Amy Carmichael (1867–1951) was a missionary to India who suffered enormously in her life. She once wrote these words:

I have noticed that when one who has not suffered draws near to one in pain, there is rarely much power to help. I have wondered if it can be the same in the sphere of prayer. Does pain accepted and endured give some quality that would otherwise be lacking in prayer? What if every stroke ...

It is not uncommon for people to shake their fists at God in the midst of tragedy and suffering. The Bible includes the stories of righteous men who questioned God for what they considered poor management of creation.

But Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers has taken his complaints to court. In October 2007, Sen. Chambers sued God for "causing untold death and horror" in the form of "fearsome floods…horrendous ...

...

This impulse can be hard to quantify, mainly because thinking about it makes us uncomfortable. But it's pictured well in a disturbing practice currently employed by the Nigerian judicial system in western Africa.

The country of Niger has an established police and criminal justice system—one of the remnants of its days as a French colony. There are Nigerian police officers and judges, as well ...

On Tuesday, August 27, 1996, Shawn Hagwood began a journey of learning that would turn his life around. Earlier that week, 19-year-old Shawn made a cross-country trip to visit a friend in Rochester, Minnesota, a quiet, conservative community known for the famous Mayo Clinic. One night, he and his friend accompanied a group of local guys to an apartment complex inhabited mostly by Somalian residents. ...

Australian Ian Usher is so disappointed with his current life that he is selling it in an eBay auction beginning June 22, 2008. Usher decided on the auction in an effort to rid himself of all memories of life with his ex-wife. He expects to make at least $390,000 in a sale that will include a furnished 3-bedroom house, a car, a motorcycle, and a jet ski. He's even throwing in a one-time introduction ...

When the prayer made in faith is not answered, and the healing for which many have sought does not come, we are not to look for someone to accuse of failure in faith. Rather we are to remember that besides faith there is hope. Hope has to do with God's promises that are still future and hidden, just as faith has to do with God's promises that are here and now. To the person who has believed for today ...

In his book Revolutionary Parenting, George Barna says there are three dominant approaches to parenting in the United States.

Parenting by default is what Barna terms the path of least resistance. This approach is influenced by cultural norms and traditions. The objective is to keep everyone as happy as possible so the parents can still enjoy the other prioritized aspects of their lives.

Trial-and-error ...

Thank You For Smoking is about the shameless tactics of pro-cigarette lobbyists and their efforts to both protect and promote the tobacco industry.

Lobbyist Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) and his 12-year-old son Joey are having a conversation as they walk through a Santa Monica amusement park.

"So, you go to an office, then you go on TV to talk about cigarettes. Then you fly out to L.A. to talk to some ...

Based upon a true story, The Exorcism of Emily Rose tells the story of Father Moore (played by Tom Wilkinson), a priest on trial for the murder of a young girl named Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter) who died during an exorcism he supervised. As the movie progresses, the priest's formerly skeptic lawyer comes to believe that there may be actual supernatural forces at play. She begins to argue that Father ...

In May of 2006, John Allen Muhammad was convicted in Maryland for the murder of six people as part of his "Beltway Sniper" reign of terror in October of 2002. Muhammad had already been sentenced to death in Virginia for murders there. However, during the trial, some frightening information was revealed about what Muhammad would have done if he had evaded capture.

According to Lee Boyd Malvo, Muhammad's ...