Monday's News & Ideas

Can megachurches bridge the racial divide?Time:  The racial divide is beginning to erode in some churches, especially in one of American religion's most conservative precincts: Evangelical Christianity.Why would laypeople want theological education, anyway?Alban Institute: In an ever more complicated world, theological education introduces questions of why and how for laity.Washington Post, On Faith:  Living theologyLook ahead 2010 roundtableReligion & Ethics Newsweekly:  What will be the biggest stories about religion in the new year?Religion & Ethics Newsweekly:  Look back 2009 roundtableReligion Dispatches:  Religion at decade’s endHoly lawsuit! Communion-wafer flap lands in courtWired:  Company claims it owns “rapid reload system” and “quad-rotator technology” for fast wafer loading and dispensing. On things religious, written and unwrittenThe New York Times:  The final Beliefs column from Peter Steinfels.

The Spark

We did it!Within a few months women will become the majority of the American workforce, just the latest milestone in what is arguably the biggest social change of our times, the Economist reports. In a quiet revolution, women have been gradually taking over the workplace, gaining more control over their lives.  Societies that try to resist this trend -- most notably the Arab countries, but also Japan and some southern European countries -- will pay a heavy price in the form of wasted talent and frustrated citizens.