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I often wonder if Jesus suddenly appeared on the modern political scene, would we recognize him as a leader—or would we reject him because he did not look…
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Mommy, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Your Anger
Jake and I were driving to preschool/church earlier this week and he said the funniest thing. He’s almost 3 years old, so he says lots of funny things –…
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Shane Claiborne Heads the Red Letter Christians Movement to Abolish Capital Punishment
By Tony CampoloShane Claiborne, one of the co-directors of the Red Letter Christians movement, has made abolishing the death penalty a major commitment. He not only has drawn up petitions to…
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If I Were A Pastor
By Morf MorfordIf I were a pastor I’d speak of fire – Not the fire of Hell Or condemnation, But the fire of creation, The pure fire of existence, The inevitable,…
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Mike Brown Means…
It’s a call and response chant started on the streets of Ferguson that has spread across the nation. “Mike Brown means” “… we got to fight back!” …
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Coming Together on Climate Change
Climate change is profoundly impacting God’s creation and people, with the poorest and most vulnerable bearing the greatest consequences. The impacts of increasing droughts, floods, wildfires, extreme weather and…
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Hiroshima Day in the Words of George Zabelka
By RLC EditorToday we remember the 70th anniversary of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima with the words of George Zabelka, an Air Force chaplain who blessed the men…
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Ferguson and Faith
August 9th marks the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. With the rally cry “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot, ” emerging young leaders of today’s…
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Ferguson and Faith
By RLC EditorAugust 9th marks the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. With the rally cry “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot, ” emerging young leaders of today’s…
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Pruning Withered Petals and Facing Death in July 2015
July is the cruelest month, with apologies to T.S. Eliot. July is when grass and people die, when flowers wither in the afternoon heat and parents secretly count…
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Homosexuality: A Better Approach
By Ron SiderEDITOR’S NOTE: Recently, Dr. Tony Campolo issued a statement “For the Record” articulating his full support of sexual minorities, affirmation of same-sex unions, and his hopes for full inclusion…
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Why Crucifying Tony Campolo Does Not Serve the Cause of Christ
By Tim OttoEDITOR’S NOTE: Recently, Dr. Tony Campolo issued a statement “For the Record” articulating his full support of sexual minorities, affirmation of same-sex unions, and his hopes for full inclusion…
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A Lament for Sandra Bland…And for Me
I am going to write. I have deadlines to make. I am not going to think about #SandraBland. I am not going to think about how a 28-year-old African…
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Demythologising Our World: Francis Gets Behind The Causes of Climate Change
By Mick PopeIt’s nearly been a month since Pope Francis released Laudato Si’, and it’s taken me a while to digest it. One of the most profound things that lies behind…
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The Voting Rights Act’s Jubilee: A Necessary Interruption
Despite the gentrification of its core over the past decade, Winston-Salem is still a sleepy Southern town on a summer Sunday evening. I get off the highway at Martin…
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A Moment for History: Why North Carolina is Our Selma
Civil rights history is often remembered in critical moments. Though the work was constant, and the lives of those who organized were complex and multifaceted, the history books mark…
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Stained Glass
By Shawn DuncanMartin Luther King Jr., in September of 1963, gave the eulogy for the four girls who were killed in the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church. He used his…
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Bryan Stevenson’s Call for a New Conversation
By RLC EditorEDITOR’S NOTE: Eastern University alumnus and Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson was named one of the 100 most influential people by TIME magazine this year. He’s argued persuasively…
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Another Letter to My Nephew: Toy Guns and Terrorists, Part 2
Continued from Part 1: https://kqq4hqwvjl.wpdns.site/?p=16004 • round 3 Your blood seems to be the culprit in all of this. It restricts you. Inadequate blood flow to…
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Another Letter to My Nephew: Toy Guns and Terrorists, Part 1
05/10/15 • round 1 Dear Kai, At four years old, I cannot help but brag on how bright you are. I am the luckiest auntie in the…
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Getting Church Right on the 4th of July
Few Sundays of the year do churches get things more wrong than on the Sunday nearest to the 4th of July. The spirituality expressed in nationalistic holidays is a competing,…
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Drop Your Flag: Redefining Patriotism for the 4th
By Pete NewloveBree Newsome, an African American woman, was hoisted over a fence by a white man (a purposely symbolic pairing), which allowed her to scale a flag pole while reciting…
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The 4th of July for Native Americans: It’s Complicated
By Mark CharlesThe other day I was eating dinner with my wife in a restaurant located in Gallup, New Mexico, a border town to the Navajo reservation. Gallup was recently named…
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The American Way and The Jesus Way in Conflict
Brian Zahnd is the co-founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Brian is known for his focus on embracing…
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Life After SCOTUS
Leading up to – and in the immediate wake of – the SCOTUS decision in support of marriage equality in all 50 states, a number of religious and faith community leaders contacted…
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What To Do With My Confederate Flag?
I own a Confederate flag. I grew up in East Tennessee, and the Confederate flag branded everything we looked at in our high school – even the cheerleaders…
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Lay Her to Rest: On the Confederate Flag After Charleston
By Josina GuessWhen my husband and I were considering marriage, he dropped a major surprise on me. No, he hadn’t slept with another woman, but the sense of shock and betrayal…
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A Call to Worship for the Tragedy in Charleston
By RLC EditorRed Letter Christians join fellow Christians around the world today to mourn with sisters and brothers at Emmanuel AME Church with this litany from One Church Liturgy. [Leader] We…
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A Native American’s Lament for #CharlestonShooting
By Mark CharlesToday I mourn over the life of each and every person that was violently taken in Charleston, South Carolina. I lament that a 5 year old child was…
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Making Sense of the Charleston Shooting
Last night I attended a memorial service for the nine victims of the Mother Emmanuel church shooting in Charleston, SC. Hearing each name, we sat in silence to mourn the…
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Responding to the Cry of the Natural World
By Micah BalesPope Francis’ ecological encyclical comes out today, and there are many reasons for hope. It’s encouraging to see a such a high-profile Christian leader taking a strong stand on both ecological issues and those…
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Two Tissues
By Josina GuessTo the woman who was sitting two pews back from me in church on Sunday, June 7, 2015, Thank you for handing me those tissues. By the time…
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Bless the Good: How Red Letter Christians Bear Witness to God’s Love
On June 8, 2015, Red Letter Christian founder, Tony Campolo, released a statement on his personal website challenging the church to be more welcoming by embracing gay and lesbian…
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Still An Angry Christian
By Cindy BrandtLast year, I wrote a post titled I am An Angry Christian, celebrating the gift of anger. I’m glad I wrote it. It serves as a manifesto for myself,…
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Gay People Are Not An Issue: How Jesus Changes Minds
After decades of “bridge building” between the LGBTQ community and those who identify as Evangelicals in opposition to full LGBTQ inclusion, Tony Campolo spoke out in favor of both full…
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Freeing Men from Patriarchy’s Chains
Carolyn Custis James is president of the Whitby Forum, a ministry dedicated to addressing the deeper needs that confront both men and women as they work together to extend…
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All You Need is (Real) Love
By Morf MorfordI love the pastor of my church, but two Sundays in a row he spoke of the inadequacy of the thought from the Beatles song ‘Love is all you…
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God Will Provide: Hope After Christendom
Hand wringing among religious folks has never been in short supply, but the doomdayers really had their day a couple of weeks ago, when the Pew Research Center confirmed what conventional…
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Learning to See: Which Stories Matter If Black Lives Matter?
By RLC EditorEDITOR’S NOTE: Nebraska’s legislature voted yesterday to override Governor Ricketts veto and abolish the death penalty. Sen. Ernie Chambers, who sponsored the abolition bill, said, “We are talking about…
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4 Tips for Following Jesus in an Election Season
By Jon HuckinsWell, here we are again. Though the season seems to come around too soon and stick around too long, the candidates are telling us it’s time again. Some of our dinner…
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Josh Duggar & the Bondage of Our Souls
By Kathy VestalI never watched 19 Kids and Counting and never knew the Duggars existed until their scandal hit the news this week. But I had my own Josh Duggar.…
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Been Down Into the South: A 21st-Century Freedom Ride (Part 2)
Click here to read Part 1. At the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, we sat together in a former slave warehouse and talked about how our history of…
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Been Down Into the South: A 21st-Century Freedom Ride (Part 1)
In 1961, when the Congress for Racial Equality planned a “freedom ride” through the South to test the integration of interstate transit, they were experimenting in nonviolent direct action—a…
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Death Has Lost Its Sting
It’s hard to have mercy for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. It was Jesus who said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” And he certainly demonstrates that…
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Living Faithful Stories
By Cindy BrandtMyths and stories breathe life into the way we construct our societies. Stories explain our origin, dictate our afterlife, and assign meaning to everything in between: friendship, marriage, and…
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Hospitality and the Language of Knocks
We disabled our doorbell when our daughter was born and we instantly became conservators of a precious resource: baby sleep. Since we live in a hospitality house where many…
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How Moms Are Like Marines
When I think about my mom, I think about the Marines. It’s an unlikely pairing, given that the only uniform my mother has ever worn is a cringe-worthy…
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To Our Critics: We Seek the Christianity of Christ
Last month, Christianity Today published on its website a critical piece on Red Letter Christians. Because we can always learn something from our critics, many of us read Karren…
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Churches Unite to Reverse Foster Care Wait List
In recognition of foster care awareness month, this month’s Red Letter Carpet features Aaron and Amy Graham. Aaron and Amy have a career-long history of helping those in need:…
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The Danger of Not Being Ashamed: A White Mother’s Lament for Freddie Gray
I’m a white suburban mom, and I must speak out for justice for Freddie Gray I’ve written this blog in my head hundreds of times since Sunday night,…
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The Myth of Trickle-Down Change
I’ve heard some buzz in Christian circles that has troubled me. It is the idea that if we reach the most influential people in the world for Jesus… then…
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O Say, Can You See? A Way Forward After Baltimore
After dismissal, high school students in Baltimore went to the new shopping center, built after The Wire made their community—Freddie Gray’s community—famous. Freddie Gray is dead. No one is talking. …
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Finding Hope in Nepal
Today I leave for Kathmandu. This will be my 21st visit to a country and a people that I love. Reports indicate that 40% of the country was affected…
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I’m Needy and Proud of It… Or Trying to Be
By Lenora RandI have, for all intents and purposes, purchased the life-time group therapy membership package. But it’s not because I love it. Actually, I hate group therapy. No, I…
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Soccer In Kinshasha & Why We’re So Unhappy
I saw her pink soccer socks first, so daring they were almost more orange than pink, pulled up high to meet black and hot pink Adidas shorts in a…
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Resurrection in Cruel April
By Josina GuessEvery Friday at noon our staff community gathers to pray. Sometimes, if the weather is nice, we share prayer requests and then disperse outside to pray alone or in…
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Are We Training Pastors for Jobs That No Longer Exist?
It’s safe to say that the traditional expression of church has varied little in the Western world. This form worked well when the dominant culture was agrarian, most people were uneducated…
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9 Questions raised by Hozier’s hit song “Take Me to Church”
I listened to Hozier’s Take Me to Church all Holy Week, an odd sort of spiritual exercise, I suppose. At first it was the hauntingly catchy refrain: Take Me to Church –…
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Democracy Demands Community-Oriented Policing: Accept No Substitutes
By David CouperIn the late 1980s and early 90s, there was a major push in our country for traditional police to adopt the concept of community-oriented policing. Basically, it consists of…
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Giving Up Your “Spiritual Journey”
Don lived for years in the Chicago area, working hard and trying to keep up with the fast pace of his profession. Several years ago, he left the city…
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Our God Is Not the Stone-Throwing Kind
“Mama, I’ve been meaning to tell you something. I don’t believe in God anymore.” My eleven year old son told me with a matter of fact chirp how he…
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The Execution of Walter Scott
By David CouperIf I were back in uniform, I would wear a mourning band today over my badge. That’s how grieved I am as a former police chief in America today.…
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Remembering Gardner C Taylor: Evangelicals Need Social Conscience
On Easter Sunday, Rev. Dr. Gardner C. Taylor celebrated the resurrection in church, then later that afternoon joined Jesus in Heaven after 96 years of working in the vineyard on…
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Mapping Our World: On Being a Community Cartographer for Christ
I don’t really like maps. I learned how to read them in elementary school, but even today I stare at maps, eyes crossing, my brain finding it difficult to…
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Holy Week in an Unholy World
We call it Holy Week. But it was a terrible week. His trial reeked of injustice. His own disciple sold him out for a few pieces of silver, betrayed him…
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Washing the Feet of the Homeless
The feet and legs of the homeless men we serve at The Bowery Mission are a testimony to the pain they endure daily. Many of their legs are swollen…
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This Holy Week, End the Death Penalty
By RLC EditorEDITOR’S NOTE: During this holiest of weeks, when Christians around the world remember the execution of our Lord, 400 faith leaders have joined together to call for an end…
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A Holy Week Call to End Interposition of Loretta Lynch Nomination
EDITOR’S NOTE: Employing Old South tactics of interposition and nullification, the Senators from US Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch’s home state of North Carolina have blocked a vote on…
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Going the Jesus Way
By Tony CampoloFrom time to time it is critical that we make clear what Red Letter Christianity is all about. So here goes: 1st – Evangelical Christianity has done well…
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Police Killing Unarmed People Must Stop
By David CouperAs a former police leader and now a pastor, I am calling for an end to the killing of unarmed people by police. I’m talking about lethal violence used to resolve…
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Poverty Stinks
By RLC Editor< By George Wilkerson It smells like pee, it must: they crinkle their noses in disgust every time I walk by wafting it in their faces. …
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No Longer Confined: Cynthia Vaughn on Freedom Thru Forgiveness
By RLC EditorCynthia Vaughn lost both her parents when her father was convicted of killing her mother 30 years ago. What she didn’t realize until recently was that she also lost…
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Light of the World in an LED Era
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead…
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What Would Doug Say? A Plea for Kelly Gissendaner
By RLC EditorEDITOR’S NOTE: When the State of Georgia tried for a second time to execute Kelly Gissendaner on March 2nd, 2015, RLC joined thousands of Christians and people of conscience…
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Black Prophetic Fire in the Age of Obama
By Cornel WestThe great irony of our time is that in the age of Obama the grand Black prophetic tradition is weak and feeble. Obama’s Black face of the American empire…
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Pearls In the Pigsty? Contact Without Fellowship in An Internet Age
By Josina GuessJesus told his disciples “Don’t give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and…
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About My Humanist Son: The Challenge of Those Who Follow Jesus Without Belief
By Tony CampoloA year ago, my son Bart announced that he no longer believed in God. He wanted to, he told me, but he just couldn’t. There were too many things…
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I Am A Teenage Female Suicide Bomber
On Tuesday a teenage female suicide bomber, likely affiliated with Boko Haram, set off an explosive in a marketplace in Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing herself and 33 other people. This…
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War, War, and More War
By RLC EditorBy Greg Barrett First it was Clint Eastwood and American Sniper. For the sake of educating myself on all things mainstream, I endured two hours of this peculiar Western devotion to…
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Our Hands, God’s Work: An Interview With Rev. Stacy Martin
The Reverend Stacy Martin has made a career living out the ELCA tagline: “God’s work. Our hands.” Once the Vice President of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, she is…
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North Carolina is Our Selma
In 1950, fifteen years before the Selma-to-Montgomery march, William Faulkner, one of the South’s greatest authors, wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In 2015, as…
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Dreams, Deeds, and the Soul of Selma
Tens of thousands of Americans made the pilgrimage to Selma, Alabama, yesterday, March 7, 2015. They came to remember the sacrifices of everyday people who risked their lives to…
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Immigrants from the North
When I first began attending an international Spanish-speaking church as a language student studying in Costa Rica, I mistakenly assumed that the congregation was composed mainly of Spanish-speaking Costa…
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Officer Slaps Homeless Man, Exposes Systemic Violence
Heartless laws lead to harsh law enforcement. This was demonstrated last week when a police officer knocked down and viciously slapped a homeless man who was on his way…
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Nonviolence in the Face of ISIS?
By Micah BalesA couple of folks I really respect – Kate Gould of Friends Committee on National Legislation (aka, the Quaker Lobby), and Jim Wallis of Sojourners – were recently on the O’Reilly Factor. For those of…
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The Gospel of Kelly Gissendaner
Georgia Clergy just delivered 500 signatures of faith leaders and 40 boxes of names from around the world — calling for a stop to tonight’s execution of Kelly Gissendaner.…
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An Open Letter to Georgia’s Christian Citizens
By RLC EditorEDITOR’S NOTE: RLC has been following closely the story of Kelly Gissendaner, who is scheduled for execution in Georgia tonight. As many Christians support the death penalty, we wanted to…
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Georgia Forecast
By Josina GuessTonight Kelly Ann Gissendaner will be executed in GA. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied her request for clemency. They looked at who she was not who…
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Are We Preaching Preparation for Gentrification?
I can’t help but wonder sometimes if what I have heard preached from pulpits, on television, social media, and blogs, does nothing more than perpetuate classism, racism, and the…
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Faith Leaders Stand Together For Kelly Gissendaner’s Life
By RLC EditorEDITOR’S NOTE: Yesterday Shane Claiborne shared the story of Kelly Gissendaner, a woman sentenced to die whose execution was postponed this week because of inclement weather. Though the execution…
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Go & Sin No More: What Kelly Gissendaner Can Teach Us About Grace
Only 15 women have been executed in the US since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. For two death penalty cases involving women to make the news…
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Happy 80th Tony!
By RLC EditorRed Letter Christians founder, Tony Campolo, turns 80 today. As Tony likes to say, “You’re as young as your dreams, and as old as your cynicism.” Dream…
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An Open Letter to Tennessee (and Others in America’s Heartland Who May Be Listening In)
By Eric MintonEDITOR’S NOTE: In an effort to report on the prophetic witness of Christians in America today, RLC has run several posts in the past year on the Moral Movement, which…
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That Ashy Cross: Why Christians Are Marked By Death
A friend of mine texted me early in the morning on Ash Wednesday. She works in downtown Chicago and wouldn’t be back to the suburbs in time for our…
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Flipped: The Provocative Truth That Changes Everything You Know About God
By RLC EditorEDITORS NOTE: Longtime friend of Red Letter Christians, Doug Pagitt, released a new book today on reimagining life in God. It’s called Flipped. You can learn more at his…
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Is Jesus a Revolutionary?
I’m starting to think that Che Guevara and the Jesus of the Gospel according to Mark have an awful lot in common. I should explain, first, that I’m…
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Franklin Graham and “Christian” Violence
Calling for a degree of religious humility and self-examination strikes me as a reasonable thing to do. Clearly there are many people who don’t agree. Franklin Graham, son of…
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Is New Monasticism for Everyone?
We recently had one of my favorite authors visit our community for a couple of a days. To say that Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s books about applied faith, racial reconciliation, close Christian…
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On Being Nuts and Bolts
By Derek Flood“I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity, but because there were people willing to be nuts and bolts.” This quote is…
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Immigration: A Matter of the Spirit
Marco Saavedra is an artist, poet, writer, and sometime-dishwasher at his parents’ restaurant in the Bronx. He’s also an undocumented immigrant and one of nine Dreamers who, in 2013,…
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Mug Shots of God’s Presence
By Chris HokeOn a dark night the winter I first started going to the Skagit County Jail bible studies, the jail theologian guy I came to study under, Bob, said something…