In connection with their book Is Christianity Good for the World?, evangelical theologian Douglas Wilson and leading atheist Christopher Hitchens have hit the road to debate the issues that divide the two. Wilson's son, Nate, is riding along. In an on-line update about the tour for ChristianityToday.com, Nate shared what struck him most about the first few stops in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, ...

Thomas à Kempis writes:

Jesus has many who love his kingdom in heaven, but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his feast, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer for his sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of his passion. Many admire ...

Father Damien was a priest who became famous for his willingness to serve lepers. He moved to Kalawao—a village on the island of Molokai, in Hawaii, that had been quarantined to serve as a leper colony. For 16 years, he lived in their midst. He learned to speak their language. He bandaged their wounds, embraced the bodies no one else would touch, preached to hearts that would otherwise have ...

The opening scene of the ABC News documentary The Search for Jesus begins with a voice-over from celebrated TV reporter Peter Jennings. He's reading the Christmas story out of Luke against the backdrop of a Middle Eastern man carving the face of Jesus into a block of wood. As the man finishes and sets the carving down, and as Jennings finishes the Scripture, the camera focuses on Jennings standing ...

Dr. Samuel Weinstein is the chief of pediatric cardio-thoracic surgery for the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York. In May of 2006, he traveled to El Salvador with Heart Care International in order to provide life-saving operations for less-fortunate children. However, it would take more than his expertise and advanced equipment to save the life of 8-year-old Francisco ...

After entering a New York City subway station in the first week of 2007, 19-year-old film student Cameron Hollopeter suffered a seizure while waiting for a train. As his body convulsed out of control, the young man stumbled down the platform and fell onto one of the tracks—directly in the path of an inbound train. Fortunately, a 50-year-old construction worker named Wesley Autrey noticed his ...

To End All Wars is the true story of Scottish prisoners of war in a Japanese prison camp during World War II. A group of the prisoners begin to study philosophy, Shakespeare, and the Bible in order to maintain their sanity in a horrible place. Soon, their Christian behavior influences many of the other prisoners; it also amazes their captors.

This scene begins with a group of seriously injured Japanese ...

Shane Claiborne is a young Christian activist whose mission is to take Jesus and the message of the gospel seriously. Shane is one of the founding members of The Simple Way, a Christian community in Philadelphia. Their mission is: "To love God. To love people. To follow Jesus." Shane has taken the gospel beyond the streets of Philadelphia to the slums of Calcutta and the war zones of Iraq. In his ...

Shane Claiborne, who spent a summer in the slums of Calcutta with Mother Teresa, wrote the following about one of his experiences there:

People often ask me what Mother Teresa was like. Sometimes it's like they wonder if she glowed in the dark or had a halo. She was short, wrinkled, and precious, maybe even a little ornery—like a beautiful, wise old granny. But there is one thing I will never ...

In 1999, Kevin Stephan of Lancaster, New York, was a bat boy for his younger brother's little-league baseball team. During one game, a player who was warming up accidentally hit Kevin in the chest with a bat. Kevin fell to the ground, unconscious. His heart stopped beating.

"All I remember," Kevin says, "is that, all of a sudden, I got hit in the chest with something, and I turned around and passed ...