I began using pseudonyms early in my career, when I was being paid a quarter a cent a word for my work, and when I had to write a lot to earn a living. Sometimes I had three or four stories in a single magazine without the editor knowing they were all by me.

The world is made of stairs, and there are those who go up and those who go down.

Readers are what it's all about, aren't they? If not, why am I writing?

In the US, we consider our foreign policy as something rooted in the protection of American ideals of democracy and human development. However, we often fail to see the damaging consequences, many of which may be unintended, on others - including Christians - living in other parts of the world.

Palestinian believers have a unique experience with US foreign policy and our close ties with Israel. This alliance has many layers, but given the strong support of the US church, and the frequency of religious language surrounding these policies, Palestinian Christian friends raise important and challenging questions about how we understand the intertwining of theology and politics in the US.

I began using pseudonyms early in my career, when I was being paid a quarter a cent a word for my work, and when I had to write a lot to earn a living. Sometimes I had three or four stories in a single magazine without the editor knowing they were all by me.

The rise of the prosperity gospel is one of the great challenges to the true message of Jesus Christ. While not an expressly Western problem, the promises of this false teaching are often deeply rooted in Western materialism and worldly wealth. Teachers focus on a temporal reward as evidence of God's blessing, often ignoring the greater issues of justice, reconciliation, and redemption so needed in the world today.