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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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Alexia Salvatierra Dishes on “The Big Lie” and Peter Heltzel Sings Songs of Freedom
As a Christian who, for decades, has loved Jesus and loved justice, it struck me as odd that Faith-Rooted Organizing—a new book by Alexia Salvatierra and Peter Heltzel—was my…
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What If God is Pragmatic?
By Yaholo Hoyt
If there is anything we resent God for more, it is being outside of our understanding. We want God to be a like an omnipotent train conductor; completely in control…
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The Inexcusable Freedom of Irresponsible Gun Owners
Photo above: The chilling picture released as part of the final police report into the Sandy Hook massacre Where I live in South Florida we don’t see snow. I had…
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Root for Humanity! Why our Messy, Recalcitrant Lives are Better than Robots, Drones, and other Human-replacing Technologies
One of the most fun films I saw this year was World’s End—the final installment of the trilogy that included Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. While the first…
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Tamayo's Execution puts Missionaries Everywhere in Danger
By RLC Editor
Edgar Tamayo Arias is set to be executed by the state of Texas on Wednesday, January 22. Here’s the background from Heather Beaudoin at Equal Justice USA: Tamayo, a Mexican…
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God Beyond the Crisis
By Micah Bales
I’ve heard it said that there are no atheists in foxholes. Whether or not that expression is literally true, I take this to mean that, in the face of imminent death,…
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Three Things I Love (and Hate) About Christians
Christianity is about 2, 000 years old and there are now two billion Christians in the world. We have a track record of doing some very good things, and also…
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Why Hearing, "I'm Gay" Changed My Straight, Christian Life
By Emily Timbol
While driving back from a long, intense weekend retreat with my church, I got a call from my friend Marie. “We need to see you tonight.” “We who?” I didn’t…
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Priming the Pump: Why do we eliminate those unlike us?
By Morf Morford
Virtually every generation in human history – until this one apparently – has understood the principle of priming the pump. It’s very simple, but if you have never experienced it,…
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Epiphany’s Counter-Cultural Breakthrough: From Wise Men to Prostitutes
By Tony Campolo
January 6 has long been celebrated as the traditional day of Epiphany, the day the wise men came to worship Jesus. Need I say more? We all know the story,…
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Now on the Red Carpet: Rachel Goble
In recognition of this Saturday, January 11, being National Human Trafficking Day, I’m talking to Rachel Goble, President of , an international organization dedicated to providing education to children…
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6 Bad Prayer Habits We're All (Mostly) Guilty Of
Many people are afraid to pray and assume it’s a complicated science. But trying to pray is better than not praying at all. The following is meant to encourage and…
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Sex, Pills and the Image of God
I grew up along the beaches of Florida and couldn’t get enough of the pounding waves on the sand. I swam against the tide and rolled with the force of…
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Some New Year's Resolutions are only 12 Steps Away
Three years ago I walked into my first 12 Step meeting to deal with my drinking. I was terrified, and ashamed, but I believed they may have something to offer…
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Why I Finally Wear TOMS Shoes
By Peter Greer
For years, I’ve resisted the TOMS Shoes craze. It wasn’t just because the early shoes look like slippers, but because it seemed to perpetuate an out-of-style paradigm of charity. But today, the…
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14 Hopes for 2014
Each year (2012 and 2013) I remix some of my hopes and dreams for the New Year, bringing some of last year along, and adding a few new ones… I…
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5 Things You Don't Want to Miss from 2013
By RLC Editor
2013 was a record year for Red Letter Christians! We received over 2.1 million pageviews (nearly double 2012: 1.08 million pageviews). Included over 75 authors from 7 different countries on…
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Bono, Kensington, and the Caroling Angels
In case you missed it… For the 5th consecutive year, Bono hit the streets of Dublin singing Christmas carols (on Christmas Eve). Don’t miss the magical rendition of “O Come Let Us…
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Now on the Red Carpet: Leroy Barber
Because the incarnational ministry of Word Made Flesh is one worth learning from, I’m chatting today with Leroy Barber, Global Executive Director of this international organization that works among…
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Oh Popularity, I Love Being Loved
By Mimi Haddad
I love seeing my name in headlines. I suppose that makes me well, decidedly human. I love being loved. I relish being included, mentioned, cited, and most of all, seeing me everywhere!…
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The Power to Forgive
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” These are the words of Jesus as he asks God to forgive the people who are killing Him. This is…
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Let's Stop Empowering and Start Inspiring
By Rachel Goble
I’ve been using the word ’empower’ for years. It’s a great word – one that implies giving dignity to others; the whole ‘give a man a fish and he eats…
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The Nativity, The Incarnate God, and Why I Am A Christian
By Yaholo Hoyt
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born…
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Five Ways to De-Commercialize Christmas
We’ve created a Christmas monster: a grotesque assemblage of pagan, Christian and capitalist symbolism into something that resembles something we’re both attracted to and repulsed by at the same time.…
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Peace for the Little Town of Bethlehem
By Jim Hooker
As Christmas nears and I hear all the traditional music, I think back to this past August when my wife, Susan, and I ventured off to Bethlehem on the West…
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Now on the Red Carpet: Jack Heller
When Jesus said that those who visit prisoners are actually visiting him, he made no mention of how to get behind bars. Jack Heller, who teaches at Huntington University,…
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My One (and Only) Duck Dynasty Post
I’ve never watched Duck Dynasty. I didn’t even know Phil Robertson’s name until the whole media melodrama unfolded recently. The most I knew about him was that he bore a…
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Six Things I Wish Christians Would Stop Doing
Christians have some annoying habits. Here are six things I wish they would stop doing: Arguing: Instead of having a reputation as being peacemakers, promoting reconciliation, and working towards unity,…
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Schaefer and Robertson, A Tale of Two Men: An Invitation to Dialogue
By Neely Baugh
In a day’s time, two men have been turned out of institutions they have long been a part of. The star of A&E’s Duck Dynasty was suspended indefinitely after making a…
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Quack, Quack.
What a dynasty. You’ve probably heard by now that the fully-bearded Duck Commander Phil Robertson had some choice things to say about his personal views regarding faith and sexuality –…
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Duck Dynasty, first amendment rights, and Christian values
My feed has been lit up with people responding to the suspension of Phil, the patriarch of A&E’s popular Duck Dynasty reality show. For full disclosure . . . I watch…
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Duck Hunting, Defrocking a Minister, and Other Gay Tidings
By Kathy Vestal
All in the same day, New Mexico became the 17th state to legalize gay marriage, Olympic figure skating gold medalist Brian Boitano came out as gay, the United Methodist Church…
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Wanna Save Marriage? Stop Patronizing Women
By Yaholo Hoyt
“Getting married? Just learn to say ‘I’m sorry’ a lot.” That line sums up what most young men hear as they are preparing to get married, throughout their reception, and…
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Is It Possible to Celebrate Christmas and the Birth of Jesus on the Same Day?
By Jon Huckins
There is certainly a warm, nostalgic feeling about the Christmas season. Social media fills up with pictures of Starbucks holiday cups and we get the play-by-play of Christmas trees being…
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Missing the Message
By Kathy Vestal
“I hope you’re well. Any chance I’ll see you during the holidays?” That was all the email said. Really? During the holidays? I have a semester to close, I thought, exams…
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The Slow Motion Lynching of President Barack Obama
I’ve watched liberal and right wing commentators alike blame the president for being lynched. They say “he’s not reaching out enough” or “he’s too cold.” It’s the equivalent of assuming that the black…
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Now on the Red Carpet: Nikole Lim
You’re on a mission trip and you want to snap some good pictures for a slideshow at church. Or, if you’re being honest, to post to facebook. But pointing…
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Mandela Is Dead
By Morf Morford
Mandela is dead, and I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel a cold, dark shadow saturating the space he filled. I see a blundering, incoherent, and yes, blatantly…
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5 Reasons We Should Personally Help the Poor
Tis the Season for charity, where every non-profit organization is seeking donations in order to help a variety of wonderful causes. But this year, try cutting out the middleman and…
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Now on the Red Carpet: Alberto Vega
Alberto Vega was born and raised in Camden, New Jersey, one of the most dangerous cities in America. Some would call Al’s journey, graduating from Eastern University, a “success…
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After 3 Years Here are the Most Read and Discussed Articles
Three years ago today, Red Letter Christians went live! As I’ve written the past two days (Friday and Saturday), many individuals and articles have led to our success and we…
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Three Years of Red Letter Christians: the Authors Who Made it Happen
By RLC Editor
As you read yesterday, this weekend marks three years since Red Letter Christians went live on the World Wide Web. Tomorrow, December 8 is the specific date back in…
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Come Celebrate: Red Letter Christians' 3 Year Anniversary
This weekend marks the three-year anniversary of the beginning of Red Letter Christians. To be exact we went live on December 8, 2010 with five pieces, all of which were…
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Frank Schaeffer on Why He is Not an Atheist
Is atheism a belief system in itself? Frank Schaeffer, author most recently of And God Said, Billy!, says yes indeed! In fact, Frank says it is one of the great world…
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Love Isn’t Enough: some things you need to know about adoption
By Ben Corey
Adoption is a hot issue in American Evangelicalism, and while rates of international adoption have drastically declined recently, I don’t think a culture of adoption is going anywhere, anytime soon.…
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Now on the Red Carpet: David Montague
A few weeks ago a friend was raving about the impact the Memphis Teacher Residency was having in Memphis schools by recruiting, training and supporting effective teachers. Wanting to…
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The Fantasy of the Ideal
By Micah Bales
More often than I would care to admit, I have allowed my personal fantasies about the perfect community to distract me from the beautiful, real-life community that is right in front…
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The Power and Relevance of Thankfulness in a Driven World
By Yaholo Hoyt
Thankfulness is one of those words which suffers from its own popularity. Having a holiday dedicated to it, and being a “go to” virtue in the Christian community means that…
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Shane Claiborne Celebrates Buy Nothing Day
Today seems like a good time to say: ENOUGH. One of the great memories I have from our Buy Nothing Day circus outside the Gallery mall here in Philly was…
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Mark Driscoll’s Plagiarism Witch Hunt
Yes, I know it is Thanksgiving. So maybe I am feeling a little bit more generous than usual. But even I am not beyond offering some grace and compassion toward…
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Support the Boring this Holiday Season
By Roy Goble
“….in this age of elites who delight in such phrases as “out of the box” and “killer app”, arguably the most coveted status symbol isn’t a yacht, a racehorse, or…
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New U2 Song Inspired by Nelson Mandela: "Ordinary Love"
By RLC Editor
The legendary Irish rock band U2 recently released a new track entitled, Ordinary Love. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, lead singer Bono described it as a “really…
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How the Christian orphan care movement may be enabling child abandonment
A few months ago I got to speak at Idea Camp about orphan care. I shared my concerns about the trend of churches opening orphanages in third world countries instead of working…
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Now on the Red Carpet: Robert Gelinas
As National Adoption month comes to a close, I’m chatting with Robert Gelinas. Gelinas is father to six children—five of whom he and his wife welcomed through adoption. The…
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Two Dozen Evangelical Christian Leaders: "Stop Duane Buck's Execution"
Join the movement to stop the execution of Duane Buck in Texas. Over 80, 000 folks putting our voices together — we need yours too. Here’s all the info: Over…
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"What Church do you go to?" Why Jay Bakker is my (virtual) pastor
By Derek Flood
I often get emails from people, stuck in dogmatic churches, who are hungry for grace. They hear the message of the cross expressed in terms of God’s restorative justice, rather…
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Christianity, Empire, and a USS Mother Teresa?
By Morf Morford
Since the First Century, if not before, the choice of people of faith has been between empire approved institutions or the individual or tiny group quest for peace, justice and…
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Women, Child Birth and What it Means to be Fully Human Again
By Jon Huckins
My wife, Jan, was 8 days past her due date when the first signs of labor finally kicked in about 5am. Being past your due date is no fun (keep…
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I No Longer Care What Kind of Christian You Are—As Long As You’re Christian
In a Westernized culture obsessed with consumerism, we crave options and the ability to choose the best possible products—even when it relates to our personal faith. We’ve been trained through…
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The Greatest Heresy
By Derek Flood
Many pastors fear that if they were honest with their congregations about their doubts they would be fired, and the sad fact is: They probably would be. Not fired for some…
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I Tithe…but should it go to my local church?
By Kathy Vestal
I have always given a tenth of my income “back to God, ” mostly through my local church, although my reasons have changed over the years. As a child, it…
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An Honest, "F@#! You" is Better than a False, "I Love You"
I wrote this as much to myself as anyone else, so do not take offense, I am not targeting anyone. The title of this article is from a man whose…
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Now on the Red Carpet: Sarah Bessey
Like many RLC readers, blogger Sarah Bessey believes in the full inclusion of women in the life of the church. Because many women around the globe are not yet…
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Adoption and Hospitality Should Replace "Evangelism"
By Yaholo Hoyt
Evangelism is a term very similar to “Jihad” in terms of public relations. It is a term cherished by those of us “inside” Christianity, but despised by those on the…
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Strangers At My Door by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
By RLC Editor
Jesus Told Us Where to Find Him. Just Look for an Outcast. His first followers knew that Jesus could be found with the fatherless, the widows, and the hungry…
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The Good News in Every Story (Book Review)
By Tony Campolo
The importance of Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s new book, Strangers at My Door, cannot be overstated. It’s a call to live out and remember those red letters of Jesus, “Truly…
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Q&A with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of Strangers at My Door
By RLC Editor
Editor’s Note: This post is part of the Red Letter Book Club. It is an interview with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove about his new book, “Strangers at My Door.” One…
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Review: Strangers at My Door: An Experiment in Radical Hospitality
Editor’s Note: This post is part of the Red Letter Book Club. It is a review of Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s new book, “Strangers at My Door: A True Story…
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Excerpt: Knock, knock. Welcome Everything
Editor’s Note: This post is part of the Red Letter Book Club. It is an excerpt from Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s new book, “Strangers at My Door: A True Story…
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Kenneth Copeland and David Barton’s Detrimental Guidance for Veterans
A member of a nearby congregation enlisted in the army several years ago and was sent to Iraq. When he returned home others in church joyfully welcomed him back, pouring…
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My Response to the Typhoon in the Philippines
By Tony Campolo
The super-storm typhoon that devastated the Philippines last Friday left an unconfirmed estimate of 10, 000 people dead and hundreds of thousands more without a home. In the audio clip…
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Five Traits of a False Prophet
Somehow I’ve had the good fortune until recently not to know who Theresa Caputo, (AKA the Long Island Medium) was. The long and short of it, in case you’ve been similarly privileged,…
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From “Good News” to FOX News: How Franklin Graham Is Using His Aging Father
We all can recall the scene: Shepherds in a field watching over their flocks of sheep at night. Suddenly, a trumpet sounds and an army of angels appear in the…
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Feasting Martin of Tours on Veterans Day
I absolutely love that the Church celebrates Martin of Tours, the “patron saint of soldiers”, on the same day as Veterans Day. Ironically, Martin was one of the Church’s first…
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Now on the Red Carpet: Katie Davis
Happy National Adoption Month. Katie Davis, twenty-five, moved from her native Tennessee home several years ago and has adopted over a dozen girls in Uganda, where she’s now raising them.…
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Defeating Despair in Detroit: Turning Wounded Children into Winning Children
Last week, every morning I turned on the news and there was at least one murder in Detroit. Ironically, I was in the city for about a week to present…
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Stop Going to Church! When Good News Actually Looks Like Something
By Jon Huckins
I love my neighborhood. It’s not that it is all that glamorous or cool or “safe” or whatever. It’s that it is full of people who actually want to experience…
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The God of Rap: Why Kanye West brought Jesus on Stage
By Ryan Herring
On the opening night of the Yeezus Tour, multi-platinum, Grammy award-winning rapper Kanye West brought out an actor to portray Jesus during his concert in Seattle. Most of the time when…
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Are You A Consumer?
By Micah Bales
Over the course of my lifetime, it seems that consumer has become the most common word used to refer to individual members of our society. On television, in newspapers, and on…
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Why 'Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin' Doesn't Work
By Tony Campolo
A few years back I did the below interview with New Direction in which I told the story someone once told to me of a gay son. In it I…
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Putting God in a Box to Keep People Out
By Yaholo Hoyt
Featured photo credit: David Hayward via The Naked Pastor The phrase “putting God in a box” is something almost exclusively declared as an accusation. Few people would be willing to…
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My Christian Response to Violence: Beyond the Politics to Spiritual Reflection
By Neely Baugh
Jesus and violence. I’ve struggled for a long time to voice how I feel about these two things and how they relate to each other. And I have my own…
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The 'Other Gospel' was easier
I admit that I find the gospel of partnering with God for the healing of the world much, much harder than the gospel of God loves you and wants to…
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Now on the Red Carpet: Brenda Salter McNeil (Part 2)
Last week I spoke with Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil — author, speaker, thought leader and founder of Salter McNeil and Associates—about her personal journey into the field of…
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Riddles, Giraffes, and Jesus
Anyone who spends any time at all on Facebook has seen a proliferation of giraffes on the site recently. For a few days, I noticed but didn’t pay much attention,…
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God, Jesus, Pacifists, Pansies, & A Girl from Pakistan: Thoughts on Mark Driscoll's Latest Article
By Jimmy Doyle
I dare Mark Driscoll to call this young lady a “pansy”. Mark Driscoll’s article, “Is God a Pacifist?“, has spurred a lot of online discussion and debate—and rightly so, because…
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Lessons from Nigeria
By John Watson
Boko Haram is not a name most of us are familiar with, but we will likely hear it soon. The entire swathe of countries which straddle the divide between North…
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Lessons from the Dead: What meditating on the inevitable can do
By Kay Campbell
Consider death: The post-final frontier. Death surrounds all of us in the Northern Hemisphere this time of year. Life is sucked out of the trees, one chlorophyll molecule at a…
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If Jesus is a pansy, I want to be one too – Reflections on Christlikeness
By Kurt Willems
Recently a pastor wrote an article about why God is not a pacifist. Not only so, he argued that Jesus (the “God-human”) is also not a pacifist and never taught…
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Children Steamroll Weapons in Iraq
After a terrible year of violence killing nearly 6, 000 people in Iraq, and dozens dead in recent violence in the Anbar province where we have so many dear friends in…
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Let's End Our Silly Battle for Jesus' Personality
By Yaholo Hoyt
Manly Jesus, Effeminate Jesus, Angry Jesus, Pacifist Jesus, Hipster Jesus… Every time someone redefines or re-frames Jesus, we all go crazy. Whatever we are or whatever we believe we try…
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Is Preachers of LA Representing Preachers the Right Way?
The new Preachers of LA series by the Oxygen network has created uproar amongst many churchgoers. I have seen a lot of tweets and Facebook post from people angry about…
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Now on the Red Carpet: Brenda Salter McNeil
When I asked Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil who the first speaker was that she ever heard preach about racial reconciliation, she named Tony Campolo—when she was a Fuller…
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The Toddler Logic of Cain
By Morf Morford
Some strands of human nature stretch from the opening scenes of the Bible to tomorrow’s headlines. The actions, rationale and justification of Cain make up one of these strands. Cain,…
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Mark Driscoll's Badass Jesus
Mark Driscoll, the attention grabbing minister of the Mars Hill megachurch, is at it again. He’s pushing his badass Jesus who has, as he put it a few years ago,…
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Is Jesus Too Exclusive?
By Micah Bales
I‘m definitely a child of my post-modern generation: I tend to recognize multiple valid perspectives on any question; I experience truth as dynamic, changing in its expression depending on context;…
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The 5 Biggest Lies of Modernity
By Yaholo Hoyt
Modernity is a way of thinking that is becoming more and more outdated. However, as the recent Tea-Party led battles in Washington DC show, it isn’t going out without a…
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Sexual Behaviors: The Struggle Clergy Have
By T.C. Ryan
That we have enormous numbers of faithful, called and good people in Christian leadership today who are struggling with compulsive sexual behaviors is beyond dispute. In most cases, they are…
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Follow Up: John MacArthur's Controversial 'Strange Fire' Conference
INTRODUCTORY NOTE: I was overwhelmed by the response that I received for my post last week on Red Letter Christians which called out John MacArthur and the speakers at his…
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Bringing America Back to Life
Yesterday, I read about the 2-year old child who shot herself by accident in North Carolina over the weekend. Then I read about the horror of another school shooting in…