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After three years as the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI is finally gracing the United States with his holy presence, making stops in Washington, D.C., and New York during a six-day-tour in the Pope-mobile. We can all agree that the pope's bulletproof ride is sweet, but the papal visit has stirred up controversy, too. Seven Days decided to seek some balance in the media firestorm.... Read more

In March 1967, Science magazine published an essay, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” by a UCLA history professor named Lynn White. An expert in technological innovation during the Middle Ages, White argued that the environmental crisis looming over the planet was the fault of Western Christianity, which had fostered among believers a blatant disregard for the world beyond themselves.... Read more

Playing a droning teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ben Stein originated the phrase, “Bueller . . . Bueller?” But it’s a safe bet no one will be playing hooky when the actor/comedian/economist/opinion columnist delivers the UVM School of Business Administration’s Kalkin Lecture on April 25 in the Ira Allen Chapel.... Read more

There's a well-worn joke that summarizes Jewish holidays in nine words: "They tried to kill us. We survived. Let's eat." It's sort of true. On Chanukah we memorialize the Maccabees' triumphant revolt against the forces of Emperor Antiochus by eating potato latkes. On Purim we celebrate the lifting of a death decree against Jews in Persia with triangular poppy-seed pastries. Passover has a slightly different spin, commemorating the Israelite slaves' deliverance from Pharaoh's pursuing charioteers with an elaborate ceremonial meal — and an eight-day regime of special dietary restrictions.... Read more

As I write this it is Easter, season of confession and atonement, sacrifice and resurrection, a time to celebrate miracles and renew faith in innocence.

I speak, of course, of politics and of politicians, mortals of whom we expect sin yet demand innocence; people who, being mortals, rarely live down to our expectations or up to our demands.... Read more

The town of Essex Junction was covered in ice, but a little before 8 in the morning a few Sundays ago, some 200 men, women and children were filing into a nondescript white building just off Route 15. The lettering beside the double doorway read: “ESSEX ALLIANCE CHURCH. Making Friends out of Strangers.”... Read more

What role should religion play in our public schools? That’s a question Lee Sease, the Addison Central Supervisory Union Superintendent, has had to wrestle with in recent months, after a Middlebury Union High School student filed a lawsuit requesting that a religious club called Youth Alive be given the same recognition and support as other student groups. It’s been a question, as well, for the Williston Central School, which hosts an after-school Christian group for elementary and middle school students called the Good News Club.... Read more

Ezzedine Fatnassi takes comfort in knowing that when his time comes, he can be buried in a Muslim-only section of a cemetery in his adopted hometown of Burlington.

Fatnassi, a 54-year-old immigrant from Tunisia, helped negotiate an agreement last summer that sets aside 60 burial plots for Muslims in the city-owned Lakeview Cemetery.... Read more

Just before itinerant “Dino Pastor” and creationist Paul Veit took the podium at the North Avenue Alliance Church, nine children trooped to the foot of the sanctuary’s raised platform and, prompted by a choirmaster, sang a hymn.“... Read more

Bewigged and in breeches, stiff and stern — this is how we often picture our Founding Fathers. Politicians today, especially on the right, tap into this severe image of moral rectitude. They invoke America’s Christian heritage as a sacred touchstone, bequeathed to us by great men who cribbed from the Bible as they drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.... Read more