| Could smaller, local measures offer a way forward on gun control? Posted: 10 Oct 2017 02:23 PM PDT ![Could smaller, local measures offer a way forward on gun control?]( "Could smaller, local measures offer a way forward on gun control?") Maybe the American experience with gun violence doesn't have to follow a dispiriting, predictable cycle after all. The cycle itself runs like this: a terrible mass shooting shocks the nation. Then, due to the political power of the gun lobby and the cohesiveness of gun owners, nothing happens.
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| Catalonia secession bid: Will a pause change the prospects? Posted: 10 Oct 2017 01:56 PM PDT ![Catalonia secession bid: Will a pause change the prospects?]( "Catalonia secession bid: Will a pause change the prospects?") The separatist leader of Catalonia stepped back from the brink Tuesday evening, postponing a much heralded unilateral declaration of independence and offering to open talks with the central government of Madrid. "Today we are making a gesture of responsibility in favor of dialogue," Carles Puigdemont, the president of Catalonia told the regional parliament. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has repeatedly refused to negotiate with Catalan leaders unless they abandon their plans to declare independence.
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| Letter from Liberia: Protecting a hard-won peace Posted: 10 Oct 2017 01:54 PM PDT ![Letter from Liberia: Protecting a hard-won peace]( "Letter from Liberia: Protecting a hard-won peace") It was two days before Liberia's Oct. 10 presidential election, and I'd spent the morning following a group of women's activists on a protest march through Monrovia. For three weeks before the election, a group of women dressed in white shirts that read "PEACE YES!! NEVER AGAIN" and "SUSTAIN THE PEACE" prayed and fasted from dawn to dusk every day under a marquee near the president's house.
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| Amid Evangelical decline, growing split between young Christians and church elders Posted: 10 Oct 2017 01:05 PM PDT ![Amid Evangelical decline, growing split between young Christians and church elders]( "Amid Evangelical decline, growing split between young Christians and church elders") For Andrew Walker, the current "post-Christian" state of American culture has posed a serious challenge to the faithful. For a variety of reasons, fewer and fewer Americans now have a grasp of the fundamentals of orthodox, biblical teachings, says Mr. Walker, director of policy studies for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Like many who keep attuned to the country's religious landscape, he notes, too, the dramatic rise of the so-called "nones," especially among the young, who may believe in God, but have begun to refuse to identify with a particular religious group.
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