At an annual conference for religion journalists last month, I saw a film that radically altered the way I look at eating meat. At the end of a long and boring speech, which I mostly ignored, Wayne Pacelle, the president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), showed the film Eating Mercifully, which snapped me right to attention.
The clips of pregnant pigs confined to iron cages, a cow being pushed off the back of a truck, and male chicks suffocated to death by the thousands made me feel sick; something about the animals’ helpless dependence reminded me of my own children.
What really affected me, however, was the portrait of Elaine West, a conservative Christian who runs a farm-animal sanctuary in Florida. When she first learned how animals are treated on factory farms, West said she was “so ashamed as a Christian [that] I was supporting that kind of horrific abuse and cruelty.” Read More
Nearly a quarter of American adults report having witnessed a “miraculous, physical healing,” and, perhaps more surprisingly, 16% say they have actually experienced such a miracle themselves.
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Next week my three young sons and my husband (a teacher) go back to school. Like many people across the country, I feel the usual mix of stress and excitement about the transition. But next week is also the beginning of 
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A day after my 35th birthday this spring, I ran my first half-marathon. I expected it to be a grueling physical challenge, and it was. What I didn’t expect was this: Somewhere around mile 10, while listening to 
