden calls to mind the art of Andy Goldsworthy

Posted Thu, Nov 6, midnight

Our Zen gardener gets a nudge to visit the Portland Japanese Garden and finds five gardens in one.

Evangelism meets Seattle: the view from Mars Hill

Posted Thu, Oct 30, midnight

By Jonathan Hiskes

Both the burgeoning church and an (unrelated) graduate school provide a perspective on how postmodern Christian movement churches are striking up conversations — and sparks — with mainstream culture.

Anger over the right to die

Posted Fri, Oct 24, midnight

If God wants to join the political debate over assisted suicide, he should expect a bloody nose.

(Historical) context is everything

Posted Tue, Oct 7, 3 a.m.

Making arrowheads, tossing spears, wandering old homesteads, and studying petroglyphs: All are part of a Washington state program designed to ensure that material progress doesn't completely obliterate the past. Part 1

Garlic tells a story

Posted Tue, Oct 7, 3 a.m.

If you're not growing garlic, you should think about it, and here's why.

Taking 'Death with Dignity' lessons from Oregon

Posted Thu, Sep 18, 3 a.m.

By Floyd McKay

Washington state voters must soon make up their minds about I-1000, a measure supporting physician-assisted suicide, which appears on the ballot this November. Former Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts championed a similar law in her home state and supports I-1000. Here's a look at the results of Oregon's law, passed in 1997, and the issues surrounding it.

Seattle's oldest church seeks a new home and mission

Posted Sun, Sep 14, 4 p.m.

By Jonathan Hiskes

A new minister lays plans for revitalizing Seattle's First United Methodist Church, temporarily homeless after moving from a crumbling downtown landmark. Saving mainline downtown churches is far from easy, but Rev. Sanford Brown thinks he has a formula, derived from serving the Belltown neighborhood.

A bipartisan mayor who's fond of prayer

Posted Thu, Aug 28, 3 a.m.

By Harris Meyer

Dave Edler of Yakima is an unusual politician in a bastion of conservatism.

Teach both sides of the flat Earth!

Posted Mon, Jul 7, midnight

By Steve Clifford

It's really quite simple: A lot of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Zen and the art of gardening

Posted Thu, Jun 26, 5 a.m.

By Tegan Tigani

Geri Larkin's latest book is like your neighbor's undisciplined garden, a little too rambunctious at times, but filled with moments that will appeal to both gardeners and those looking for a little enlightenment.

A Tadao Ando chapel may soon find a home in Bellevue

Posted Sun, Jun 22, 11 p.m.

By David Brewster

The building designed by the acclaimed Japanese architect would be donated by an Eastside arts patron, Barney Ebsworth. A site has been found, but it will take an economic recovery to fund it. Seattle tried but failed to land the prize.

One Seattle chaplain's story of homelessness

Posted Tue, Jun 10, 9 p.m.

By Craig Rennebohm

A chaplain whose pioneering work to end homelessness is recognized worldwide shares the story of encountering the limits of the city's mental health system.

The churching of an unchurched region

Posted Tue, Jun 3, 5 a.m.

By James K. Wellman, Jr.

A University of Washington prof interviewed 450 members of liberal and evangelical Christian churches in the Pacific Northwest. His mission: to understand the "clash of cultures" between two sides of the same tradition.

Saying 'yes' to a day with Ciscoe Morris

Posted Thu, May 29, 3 p.m.

A management consultant-turned Zen teacher plays sidekick to Seattle's inveterate plant-promoter and finds inspiration in a Venus flytrap.

Evolution of a think tank

Posted Tue, Apr 29, 5 a.m.

By Ross Anderson

A journalist comes of age with Bruce Chapman, watching him launch Seattle's Discovery Institute and the intelligent design movement.

Getting the spiritual scoop

Posted Sun, Apr 13, 11 p.m.

Coverage of the Dalai Lama's visit suggests a way Seattle newspapers can get out of their funk: try boosting our spirit.

Other media

Religion played a huge role in 2008 politics God was the most popular running mate, for both parties, and religious figures were prominent actors in the campaigns.

WASHINGTON POST

Must all art be 'oppositional'? Critic Roger Kimball worries that we are destroying the connection of art with beauty. "By universalizing the spirit of opposition, the avant-garde’s project has transformed the practice of art into a purely negative enterprise, in which art is either oppositional or it is nothing."

FIRST THINGS

Tips to liberals in waging war on Christmas Thomas Frank gets into holiday spirit by egging on the Christmas bashers. But remember, the real battle is the War on Easter.

THE NEW REPUBLIC

A Christmas Tale: Russia, 1919 A story of fleeing the Bolsheviks in the deep midwinter of Russia, saved by "the glow of a makeshift Christmas tree in the thicket of a primeval forest."

WALL STREET JOURNAL

A Christmas message from Afghanistan, quietly building schools "We tend to forget that charity comes first," wrote Thomas Merton, ""and is the only Christian 'cause' that has the right to precedence over every other."

WASHINGTON POST

Blog posts

Northwest is stony ground for progressive Christianity

Posted Thu, Dec 11, noon 2008

by Jonathan Hiskes

So a new study finds, and so a stimulating magazine discusses.

Christmas Treehuggers

Posted Fri, Dec 5, 9 a.m. 2008

by Jonathan Hiskes

Go ahead, cut that tree, and feel good about your environmental footprint.

Is Northwest nature worship neurological?

Posted Thu, Nov 20, 6:30 a.m. 2008

by Knute Berger

Our religious impulses toward the wilderness could be boosted by the way our brains work.

The real Scoop Jackson, you betcha

Posted Tue, Nov 18, 11:02 p.m. 2008

by Knute Berger

Some of the secrets of Norwegian Seattle revealed.

In the garden: caryopteris

Posted Thu, Oct 23, midnight 2008

One blue tucked up against another blue makes artists of us all.

Physician-assisted suicide: two stories

Posted Wed, Oct 8, 3:19 a.m. 2008

by Harris Meyer

George Eighmey, the father of physician-assisted suicide in Oregon, spoke yesterday at a conference in Yakima, and concluded his very sober presentation with two stories, both about his experiences sitting with patients just before they died from lethal medication. Physician-assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, and in case you missed it, it's on the ballot this election here in Washington state.

In the garden: replenishing the tree canopy

Posted Wed, Sep 24, 4 p.m. 2008

As I remember it, the first meltdown happened somewhere around 1993. I had been practicing hard, getting up at 4 a.m. to meditate before driving my daughter to early morning swim practice and then heading into a manual labor job that sucked up the next ten to twelve hours. Maybe it was exhaustion and not spiritual maturity that caused this: In the middle of a sitting, I started crying hard because I suddenly realized the enormity of the damage we are doing to the earth. Having no idea what to do with the grief, I went to my teacher. "Go plant a tree" was his response. If it's the last day of your life, plant a tree. If it isn't, plant a tree. If it's the last day of the earth's life, plant a tree.

'Death with dignity' vs. 'physician-assisted suicide'

Posted Wed, Sep 24, 10:07 a.m. 2008

by Floyd McKay

Words often have powerful meaning, and the debate over terminology used in a ballot measure and in news reports could well determine the fate of Washington's Initiative 1000, known by its supporters as "death with dignity" and by critics and some in the media as "physician-assisted suicide" or simply "assisted suicide."

In the garden: coffee!

Posted Wed, Sep 10, 3:52 a.m. 2008

A good friend of mine is living in the "in-between." He is in between jobs. In between housing. In between lifestyles. I was happy to offer him my little monk's transition room, a sparsely furnished bedroom, as an interim resting place while the various aspects of his life work themselves out.

No longer in the garden: pesky starlings

Posted Thu, Aug 28, 4 a.m. 2008