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You never know the day your life will change—or the person who will change it. For me, her name was Om Hassan. I was 23, an American soldier…
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The Christian Right and the Decline of White Evangelicalism
In short, the quantitative and qualitative evidence – and, I will add, my own anecdotal evidence – strongly support the argument that the Christian Right has been a primary factor…
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Worth Fighting For: A Word from the Desens House
By Dean WrightStanding in the midst of that house in chaos felt like a refection on the chaos of my soul over the past few years. After being very active in our…
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Jesus, Justice, and the Suffering of the Marginalized
By David PiorekYet, where we see suffering, we often see Jesus. Jesus’ arrival in the Gerasenes shows us how he breaks into the marginalized areas of our societies where those who are…
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The Violence of a Religious Minority’s Majority
By Todd JohnsonWhere is the enlightenment in using force to preserve the way of life for a minority that will not espouse these self-evident truths? Where is the justice in allowing this…
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The Calling of Transformation
By Morf MorfordThese are the people who follow the calling we are all called to follow: to leave a trail of transformation wherever we go. There is no greater calling.
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The Racist Policing of China and the United States
Two massive injustices happening against two different groups of people in two different nations of the world should be equally addressed, simultaneously lamented, and simultaneously confronted.
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Evangelicals Dangerous Understanding of Jesus
Given their belief in a limited amount of available goods and resources in the world, coupled with the cultural belief that, because everyone was created in the image of God,…
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Announcing a Season of Nonviolent Moral Direct Action
If we cannot refuse cooperation with voter suppression now, we have no hope of representation in the coming decade that will work to address the interconnected crises of climate catastrophe,…
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The Uncomfortable In-Between
By RLC EditorDiscomfort leads us to a place where we are bothered when we compare what we have to what others don’t have.
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Mother Earth Has Suffered Enough: We Need Stronger Methane Rules
Rains and snows came when they were supposed to, bringing much needed refreshing to our community and land. Now, we are in a prolonged drought. We are in a national…
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Violence & Victory
By Gena ThomasViolence is a byproduct of victory in the prosperity-scarcity framework, as people are subconsciously taught to seek prosperity at all costs. But seeking justice requires us to lay down our…
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3 Roots of Discrimination in God’s Church
By Todd LollarYou may be surprised what people deem as secular society is not where I’ve experienced the most discrimination as a person who is differently abled.
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To Get Our Nation Back On Track, We Need A ‘Holy Recovery’
Scarcity has been the name of the game for far too long in American politics. We are constantly offered a choice between which group of people is forced to go…
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Blessing a Cultural Threshold
By Dori BakerA threshold is a place of letting go of an old identity and waiting on a new identity to emerge. It is a liminal moment when the sacred is being…
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The Religion of Jesus
By Sarah LawingThrough the writings of Howard Thurman, I have learned what I have always known. The religion of Jesus has always been about desiring a more equitable and just society, which…
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Walking in the Shadow
We have experienced a long night where we have been brought face-to-face with the staggering inequities pervading our society. No longer are we able to say we didn’t know, for…
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Christian Leaders from Around the Country Read Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech
By RLC EditorOne-hundred and sixty-nine years ago today, abolitionist, writer, and statesman Frederick Douglass gave a speech to the 600 members of the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society entitled “What to the Slave…
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Christian Leaders from Around the Country Reading FREDERICK DOUGLASS’ 1852 speech “WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY” (Read on July 3, 2021)
By RLC EditorOne-hundred and sixty-nine years ago today, abolitionist, writer, and statesman Frederick Douglass gave a speech to the 600 members of the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society entitled “What to the Slave…
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Brian McLaren, Doubt, and Decoding
It’s time, McLaren says with a clear tone of fearless urgency. In a world riddled with division, stuffed with nuclear warheads, and barrelling down a storyline of extinction, we need…
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Liturgy for Flag Removers
May we not litter our sacred spaces with the flags that we do not (ought not) worship. Christ, have mercy on our American dreams.
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Nationalism and the Undermining of Global Missions
By Bill MeffordThus, what I have strongly urged my evangelical Christian missionary friends serving in other countries to do is to lovingly and strongly confront the nationalism of their supporters.
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I’m not a ‘Real’ Man: Jesus, John Wayne, and Disability
By Sy HoekstraThe background is that I am blind, and have been since I was very young. I was never going to be a soldier, police officer, cowboy, or any of it.
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3 Things the Church Probably Didn’t Teach You About Sex
By Andrew LeeThere is so much more the church can do to celebrate sexual relationships. Sex should be talked about in the church. We won’t always get it exactly right, but I…
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A Time for Shalom
By Nathan HuntSix days a week we struggle for freedom. On the Sabbath, we sit in the liberating truth that we are already free. And as we dwell in Sabbath freedom, the…
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Propositional Church in a Wounded World
By Morf MorfordWhat were those “statements of faith” in the light of tragedy? Social upheaval? Personal challenges? Difficult relationships? Crisis? Or even encounters with wonder and discovery?
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Ten Ways to Resist a Dictatorship
By RLC EditorThis is our inheritance and our legacy. No matter what, our motherland will never lack in courage. Thank you for bearing witness to our resistance.
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Consistent and Faithful Witnesses
By Emily JonesRacial justice is a necessary part of the substantive call of discipleship, part of who we are called to be – day after day, year after year.
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The Church Is Not a Business
By Sarah StyfMinistry cannot happen without financial support from the very people who are participating in that ministry. But how should we handle Christian organizations when the survival of the institution comes…
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How the Year of Jubilee Challenges Us to Confront Monopoly Power
Although the Law was given specifically to a certain group of people in a certain cultural, political, and historical context, we can still study it to understand and apply what…
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Lovers of Peace Must Organize
By Mike MartinThe United States is unique to the world in our gun ownership, with nearly 400 million guns, more than one per resident. The prevalence of guns is not by accident.
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The ‘Single-Issue Voter Club’ and the Fight Against Gun Violence
Please, for the love of God, for the sake of those not yet killed by the next mass shooting, consider becoming a “single issue voter.”
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Overturn Dylann Roof’s Death Sentence — for Me, Not for Him
Without a death sentence, as I understand, there is just one appeal, after which we never have to hear the killer’s name again.
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Why We’re Glad Our Publisher Isn’t Backing The ‘God Bless The USA’ Bible
As authors published by Zondervan, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing known for its NIV Bibles, and activists against Christian nationalism, we were alarmed at this news, first reported by…
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Struggle is Faithfulness: Thoughts from Inside Chronic Illness
However, is God directly responsible for one person’s healing while another suffers or dies? When God gets credit for the first outcome but not the second, it leaves the second…
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The City on a Hill: Jerusalem Divided
The Holy Land will continue experiencing an unholy maintenance of occupation by force, only limited by violent interventions.
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Christian Faith Leader Sign-On to End the Federal Death Penalty
By RLC EditorEditor’s Note: Our friends and co-conspirators at Death Penalty Action have invited Christian Faith Leaders to sign the petition below. You’ll also find several resources for taking action following the petition…
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John Wayne, Jesus, and The End of Innocence
The short answer, according to Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, is that a man like Donald Trump is exactly whom they were expecting. Nothing like Jesus. But a lot like…
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Minimalism and the Christian Life
My working definition of minimalism is a focus on the aspects of life that matter most and intentionally removing everything else. What, then, are the aspects of life that matter most?
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Tired of Looking for the Exit
There are kids, teens, and adults at your church that are LGBTQ+. They’re wondering if there’s a place for them. And more will be coming. Or maybe they won’t. Not…
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Come to Me All You Who are Angry
Sketch drawn from a photograph in the Associated Press. A woman in the crowd lowers her mask to wail when she hears the grand jury decision regarding the death of…
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Come to Me All You Who are Angry
By RLC EditorDuring the last recession – the one they called “great” – I lost my home to foreclosure. I also lost my savings to survival, my credit to bankruptcy, a best…
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Seeking Other Seas
By Paul DemerI can’t understand much of what he’s saying, though I desperately wish I could. In this small way, I catch a glimpse of the culture shock that awaits the luckiest…
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My Breast Cancer Revealed a Mothering God
Now that I am in the post treatment phase punctuated by periodic check-ups, the everydayness of cancer has receded. In its wake, however, I am left with an indelible mark.…
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We Shouldn’t Know Their Names
The dead become a statistic that we debate regarding who has the right idea about what they did and did not deserve, and in so doing we convince ourselves that…
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The Christians Who Cannot Mourn Ma’Khia Bryant
By Sy HoekstraOnly syncretized faiths value the supremacy of human laws. We value truth. The truth is that the state took another Black girl from her family under the pretense of safety,…
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Good Fruit and Where We’ve Gotten It Wrong
LBGTQ youth from religious backgrounds are three times more likely to attempt suicide than their unchurched LGBTQ peers. This ought to be a wake up call for the church. This…
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Black Deaths Matter
By Morf MorfordOur media obsession with the taking of life (whether fictional or under the guise of “news”) literally defines our culture and era. And nothing captures our attention, passion, clicks, and…
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A Review of #ChurchToo: How Purity Culture Upholds Abuse and How to Find Healing
Allison’s work should compel Christians to contemplate the destruction wrought by purity culture, in our churches and homes and summer camps and institutions: in other words, every place where people…
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Pat Robertson’s Not Woke, He’s the Reason You Should Be
So a moment where someone is able to condemn murder and distinguish a Glock from a Taser might be retweeted or shared thousands of times, but it is not confession,…
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Why I Left and Why I Stayed
I wish though I could go back to that young girl, sitting in that big arena with all its grandeur. I wish I could invite her to a quiet, less…
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‘Go and Do Likewise’: Pursuing the Biblical Call to Justice
Who would your ‘Samaritan’ be today? A politician? A troll on Twitter? A violent terrorist? A police officer? An anarchist? Someone with a different sexual orientation?
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Hatred Toward Asian Americans is Not a New Evil
White supremacy is at the heart of anti-Asian hatred.
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No ‘Normal’ Way to Heal
No one fully appreciates normal until it is taken away, and often normal slips away in the blink of an eye with little warning or preparation.
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Gather Round the Forge (An Excerpt from Beating Guns)
By RLC EditorNot many people get argued into thinking differently, but experiences and stories move us, especially when we have the humility to listen and to view the world from a different…
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Changing the Way I Approach Abortion
By Sarah StyfI’m ready to leave behind the language and baggage of the pro-life movement to explore a politically unattached whole-life ethic.
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What Lil Nas X is Telling Us About the Hell We Create
By Mark BauerBut the more I’ve consumed content by artists like Lil Nas X, the more I realize the church and some of the puritanical standards I parroted end up creating a…
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Welcome to Wilderness Church: Where Stubborn Faith Makes Resurrection Possible
It is a mass exodus of individuals. And it is a lonely exodus. Not only have I lost the community I once had, I found myself without a community to…
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Easter Won’t be Cancelled
By Morf MorfordPerhaps the lesson of Easter still stands: no stone, no guards, no jeering crowds, no pious bureaucracy, no political compromise will ever hold back, or even begin to contain the…
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Sandbox Revolution: Raising Kids for a Just World
I think am learning more and more that the best parenting I can do is to let my kids lead and to let them change me.
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Easter, Extinction, and Nonviolent Direct Action
If Christmas is the season to be jolly, maybe—if the Gospels are anything to go by—Easter is the season for Christians to go to jail.
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Via Dolorosa, Minneapolis: The Suffering Crowd
With each tearful testimony, I think of what happened on that street in Minneapolis, as regular people watched heartless authorities while a man died unjustly. And I remember what happened…
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Easter Encouragement for the Spiritually Homeless
I can at least aim for a level of peace that transcends understanding. “Christ The Lord is Risen Today” will surely be available on YouTube.
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Christian Patriarchy Is Just Patriarchy
Christian patriarchy does not remain confined within the walls of our homes. It does not stay behind our pulpits. It cannot be peeled off suit coats like a name tag…
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How Much Hate Does It Take to Make a Hate Crime?
But that type of Jesus: inclusive, universal, loving, forgiving; was nowhere to be found at Crabapple First Baptist. And so Long learned to hate.
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Moving from Exclusion to Embrace in the Gender Conversation
My hope is that this work will become a resource and a way to respond, understanding very well that there’s still a whole lot more to unravel.
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Maybe It’s Time to Rethink the Second Amendment
The Second Amendment offers neither the moral authority nor unlimited legal authority for gun ownership. It is time that Americans, and especially my fellow evangelical Christians, refocus the faith they…
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The Problem of Cultural Comfort Zones
If we’re serious about pursuing deep and meaningful cross-cultural relationships, we need to put in a bit more work. We can’t just live in our own lane and interact when someone…
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Asian American Christian Collaborative Statement on the Atlanta Massacre & Ongoing Anti-Asian Hate
AACC also cries out against violence perpetrated in the name of Christianity. We condemn the evasion of responsibility by churches and denominations that have historically perpetuated the social conditions for…
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Never Again: A Litany for Rebuking Mass Shootings
I desperately need for not one more presidential term, one more year, one more month, one more sermon, one more day to go by without the country and the church—filled…
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Maewyn Succat and the Radical Forgiveness of Saint Patrick
Are you angry? Are you resentful and bitter over the past? Are there those whom you cannot or will not forgive? Maewyn Succat would tell us that with God’s help, there…
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One State Solution in Israel/Palestine? A Conversation and Review
He recounts a vision, like John-the-seer in the book of Revelation. Except his is not a binary vision of heaven’s victory and evil’s defeat, but of nonviolent generosity and mutual…
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The Use of Violence to Advance Political Goals
Distressingly, the language of spiritual warfare has transitioned into the sort of religious rhetoric that lends support to literal civil war, or at least religiously sanctioned violence.
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Choosing Love at Belonging’s Expense and Wondering What Now
It is awfully convenient to believe the right thing to do is whatever you want, at anyone else’s expense. It felt like the lives of the sick and vulnerable didn’t…
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On the Anniversary of the Shut-Down: A Prayer for What Was, Is, and Is to Come
It’s been a long road, and it’s not over, though it does seem to be changing. And we felt we couldn’t let this moment pass without marking it together in…
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Asking the Right Questions About LGBTQ Youth Will Transform Youth Ministry Into Public Witness
By Ross MurrayLogistical questions cannot be answered out of context. Instead, we need to address the mindset Christian leaders need to have when we are considering how our ministries can build a…
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US Military Attacks on Syria Detrimental to Peace
The United States must recognize the harmful effects of its current and historic foreign policy in the Middle East, and begin working toward a better future.
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A More Holistic Response to the Immigration Crisis
One of the key obstacles in moving progressive immigration policies from support to reality is the lack of passion and hope.
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World Beyond Words
Imperfect, abnormal, disabled in the eyes of the world, “despised and rejected of men,” it is they who meet life with the indomitable strength of the divine realm, while I…
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Dismantling the White Nationalist Jesus
There can be only one Jesus, and he was a person of color murdered in the streets simply for proclaiming God’s kingdom, where the poor are blessed, not forgotten.
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US Missile Strike in Syria: What You Should Know
By RLC EditorWe cannot bomb our way to peace. What is imperative is that we don’t lose sight of the civilians and families whose homes and communities in Syria and Iraq bear…
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What Does It Mean To Be Disembodied?
Reembodied people reembody others: they help give back all the pieces of life that get boxed, cut-off, disintegrated, scorned.
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You Don’t Have to Go Home But You Can’t Stay Here
Letting go of the past and moving forward is a splendid suggestion. I’m just wondering how ministers and pastors will entice people to return to church. We saw how easily…
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Again and Again: A Song for Lent
By The ManyThere’s lament – “Why are things so broken – again and again – where has all the mercy gone.” But also this gratitude – “again and again”– in the midst…
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Mixed Blessing and the Experience of Double Minorities
It’s so important for us multiethnic folks to hear these truths. Contrary to the lies that the evil one whispers in our ears, we are not cosmic mishaps.
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Identifying Spiritual Abuse
Today, it is darkly comedic, the irony of this moment. At the time, it was crushing. Who was I to propose such a thing? Had I witnessed any of what…
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The Idolatry of Christian Nationalism
Evil attacks Christians by tricking them into believing they’re “being biblical” when in reality they aren’t being Christlike.
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Say ‘No’ to Christian Nationalism: Evangelical Leaders Statement
By RLC EditorWe recognize that evangelicalism, and white evangelicalism, in particular, has been susceptible to the heresy of Christian nationalism because of a long history of faith leaders accommodating white supremacy. We…
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Dear Church: Is the Gospel Second to Power?
By Sarah StyfHow can a community of believers maintain that strength if the truth is buried for the sake of power, if the Gospel plays second fiddle to money, and if appearances…
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Revelation’s Warning About Christian Nationalism
We must not sell our souls for the lesser power of nationalism, for nationalism will reap what it sows and get what it deserves—which from John’s perspective, is death.
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A Viral Prayer in the Age of COVID-19
It was a moment, a moment of extraordinary unity and goodwill. I am afraid the moment has passed. We are a year in now.
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The Continued Challenges of the Trumpism Movement
By Terry WebbThis theocratic theology contrasts with historic Christian polity, based on the life and teachings of Jesus who espouses a domain called the Kingdom of Heaven, different from and challenging to…
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How Not to be a Crappy Christian
As professors—one a politically-engaged theologian and the other a theologically-engaged political scientist—we admit that this situation leaves us concerned and scratching our heads. In our current American context, we wonder:…
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Jesus Invited Women to Take Their Place
Throughout history, women overwhelmingly have been silenced when they’ve had a truth to tell, so much so that it felt detrimental to speak up. A waste of words. Yet Jesus,…
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Silence: The Facilitator of Clergy Abuse
The epidemic of clergy misconduct is not only the abuse itself, but the Silence that enables the abuse to continue to exponentially harm people. While perpetrators will always exist, the…
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Sunday Words on Weekdays
The loved one is in prison, the hospital, hospice, quarantine, or serving abroad. Some extended families face all of these circumstances at once right now. Yet the scriptures don’t avoid…
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How to Do Church During a Pandemic
By Andrew LeeEspecially during a time when it feels like we are all suffering, when no one is really “healthy” and giving out of an abundance of energy, time, or resources, I…
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Look for the Helpers
By Paul DemerWhat can the “look for the helpers” advice do for us in these times? I suggest that, while it doesn’t diminish the painful realities of our corporate life, it does offer us one path through the…
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Letting Go of Judgement—An Excerpt from ‘Learning to Be’
When I’m tempted to judge someone or a situation, I’m being invited to ask myself, Why do I think what I’m thinking? What am I feeling? How do I act…
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At The Chapel’s Door: How Bruce Springsteen’s Jeep Ad Displays the Roots of Anti-Asian Violence
By Lucas KwongWith all due respect to the literal house of worship that stands at the center of the lower 48, we should not be working to preserve a chapel founded on…
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Severing the Ties Between Amazon, Christianity, and the Failed White Nationalist Coup
Unless the church in America is to be consigned to the ash heap of social history, we must identify actions that are hateful and unchristian, cast them out, and redouble…