Religion

If a movie is to be judged by the audience it attracts, then “Conclave” must be blessed.

Word of the new pope’s ties to Chicago spread quickly, and with bated breath, some Spokane residents hoped to hear Cardinal Blase Cupich’s name called. Cupich served as bishop of Spokane from 2010 to 2014, when he was tapped by Pope Francis to become Archbishop of Chicago.

In my backyard, life unfolds in small but meaningful ways. My wife and I tend vegetable gardens, care of aging chickens (10 years old!), harvest rainwater and recently welcomed our first honeybees.

Kindergartners would be taught to count to 100 and learn the concepts of virtue and sin. Seventh-graders would be taught about ratios and “God’s work in history.” High-schoolers would be required to read staples such as “The Great Gatsby” but could choose their own science electives, such as one that teaches the value of human life from conception.

The Inland Northwest is more than 5,500 miles from Vatican City.

I’m sure you know this cliché: “The first casualty of war is truth.” But here’s a twist on it that also makes sense: “The first casualty of certainty is truth.”

Despite three decades of steady decline, the majority of Americans report that they identify as Christian. However, for one demographic in particular, numbers show people steadily avoiding identification with this major religion – perhaps due to views promoted by Christians themselves.

Monday was a day of bittersweet mourning, reflection and anticipation for Catholics in the Inland Northwest after news arrived of Pope Francis’ death at 88 years old.

In June 2017, Lupita Gutierrez, a Spokane resident and active member of the St. Joseph Catholic Church, went to Rome for her 60th birthday, with members from the St. Patrick’s Church in Pasco.

When people asked me what I was going to do when I got to England, I was hesitant to say I was volunteering at a Buddhist center. Most of the time, people would be curious, and others would joke if I was becoming a monk. When in reality, it was a way for me to experience England through a different lens.

“I blinked my eyes and in an instant, decades had passed,” poet John Mark Green wrote.

Leah Sottile is no stranger to conspiracy theories, extremist beliefs and fringe views.

When you read this column, think of me sitting in our new home in Hillsboro, Ore. !

It is yet another promise apparently broken by the federal government.

Hamblen Park Presbyterian Church has invited Global Immersion Co-Founder Jer Swigart to lead an Everyday Peacemaking Workshop on March 29.

A poet once said, “The busy have no time for tears.” Lately, I hardly have time for a sniffle.

For baby boomers who grew up attending Catholic school – or weekly classes on Sundays – in the 1960s and 1970s, the season of Lent was presented by the teachers, whether lay or vowed religious, as six weeks of gloom. This time of preparation for the “Triduum” of Jesus’ suffering – Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday – seemed to be a forced method of purifying the soul of sin for young, impressionable minds.

Having seen its 135th birthday last month, Spokane’s Calvary Baptist Church is known as the oldest Black church in Washington.