The Rev Kenneth Meshoe, head of the opposition African Christian Democratic Party, has condemned a statement attributed to a provincial African National Congress leader which compared the president of the ANC to Jesus.

The current global financial crisis is a spiritual one with usury at its heart, argues political economist Ann Pettifor. In spite of the Gospel message, Christians have also colluded in idolising wealth above people and planet.

A Christian is taking an art centre to court over an exhibition which included a statue of Jesus she believes was lewd and offensive. Civil rights activists say this is an attempt to reinstate blasphemy laws by the back door.

Using a new-to-DVD documentary on Lonnie Frisbee as a starting point,
Brian Collins reflects on the way Jesus became an inspiration, brand and cultural transfer for an alternative culture that became mainstream.

Christians have lived in conformity to the ethics of Caesar too long, says Simon Barrow. As Christendom fades, fresh possibilities for peace emerge from a renewed understanding of what it means to be the Body of Christ.

A Hindu woman living in India has produced a 900-page poetic epic on the life and message of Jesus following the style of such Hindu classics as Mahabharat and Ramayan. It has been written in Kannada.

Some sections of the Anglican Communion are convinced that only their narrow vision of what is permissible in faithfulness to the Christian message is adequate, says Simon Barrow. But they are confounded by the biblical texts they claim loyalty to.

Much religion is dripping in sacrificial language, says Keith Walton. The appeasement of the gods is a common theme in many traditions. But in the biblical tradition, love that does justice becomes the core of a new perspective, based on a different understanding of who God is.

Within Christianity there is a long history of trouble making, says Glynn Cardy. And rightly so if it is about building the vision and reality of a different kind of world in which all may flourish.