‘To be united with the beauty we see.’

KEN WHITT, the author if God Is Just Love, is our resident expert on “Things Families Can Do To Find Hope and Be Love.” In fact, that’s the title of the final section of his new book in which Ken lists more than 100 things you can do with your family right now. Ken is a multi-talented pastor, storyteller, craftsman, cook and teacher. This week, he writes about his woodworking art in which he intentionally highlights the beauty of the wood he brings into his shop. Ken’s writing is a warm invitation to think of the many ways you and your family can embrace the beauty of the world God has given us. Plus, at the end of his column is a gallery showcasing some of Ken’s creations. Please enjoy our Cover Story, and share it with friends via social media and email.

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From Our Writers—

Dr. David Gushee

Coming Soon: A Fresh Vision of the Christian Moral Life

DR. DAVID GUSHEE’s teaching on Christian ethics has helped families and congregations around the world to find inspiration and spiritual resilience in our turbulent world. We are honored, as a publishing house, to partner with Dr. Gushee in releasing his major 2022 book, Introducing Christian Ethics: Core Convictions for Christians Today. Our Front Edge Publishing column, this week, reports on Gushee’s latest work—first, an important new column he has written about the disintegration of American “Evangelicalism”—and then a preview of his upcoming book.

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Lucille Sider

Finding Resilience in the Midst of Winter Blues

NOVEMBER is right around the corner, which brings on a surge of “winter blues” across the Northern Hemisphere. Author Lucille Sider writes about her own spiritual disciplines to maintain her resilience through the darker months of the year. This is a column you’re likely to want to share with friends.

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Kevin Vollrath

Meeting the Needs of At-Risk Children in Challenging Corners of the World

Over the past year, we have welcomed occasional columns by scholar and journalist Kevin Vollrath, who specializes in reporting on the work of historic churches in the Middle East. In this new column, Kevin visits the School of Joy, where a Catholic priest and his staff created a school to help at-risk children.

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Holidays & Festivals

Happy Halloween—and related holidays!

WE’VE GOT the story about Halloween 2021, plus related observances at this time of year. Plus, in that story, you’ll find helpful links to tips for parents and ideas for parties and family fun.
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WANT TO SEE ALL THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS?—It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just visit  InterfaithHolidays.com

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Faith & Film

ED McNULTY, for decades, has published reviews, magazine articles and books exploring connections between faith and film. Most of his work is freely published. Ed supports his work by selling the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with discussion guides to films. This resource is used coast-to-coast by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.

Among Ed’s free reviews and columns:

1. THE GUILTY—Ed writes, “Director Antoine Fuqua  and writer Nic Pizzolatto have done a fine job of adapting a 2018 Danish film to the American scene. The film is a thriller, a very intense one, but one with a social conscience that deserves to be seen and discussed widely.”
2. MASS—”This is one of the best films I have seen this year. It includes one of the most powerful scenes of grief and reconciliation that I have seen in a film.”
3. FLAG DAY—Ed praises this film in which three members of the Penn family portray the family of a con man.
4. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)—”This is the 70th anniversary of the release of this classic science fiction film. It stood out at the time as the most intelligent film of the genre, carrying a message of peace and tolerance during the onslaught of the Cold War. Unlike other sci-fi films, the menace to Earth came not from alien monsters but from humans themselves.”
5. SON OF THE SOUTH—”Writer-director Barry Alexander Brown’s film is based on Bob Zellner’s well-received 2008 autobiography The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement.”
6. THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE—Ed praises the new film about the lives of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and says it’s likely to surprise many viewers.
7. REMINISCE—Ed McNulty writes, “Writer-director Lisa Joy blends film noir with science fiction in this tale set in a near future Miami whose streets are being flooded as climate change causes the ocean to rise. Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman) is the jaded detective whose specialty is the past.”
8. COME FROM AWAY—”The horrific events that occurred 20 years ago on 9/11 reveal the evil depths that humanity can sink to, but this filmed version of David Hein and Irene Sankoff’s Broadway play celebrates the heights to which humanity can rise.”
9. DAYS OF GLORY—”Co-writer/director Rachid Bouchareb provides a very different perspective on World War II in this tale centering on four North African Muslims who enlist to free what they regard as their fatherland, France.”
10. RESPECT—”Director Liesl Tommy and writer Tracey Scott Wilson’s film biography of Aretha Franklin certainly deserves our respect—and gratitude.

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