Can we find middle ground in the abortion wars? One scholar/activist thinks so

http://lancasteronline.com/features/faith_values/a-scholar-tries-to-bridge-the-abortion-divide/article_60cda9a2-474d-11e5-879e-8fb7f27f30ac.html

Capital punishment? "We're better than that" says a former Texas DA

http://lancasteronline.com/features/faith_values/former-texas-da-an-opponent-of-death-penalty/article_36c973f2-41ee-11e5-9c64-973672207fda.html

Capital punishment and the changing American landscape

In rejecting the death penalty as a crime solution, the host of a conservative radio show and an activist African-American pastor are breaching old orthodoxies  and advocating for change across party lines.



http://lancasteronline.com/features/faith_values/changing-views-on-death-penalty/article_fa9ea6c8-3d3c-11e5-869f-476af7f13f20.html

Holy what?

I talk about it a lot and sing about it often - but what on earth does it mean to be holy? Clueless, I asked a few good friends. Here's what they told me.

http://lancasteronline.com/features/faith_values/just-what-does-it-mean-to-be-holy/article_03917808-379f-11e5-a963-276b8f465d2a.html

The lobster

An eye raised

Ears open to words whispered

Somewhere

Escaping in dreams

Half-hearted

He will

Imagine

Running

Road across the way
Pebbles underfoot
Just out of reach

Encompassed

By reality

Not  

Saccharine

Anodyne ( beside him, she asks "what's that"?)

Undigested platitudes

Of life half-lived.

But no

This is his destiny

To embrace the reflected and not the real

Arms dissolve into chains

Endearments into mist

No idealist he

No longer

Around him

The waters rise

They simmer. 

Gay marriage wasn't only item on Episcopal Church agenda in Salt Lake City, say deputies

http://lancasteronline.com/features/faith_values/episcopal-convention-takes-on-gay-marriage-retstructuring/article_67680acc-26fb-11e5-8ed1-af530698db33.html

In Charleston acts of forgiveness, some hear reverberations of Amish grace

http://lancasteronline.com/features/faith_values/in-charleston-massacre-echoes-of-nickel-mines/article_8422f61a-19de-11e5-b1b3-e722c1438951.html