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By Kathryn Post
(RNS) — ‘The biggest lesson I had to learn is that God’s lack of an answer to my prayers to change me was an answer, because there was…
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Why Nationalism is Dangerous and Incompatible with Christianity
Speaking at a recent election rally for Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Trump admitted to being a nationalist: “You know, they have a word. It sort of became old-fashioned. It’s called…
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How Biology (and the Bible) Breaks the Binary of Human Sexuality
By Erin Lane
In a misguided move for clarity, President Trump, along with the Health and Human Services Department, is suggesting that sex be defined as an immutable, biological fact, determined at birth…
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We Are Not Meant to Be Silent
EDITOR’S NOTE: Throughout October, we have been engaging in an online book study of Kathy Khang’s Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How We Speak Up. Read this closing reflection based…
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Why Vote?
I know many of us are feeling discouraged, if not downright depressed. The onslaught of corruption, unprecedented violations of process, and absence of adherence to basic values of democracy are…
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7 Thoughts on Christian Living from Eugene Peterson
By Jana Riess
Eugene Peterson died yesterday (Monday). I wasn’t surprised at his death — RNS reported last week that he had entered hospice care — but I was surprised by my reaction to it. I…
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The Church’s Oppression of Women
American Christianity has been a horrible place for women. It ignores them, abuses them, assaults them, objectifies them, oppresses them, and then attempts to theologically rationalize it all as being…
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In Pursuit of Biblical Christianity
By Bill Cayley
When questions relating to the common good arise, especially in relation to issues such as poverty, health care, immigration, and equity in general, discussion sooner or later casts the issue…
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Politics as a Substitute for Religion Will Inevitably Let You Down
They pore over Nate Silver’s political data analyses with the rapt attention of day traders sizing up the stock market. Every day brings emotional peaks and valleys with each up…
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Breaking the Bonds of White Silence
EDITOR’S NOTE: Throughout October, we’re engaging in an online book study of Kathy Khang’s Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How We Speak Up. Along the way, we’ll offer a reflection…
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How Howard Thurman Can Help Christians Heal Their Political Divides
By Jemar Tisby
In his timeless book “Jesus and the Disinherited,” Black minister and theologian Howard Thurman wrote, “There is one overmastering problem that the socially and politically disinherited always face: Under what…
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Where Have All the Sad Songs Gone?
By Marty Duren
Hurricanes, fires and floods leave dozens dead. Mass shootings devastate schools, churches and public spaces. Leaders reel under accusations of corruption and misconduct. And congregations sing songs of joy. Though…
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On God’s Side?
Right along party lines, Brett Kavanaugh was finally confirmed to the Supreme Court. Those same party lines, unfortunately, also divide us in our communities and drive us far apart. Some…
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Finding Your Voice
EDITOR’S NOTE: Throughout October, we’re engaging in an online book study of Kathy Khang’s Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How We Speak Up. Along the way, we’ll offer a reflection…
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Man Enough to Ask for Help
From the time I was a kid, I had been taught that being strong meant that you handle things, that you deal with things on your own, that you fix…
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The Wounds of Evangelical Purity Culture
As a teenager, I went to the sandbox in the empty playground beside my church when I wanted to be alone. I dug my bare feet down deep, cooling them…
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Just Keep Walking
By Morf Morford
One of my favorite parables of Jesus is the story about “The Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37). This story is simple, direct, and familiar — and usually dissected and analyzed into…
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Just Keep Walking
By Morf Morford
One of my favorite parables of Jesus is story about “The Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37). This story is simple, direct, and familiar — and usually dissected and analyzed into vaporous…
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Beloved, Take Up Space
EDITOR’S NOTE: Throughout October, we’re engaging in an online book study of Kathy Khang’s Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How We Speak Up. Along the way, we’ll offer a reflection…
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How Christians Should Respond to Refugees and Immigrants
All of us in the United States arrived here as immigrants, refugees, or slaves. The only exception is Native Americans. This land was originally their land. For the immigrant, the…
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Red Letter Christians Go to Court with Judge Wendell Griffen
By Tony Campolo
In our struggle against capital punishment, Judge Wendell Griffen stands out as a hero. On April 14, 2017 — as a citizen of the state of Arkansas — he attended…
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Who Among Us? What the Kavanaugh Hearings Can Teach Us About Forgiveness
After credible allegations of sexual assault against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh were made public two weeks ago — allegations that Christine Blasey Ford recounted in a live Senate…
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Living with Terror
By Elrena Evans
“Three babies and two adults were injured after being stabbed in a private day care facility in Queens early Friday, officials said.” ~ New York Post, 9/21/2018 “An employee…fatally shot three…
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The Scandalous Love of God
Some books want to be born into this world. That Jacqueline Bussie’s latest work, Love Without Limits, almost wasn’t is a testament to why we so need it. Written during…
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Father Brett Kavanaugh Would Be Suspended and Investigated
By Thomas Reese
If Brett Kavanaugh were a Catholic priest, how would we now expect the church to deal with him? Kavanaugh is not just any judge, of course. He’s been nominated to…
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Called to Respond: Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery
By Will O’Brien
Many Christians are actively seeking to address many of the deep social ills in our world today — only to realize that our own tradition has contributed (and continues to…
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In Pursuit of Real Wisdom
By Cory Driver
Real wisdom is displayed not in being coldly intelligent, but in acting out loving righteousness. This week the revised common lectionary strings together passages (Psalms 1, James 3:13-18, Mark 9:30-37)…
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Speak Love: #RaiseYourVoice Online Book Study
In the summer of 2016, I was passionately (and I thought strategically) using social media to lay my small brick in the building of a just society by affirming that…
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The World’s Hidden Health Crisis
Mentioned in the Bible no fewer than 722 times, water blesses, sanctifies, and purifies in religion. Yet far too often in healthcare settings, it does not do so because medical staff…
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Why #MeToo Is an American Yom Kippur
When you hear the blast of the shofar, what should you really be hearing? According to the Talmud, you should hear howling. The howling, the crying, the screams of women.…
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Social Justice Is Central to the Gospel
EDITOR’S NOTE: The background research for this article is from John D. Barry’s new book, Jesus’ Economy: A Biblical View of Poverty, the Currency of Love, and a Pattern for…
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Dallas Revival, Fall Book Study, & More
By RLC Editor
At Red Letter Christians, we seek to amplify the voices of leaders and movements committed to Jesus and justice. We are honored to partner with a variety of organizations and…
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A Counter-Cultural Church Grows in Brooklyn
By Tony Campolo
Every Monday night at 10:30 p.m., more than 150 young people squeeze into a backroom theatre connected to a bar in Brooklyn, New York. They would never call their gathering…
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Death in September
The title of this blog is a reference to an Ernest Hemingway book about bullfighting, a gruesome and violent sport made somehow beautiful in Hemingway’s spare prose. Hemingway, I know…
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Crafting a Better World
Making It, which NBC has renewed for a second season, is teaching us how to use our hands to scratch a digital age itch. Airing its season one finale this…
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Marching for a Culture of Nonviolence
By RLC Editor
On Saturday, September 22 at 9 a.m., hundreds will rally and march from the Dr. King Statue (on the Southside of the Lincoln Memorial), to the White House for a vigil…
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For Black Women at Church, It’s More Than the Aretha Eulogy
A black pastor’s controversial eulogy at Aretha Franklin’s funeral laid bare before the world what black women say they have experienced for generations: sexism and inequality in their houses of…
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Battle Lines Form over Social Justice: Is It Gospel or Heresy?
By Jemar Tisby
An old question has recently found new energy among Christians. “What does the gospel have to do with justice, particularly social justice?” Justice has been a frequent topic these days…
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A Transgender Priest Finds A New Life Helping Others on the Margins
By Jane Roberts
In the makeshift chapel at Constance Abbey, an Episcopal way station for the homeless here, Mother Gillian Klee celebrated the Eucharist one morning for a small group of guests and…
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Swords, Plowshares, and Global Firearm Deaths
By Bill Cayley
With recent events in Jacksonville putting gun violence front and center in the headlines once again, a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Association gives us some…
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Bread and Justice: Lessons in Prayer
By Will O’Brien
Prayer is a central aspect of the Christian life. A key element in our belief is that God answers the faithful prayer of believers. The Lord himself asserts that if…
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Responding to Suicide with Faith
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Creator, is this: to care for the vulnerable among us in their distress, and to keep oneself apart from the fears of the…
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When Christians Sell Out Christians for Political Power
There’s a story in the Old Testament about the king of Babylon, Belshazzar, who hosted a dinner for his religious leaders and royal elites. The blindingly arrogant king, surrounded by…
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This Is Not Normal
From mass shootings to suicides, gun violence has become so common that it’s become far too easy to normalize it. Mass shootings and other forms of gun violence ARE NOT…
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The Catholic Church Needs a Reboot
By Mike Regs
The recent disturbing revelations by the Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania are having the effect of shaking the faith of even the staunchest followers. How such disgusting travesties were allowed to…
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How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul—and Can Regain It in the Age of Trump
By Jana Riess
Recently I wrote a column outlining several reasons Republicans should be worried for the long-term health of their political party. In a nutshell, demographics are not on their side. For example, religious…
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Why in the World Would Anyone Get Ordained Today?
Last night, on a random Tuesday night at the end of summer, I attended an ordination. Actually I didn’t just attend, I participated in an ordination. Ordination, the act of consecrating someone…
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#ChurchToo Supporter Karen Swallow Prior Builds Bridges Between the Extremes
Karen Swallow Prior is an evangelical English professor in rural Virginia who can claim something most others who fit that description can’t: more than 25,000 Twitter followers. A native of…
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Jesus’ Radical Redefinition of Family: #LoveWithoutLimits
When Jesus says we have to hate our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, he means that we have to live in a way that shows the world: your true…
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An Open Letter to My Roman Catholic Friends
When I read the accounts of the grand jury report, accusing three hundred Roman Catholic priests in western Pennsylvania of abusing a thousand children, I felt nauseous. Let me tell you…
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Jesus’ Strong Words for Pedophile Priests
The Christian world is still shaking from the tremors of the grand jury report released on August 14th regarding the abuse and cover-ups of over 1,000 children by more than…
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How to Get Ready to Die
By Tony Campolo
One of the most remarkable sermons I ever heard was delivered by Norman Vincent Peale, at the Ocean City Tabernacle in Ocean City, New Jersey. At the age of 98,…
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Why Native Americans Struggle to Protect Their Sacred Places
Forty years ago, the U.S. Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act so that Native Americans could practice their faith freely and that access to their sacred sites would be protected.…
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The Truth of Jesus and the Lies of Trump
Remember the old fundamentalist bumper sticker, “The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it!”? Just replace “the Bible” with the word “Trump” and you have the mindset of…
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‘The Word Became Flesh’: Sanctuary for Immigrants & Refugees
By Jamie Rye
He was 18 years old when he crawled through the hatch of a tanker truck bound for a new country — a land that coined itself as a place of…
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Willow Creek Offers Lessons in Accountability
By Jacob Lupfer
Church leaders do not need standing ovations. That was my first thought as I read in March about how congregants of Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago rose to their…
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Christians Are Why the Death Penalty Lives On
With America’s next executions scheduled for Thursday (Aug. 9) in Tennessee and next week (Aug. 14) in Nebraska, there couldn’t have been a better time for Pope Francis to wholeheartedly…
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‘We Want A King Over Us’: From King Saul to Donald Trump
By Bill Cayley
“Be careful what you pray for, you might get it.” There are a number of biblical lenses through which to see the presidency of Donald Trump, but ever since the…
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Don’t You Dare Tell Me I’m Not Evangelical
I’m a 33-year-old woman, a wife and a mom of two, and I’ve given five years of my life to working in ordained ministry as a Lutheran pastor, following a…
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Protecting Religious Liberty Requires Opposing Kavanaugh
Conservatives are praising President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, calling him “a religious liberty warrior” and praising his refusal “to banish religion from the public…
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The Culture Wars Need to Make A Safe Space for Conscience
By Jacob Lupfer
At a women’s professional soccer game in Portland, Ore., in May, two groups were making noise from the seats: locals rooting on the hometown Portland Thorns, and another set of…
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#RaiseYourVoice: Moving Beyond the ‘Impostor Syndrome Wilderness’
By Kathy Khang
EDITOR’S NOTE: In the spirit of prophetic wisdom and resistance, we are proud to offer this book excerpt from Red Letter Christian Kathy Khang. Her new book, Raise Your Voice:…
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What Would A Pharisee Do?
By Morf Morford
When the history of early 21st century faith is written, like every era, it will be filled will tales of persecution, courage, and betrayals. Forced migrations, racial profiling, and caged…
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Repentance & Reconstruction: How to Unlearn Slaveholder Religion
By Dan Harrison
EDITOR’S NOTE: Throughout July, we’re engaging in an online book study of Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion. Each Friday, we’ll offer a guest reflection based on our readings…
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Trump Christianity and the Abandonment of Jesus
I know that the name “Jesus” is often heard in many of the churches whose members overwhelmingly support President Trump. Nevertheless, I’m convinced that the Jesus of the Gospels is…
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Six Ways Church Communities Can Be CreatureKind
I have always loved animals. And thanks to my parents, I began my formation as a Jesus-follower from a very early age. I vividly remember walking into my bedroom as…
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We Challenge Trump’s Evangelical Defenders To Live TV Debate About Faith & Public Policy
Dear Jerry Falwell, Jr., Robert Jeffress, Paula White and Franklin Graham, We write in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to invite you to join us for a round…
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6 Gifts of Aging from Parker Palmer
By Jana Riess
There’s no shortage of advice these days about aging — though in our culture, most of that advice seems to be about how to deny that it’s happening. Dye your…
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Evangelical Women & Men Call for A Pause on Culture War
Last week a rising chorus of leading evangelical women called America to stop the Senate from rushing to confirm a replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. They…
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Confronting Complacency & Complicity: How to Unlearn Slaveholder Religion
EDITOR’S NOTE: Throughout July, we’re engaging in an online book study of Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion. Each Friday, we’ll offer a guest reflection based on our readings…
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For Many Muslims, Family Border Protections Are Personal
By Aysha Khan
When Imam Arjan Abu Sa’ad turned on the news to see reports of toddlers being pulled from their families and detained in cages after crossing the U.S. border, he was shocked.…
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Why It’s Good for Girls to See Clergywomen
I was ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church [in 2003]. When the service concluded I was greeting people in the shaking hands line and a family of four…
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The War on Poverty Is Not Over
President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers declared last week that America’s war on poverty “is largely over and a success.” In their opinion, this now makes a case for them to establish…
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The Surprising Success & Faith of ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’
There’s a moment near the beginning of the documentary film “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” — as the trolley that transported millions of children to the Neighborhood of Make Believe…
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Living an Embodied Faith: How to Unlearn Slaveholder Religion
EDITOR’S NOTE: Throughout July, we’re engaging in an online book study of Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion. Each Friday, we’ll offer a guest reflection based…
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Refusing to Compromise for Power
By Cory Driver
I teach American students at a study abroad center in Morocco. Each year, for Fall and Spring breaks, almost all my students go to Europe for a week-long vacation. Upon…
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5 Faith Facts About Brett Kavanaugh
President Trump announced last night that Brett Kavanaugh, 53, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is his Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy,…
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Heeding Evidence & Wisdom for Immigration Justice
By Bill Cayley
Following the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed President Trump’s “Travel Ban” to stand, the president made his “Strong Borders, No Crime!” views unequivocally clear once again through both…
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The Power of Disillusionment: How to Unlearn Slaveholder Religion
By Abby Stevens
EDITOR’S NOTE: Throughout July, we’re engaging in an online book study of Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion. Each Friday, we’ll offer a guest reflection based…
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The Lie of American Freedom: A Theology of Glory
A couple of days ago, I was flying back to Minneapolis after three days in Dallas, visiting large Southern Baptist churches for Fourth of July weekend and learning how American…
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A Conflicted Allegiance
By Jon Huckins
This past Sunday, our community spent some time wrestling with the implications of “allegiance” in light of the 4th of July holiday. It was good, hard, and so, so important.…
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Why White Evangelicals Voted for Trump: Fear, Power, and Nostalgia
By Jana Riess
It’s now a famous (infamous?) truism that 81 percent of white evangelicals supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. In doing so, evangelical leaders cast aside their past and…
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Evangelical Leaders Downplay Potential Roe v. Wade Reversal
For evangelical Christian leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr., this is their political holy grail. Like many religious conservatives in a position to know, the Liberty University president with close ties…
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Why God Is Not in Control
By Tony Campolo
All too often when there is news of a tragedy, such as a mass shooting or a child suffering from bone cancer, there will be someone who will say something…
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Faith Leaders Lament the Muslim Travel Ban
By RLC Editor
Rev. Dr. Jacqui J. Lewis (Senior Minister of Middle Collegiate Church, Manhattan) My rabbi, Jesus, once encouraged his crestfallen followers, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they will be comforted.”…
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We Will Not Cooperate
EDITOR’S NOTE: 11 faith leaders — including Don Golden (RLC Executive Director) and Shane Claiborne (RLC co-founder) — were arrested at the White House yesterday. We offer Shane’s reflection on…
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Why Won’t Most of Trump’s ‘Court Evangelicals’ Publicly Condemn His Border Policy?
By John Fea
The United States is facing a crisis in “family values.” This, however, is not the kind of crisis we often hear talked about by the evangelical wing of the Republican…
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A Call For Mass Noncooperation With the Racist Policies of “America First”
For the past six weeks, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has organized nonviolent moral fusion direct actions in 39 states and the District of Columbia,…
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Healing the Divide: ‘Reconstructing the Gospel’ Online Book Study
Back in the ‘90s, I entered the river of grace through an evangelical tributary lined with impassioned altar calls and communion bread so sweet one could only hope for crumbs…
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‘This is A Normal I’d Like to Remember’
June 21, 2008 – Day 19 Complete, 25 km A Journal Entry from my pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago in Spain. “It’s normal.” For my friends along the Camino,…
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Exodus 16: Everybody’s Got a Right to Live
By Cory Driver
EDITOR’S NOTE: As the Poor People’s Campaign proclaims, it is immoral and unjust that so many people in the U.S. — from Puerto Rico to Flint, Michigan — live without access…
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Separated on Father’s Day
They were given 24 hours to leave, or they would be killed. Tragically, they had to abandon their 13-year-old son who had been brainwashed and integrated into the gang. That’s…
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Why is Jeff Sessions Quoting Romans 13 and Why is It So Often Invoked?
Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children from their families at the border this week by citing a passage from the Apostle Paul’s epistle…
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God, Our Parent, Would Never Treat Children Like This
God, known by many as our Father, would never sanction the punitive traumatizing of children, by separating them from their parents at a national border. As a parent, it is…
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RLC Partner Updates
By RLC Editor
At Red Letter Christians, we seek to amplify the voices of leaders and movements committed to Jesus and justice. We are honored to partner with a variety of organizations and…
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Separating Immigrant Children from Their Families is Torture
The Trump Administration is taking children away to punish immigrants and asylum seekers. When conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt questioned Attorney General Jeff Sessions about the morality of separating…
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In Gratitude to Our Supporters
By Don Golden
It’s been two months since the #LynchburgRevival, but the media coverage continues to roll in! Most recently, a New York Times article about the revival introduced thousands of new folks…
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A Confession of Faith & Love
By Tony Campolo
We Red Letter Christians have strong allies, and none is more prominent and significant than our kinship with a movement called Reclaiming Jesus, initiated by a group of well-established Christian…
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Exodus Economics & Equity for All
By RLC Editor
EDITOR’S NOTE: This excerpt is from Practicing the King’s Economy: Honoring Jesus in How We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give, by Michael Rhodes, Robby Holt, and Brian Fikkert. Used…
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Michael Curry v. Robert Jeffress on the Biblical View of Government
By Mark Silk
Ah, celebrity! Thanks to his star turn preaching at the recent royal wedding, Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, has become the first Mainline Protestant leader in a generation to…
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Why It’s Not Okay to Call Humans ‘Animals’
I wonder, as I sift articles about “the wall” and separated children and MS-13 gang members, how many writers, commentators, and citizens have spent time at the border. How many…