I’m off to a Religion Newswriters Association conference in Minneapolis. Religion and the Obama administration, religion and immigration, and The Case of the Disappearing Hymnal will be among the topics. See you when I get back!
Barbara’s Riffs on Life
Scrubbing the Floor With My Daughter Cinderella
There was no getting around it. Christina, who is 51/2, intended to wash our kitchen floor. She had been studying her “Cinderella” videotape for weeks, and now she wanted nothing more than to scrub. Read more
GodsBigBlog: Does a Teacher Have the Right to Wear a Muslim Headscarf? A Nun’s Habit? A Sikh’s Turban? Not in Every State
Three states still have laws on the books prohibiting public school teachers from wearing religious garments in the classroom.
GodsBigBlog: Hunger in America — It’s Real
My writer colleague Laura Willis reports from Sewannee, Tennessee, that the economic crisis is hitting people pretty hard in the Southern Cumberland Plateau. Hundreds of people stood in line for hours to receive food . . . .
A Case of the Human Condition: Flowers Bursting From the Dirt — How Do They Do It?
They emerge from mud, manure, leaf rot, earthworms, sow bugs. And they are beautiful. How do they do it? Read more.
A Generation of Preschoolers Trapped in Their Yards
Jon and I loved our new house in the hills with the curving, no-sidewalks streets. But all that privacy and rural ambiance weren’t so great for raising kids. Read more.