If there's anything more disheartening than this week's report on social mobility, it's the government's response to it. Their timid proposals for higher education are unlikely to do anything to challenge the way that the education system functions to maintain privilege and inequality.

Some hardline pressure groups within the church are sucking mar­riage into a narrow religious ghetto, associating it with suburban 1950s curtain-twitching, thus making it even less popular than it is now, says Giles Fraser.

Enter any public debate about the pros and cons of religion today, and it will not be long before someone raises the thorny issue of ‘texts of terror’ in the Bible, says Simon Barrow. Yet in the person of Christ our understanding of violence is turned upside-down.

The new coalition of evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes launched within the Church of England, claiming to uphold the "traditional biblical view" on homosexuality was unlikley to have been considered in times gone by, says Jonathan Bartley

Genuine hope is quite different from optimism or wishful thinking, says Simon Barrow. To understand it we need fresh eyes attuned to the artfulness of reality and the presence of love even in the midst of suffering.

The Stonewall riots in June 1969 in New York helped to transform society in the USA and beyond, says Savi Hensman. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church in July 2009 is far more sedate, but the issues facing Christians of all traditions are profound.

“Reform so as to preserve” is still the mantra of the political elite in Britain. But civil society organisations, faith groups, politicians and ordinary people can help change the agenda, says Simon Barrow.

Writing for the Guardian newspaper, Jonathan Bartley recaps the latest bout between religion and secularism. He reviews 'God Is Back: How the Revival of Religion is Changing the World' by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge and 'Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate' by Terry Eagleton

Public life demands ‘tough’ corporate attributes rather than what it labels ‘soft’ personal ones – like love and gratitude. Simon Barrow argues that the communal cultivation of loving relation is needed to help redirect the official anonymity of the social order.

Today is the UK's first Armed Forces Day. It is a thinly veiled attempt to deflect scrutiny of politicians who have made disastrous decisions about war, says Symon Hill. But sentiment is no substitute for accountability.

Armed Forces Day will be celebrated in the UK for the first time on 27 June 2009. Savi Hensman asks whether the government's rhetoric is matched by reality.

Talmudic study opens the door to an understanding of obedience that does not crush the enquiring mind, says Giles Fraser. The text of Scripture, rightly understood, both questions us and affirms our questioning.

As the political fallout from recent scandals continues, many are in favour of change, says Simon Barrow. But they do not necessarily want this change to make any real difference.

A cruciform tree, a radiating Cain eyed by a simmering Abel, and a doveish floating vision: these are just a few of the images you will see as part of the vital but little-known Methodist Art Collection, says Simon Barrow.

The bailout of the banks has left old assumptions about public finances behind. It's time to decide what our priorities are and look around for the money to fund them, says Jonathan Bartley