Mollie Hemingway

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Pod people: Finding God in Google searches

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In this week’s Crossroads podcast, host Todd Wilken and I discuss whether a congregation with 75 members is “tiny” or of median size. It’s funny how many people have talked to me about that post where we learned that the median size of congregations, in terms of weekly worship, is 75 participants. My feedback indicates that both popular perception and media treatment would have assumed the median worship attendance to be much higher.


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No clergy at ground zero ceremony

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Yesterday, Bobby looked at media coverage of 9/11 commemorations. There are some interesting stories to be found in who was and who wasn’t invited and what people think about it. In Washington, the commemoration will be an interfaith service. In New York, clergy aren’t part of the program.


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Remembering Father Mychal, First 9/11 Casualty

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A reader sent in the following story and I’m so glad he did. I read so many stories each day that sometimes I get desensitized to what I’m actually reading. Not this one. Learning about the subject of the piece — and the skillful storytelling — gave me chills as I got through it.


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When one word doesn't suffice

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The New York Times profiles one of Levi Aron’s attorneys. He’s the man accused of a horrific crime — kidnapping, killing and dismembering young Leiby Kletzky. All of New York City was focused on the crime but it was particularly tragic for the Borough Park, Brooklyn, Hasidic Jewish community.


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What size are most congregations?

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A few weeks ago we had an earthquake here in Virginia. I just found out on Sunday that our bell tower at our church in Alexandria experienced significant structural damage from the quake (my husband thought it would have been cool if the bell itself had cracked — it didn’t).


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Redefining peer-reviewed literature (by Christians)

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A couple of years ago there was a scandal involving the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. Somehow, a decade’s worth of emails between scientists there were leaked to the world. The whole “hide the decline” scandal. Some of these emails suggested that scientists were going to take extreme measures to limit participation by anthropogenic global warming skeptics in academic discourse. Phil Jones, a climatologist there, sent an email that said, in part:


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Pakistan: Assassination, abduction and blasphemy

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I was wondering about a reporter friend I met in Jerusalem so I stopped by her Facebook page and was surprised to see a few links to stories about the abduction of the son of Salman Taseer. Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer was assassinated at the very beginning of this year by his own bodyguard. That bodyguard was upset about Taseer’s opposition to blasphemy laws carrying the death sentence for insulting Islam. Taseer was riddled by gunshots, shot in the back. The response to his assassination, the most high-profile one since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed a few years prior, was perhaps even more shocking.


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Christ, the church and Christian marriage

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A few weeks ago, there was a bit of a brouhaha over Byron York’s question to Rep. Michele Bachmann at a Republican debate in Iowa. She’d previously made a comment about her interpretation of what it means to be a submissive wife. He asked her about it. The crowd booed. The media began writing up stories about submission. None of them terribly good.


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