Red 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…

  EDITORS 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…

  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…

  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,…

White friends in the South, we are living in a scary world. In any given month it seems there are fresh stories of black people marching in protest, Muslim terrorists…

  Nadia Bolz-Weber is the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints, an ECLA mission church in Denver, Colorado. She is the author of three books, including the New…

  I just heard from a student of mine from probably twenty years ago.   He told me that as a young man, he had gotten into trouble and was…

  Go for a ride in the Pope-mobile (he comes to Philly in September). I’d settle for a hug from Francis, but would really like to jump in a fire…

  100 years ago this year, during the First World War, a Christmas truce took place between British, German and French soldiers in the trenches on the Western Front. On…

  On November 17, 1993 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed into law by President Clinton in agreement with Canada and Mexico to create the world’s largest…

  I think it was when Facebook was messing with our minds, seeing if they could toy with our emotions (they could), when I read research that said that people…

  For Christmas in 1849, when nearly four million people were enslaved in America, abolitionists introduced a new carol. “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” celebrated the announcement of “peace…

  This year I’ve been painfully and shockingly confronted by the vulnerability of the newborn child.   I held and prayed for a four-month-old in an orphanage who would pass…

  You may have never attended an “average” church.   But you’ve certainly seen one.   Older buildings, often made of dark brick – with old-fashioned roofs that slope down…

  They did it again. A random group of Christmas carolers blitzed the City singing songs and giving away over $10, 000 in a random act of kindness.   Actually……

  I’m not sure if religion is the opiate of the masses, but I’m convinced that indifference is the opiate of the privileged. We turn to it when overwhelmed by the discomfort we…

  Every day when I wake up and get out of bed, I understand that—as a person of color leading a non-profit organization—I will be negotiating power. To survive and…

  I grieve over torture. I grieve not only for those subjected to abuse no human being should be forced to endure. I grieve not primarily as an American citizen who…

  Jesus was brutally tortured so that others–including our enemies–wouldn’t have to be.   When we look at the crucifixion story, we see Jesus being unjustly accused because of the…

  There is power in a name.   One of the things happening in our world right now is that people are naming injustice. No longer are we just talking…

  Last night my husband Ben and I decided it was time to put the Christmas tree up. It was our first tree in 10 years of dating and three…

  Dorothy Day said, “The greatest challenge of the day is how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of…

  This morning I stopped by a neighbor’s house as CNN was replaying the video of Officer Daniel Pantaleo choking Eric Garner to death. My neighbor was screaming: “How? How?…

  “Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another; but praying one for another,…

In the beginning was the word, we are told, and this word became flesh and our flesh, in turn, becomes words, and words bear meaning to remind us that a child…

  A scarlet beast with 7 heads and 10 horns? A river of blood running bridle deep? Jesus riding a horse with a sword in his mouth?   The book…

  As the nation reels in response to the non-indictment of Officer Darren Wilson, it is important to remember that the civil rights community and justice-seeking faith community never asked…

  EDITOR’S NOTE: On Monday, November 24th, the chief prosecutor in Ferguson, MO announced that a grand jury had decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for any criminal charges…

  Every year at Thanksgiving, I struggle, wondering how to celebrate appropriately. How do I tell my children the story of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people in a way…

Hear this, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, bring us a drink!…

  “What was her name?” my daughter asks. “Did anyone save a picture of her?” “Do you know where her house is so I can see where she lived?”  …

  As of right now, the citizens of Ferguson, Missouri are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best regarding the potential fallout from the grand jury decision. It…

  “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.”—Mother Teresa   41˚ Fahrenheit.   New Year’s Day.   She thought it would be cold enough to…

  As a young African American male, I sometimes feel like death has the final word. It seems like every time I turn around another young African American male is being…

  Churches have spent millions attempting to cater to the needs of young families in their communities.   Come here! Bring your kids! We have a replica-sized Noah’s Ark with…

  I’ve often told young college-shoppers: don’t just consider how strong the academics are or how good the football team is or even how you like the campus or the…

  EDITOR’S NOTE: Our friends at Blessed Earth are helping people who want to share Christmas gifts with children in the 2/3’s world think about how they can, at the same time,  also…

  Geoffrey Chongo is the Head of Programs at the Jesuit Center for Theological Reflection (JCTR), located in Lusaka, Zambia. JCTR is a church-affiliated civil society organization that conducts evidence-based…

  When I wrote my earlier article on the homeless hate laws and criminalization of compassion in Fort Lauderdale, I had no idea that in less than a week national…

  If I close my eyes, I am waiting on a Haitian street corner while the big-tire machines swarm around me. I can hear the trickle of drainage water edging…

  Last week my post Love the Sinner Hate the Sin, Really? generated a lot of discussion on RLC. One point that kept coming up was the need to be able to…

  EDITOR’S NOTE: For the past 25 years, Bryan Stevenson has worked to heal the wounds of racism and poverty in America’s criminal justice system. In March of 2012, he challenged…

  I’ll never forget the time I was handed a Voting Guide when I walked into church on Sunday morning.   It was 2008 and I was a 23-year-old single…

  Today (Nov 6) Wheaton College, often called “the Harvard of Christian colleges, ” is hosting a forum on the death penalty. But it’s not just any forum. It has…

  I sat in my study leafing through yellowed documents stiffened by time. I read the letter typed in courier font by Sister Bertrille telling my parents they’ve been approved…

  EDITOR’S NOTE: In their book Red Letter Christians, Tony and Shane talk about what it means for the American Christians to faithfully engage the political process. As Americans go to…

    “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” I’m sure you have heard the phrase a million times. Some attribute it to Augustine. Those who use it view it as a…

  If you’re a Baby Boomer reading this article, you might be thinking: Why is she telling millennials not to quit their jobs? Most of them don’t even have jobs.…

Subway. N-Line. Crossing the bridge into Manhattan. Three in the afternoon.   The shouting begins.   “’Scuse me, ladies and gentlemen, showtime.”   “Alright alright, ” shouts another. “Showtime ladies…

  Over the past few days, my four year-old, Ruby, has asked some profound and provocative questions that have both challenged and brought us much hope for the future.   “Why…

  SPOILER ALERT: This post reveals key plot twists in the recently-released film Gone Girl directed by David Fincher. The bottom line? I want my money back, and my dignity too.   …

  Just before the United States and the United Kingdom, along with token forces from a handful of other countries, invaded Iraq for the second time, Wheaton College staged a…

  People say that professional sports fuel what is worst in us. Our greed, our impatience, our willingness to ruin our bodies for the sake of fame. Our glorification of…