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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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The Sacred Messiness of Life in Community
By Jon Huckins
Janna, a midwife at a local birthing center where a few of the babies in our community were born (including our little daughter, Ruby), made a sign of a cross…
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I’m Heterosexual and that's Not Okay
By Mal Green
The title for this piece came to me after a focus group meeting on sexuality with some Incedo missionaries. This is not a research based paper. It is not a…
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Don't Let the Day Pass: The Tragedy of Joe Paterno
I first became a Penn State and Joe Paterno fan toward the close of the 1971 season. My late father-in-law called one afternoon from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina. …
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The Myth of Redemptive Violence
I had a veteran friend once tell me, “The biggest lie I have ever been told is that violence is evil, except in war.” He went on, “My government told…
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Three Considerations for the Liberal Church
In response to the recent Episcopalian convention, Ross Douthat set off a firestorm with his column expressing “concern” that the liberal church is dying due to its theological incoherence. I’m…
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Physical Churches: Do They Matter Anymore?
By Jeremy John
Micah Bales asked a deep question. He suggests that the wealth in property we’ve inherited is hindering our work for social justice. He talks provocatively (as a spiritual challenge, he…
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Oh Wow
By Morf Morford
William Shakespeare, in ‘Hamlet’ describes death as “the undiscovered country” from which “no man returns”. And if we believe in God, there is only one thing we know for sure…
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An Open Letter to Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy
NOTE: This was written a day prior Chic-Fil-A made the public statement that their tradition “is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief,…
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Senseless Violence in the Theater and on the Screen
By RLC Editor
During what one moviegoer hypothesized as “part of the movie, ” 12 people were shot and killed with 38 more wounded during a midnight showing of “The Dark Night Rises”…
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50 Shades of Broken: Why Do Women Fantasize About Abuse?
I first noticed it when I bought my Nook Color last year. Erotica. Everywhere. Written by and for women. So much for letting my kids peruse the free books section!…
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No Home, No Car, No Email: STILL Not Homeless
“So you sort of know what it’s like to be homeless?” This is what I’ve been hearing this week from very kind folks who’ve offered my family meals, beds, cars.…
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Where Is God When I'm Hurting?
By Kathy Vestal
She read me my first Junie B. Jones book during one of the many lunch breaks she and Nicki spent in my office that semester. Although at 45 I might…
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Questionable Morality Amongst Pennsylvania Republicans
By Tony Campolo
Not all Republicans are evil, but the leadership of the Republican Party in the state of Pennsylvania has questionable morality. With a Republican governor and a Republican Legislature a bill…
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'Pray Away the Gay' No More?
Late last week, Paul Burkhart jumped into the fray of online conversation surrounding Alan Chambers and Exodus International’s recent significant change in philosophy regarding ‘reparative therapy.’ On my personal site,…
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Jesus’ Invitation to the Discipline of “Wasting Time?”
By Jon Huckins
Photo credit: Jon Huckins A few of us from our missional community asked one of the heroes of our neighborhood to sit down for a meal so we could hear…
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Ten Antidotes to Christian Cliches
This is the final in a four-part series on the overused (and often insensitively employed) phrases that plague the Christian lexicon. Though I felt like I was offering some insight…
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Mirror, mirror
By Morf Morford
When a baby looks in a mirror It sees an ever-deepening mystery, An ever-changing reversal of the familiar, Something known and unknown, Knowable, yet essentially unknowable. A mirror is a…
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Nine (Final) Christian Cliches to Avoid
Read article one in the series here: Ten Cliches Christians Should Never Use Read article two in the series here: Ten More Cliches Christians Should Avoid The response to this series of…
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God Did Not Write the Bible…
By Kathy Vestal
. . . and that doesn’t hurt its holiness or its validity! When I was a child my Sunday School teachers used to say that God whispered the words of…
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Ten More Cliches Christians Should Avoid
After writing up my first list of Ten Cliches Christians Should Never Use, some folks wrote me with other suggestions. After simmering on it for a while, I came up…
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Rethinking the Roman Road: Paul’s Gospel and Violence
By Derek Flood
When I was a teenager I learned to present the gospel using the “Four spiritual laws” tracts. This begins with a quote from Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall…
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Ten Cliches Christians Should Never Use
We Christians have a remarkable talent for sticking our feet in our mouths. When searching the words most commonly associated with “Christian, ” the list ain’t pretty. I think part…
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Christians Do Not Have Freedom of Speech
By Jason Hess
One of the things that makes America so great is the ability to express yourself, much to the joy, and even pain, of those around you. The freedom of speech…
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I Went to Gay Pride
By Kathy Vestal
OK, so I am drawn to what is controversial. I want to be there, to see for myself, to make my own judgments. If an event divides decent people into…
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Is Patriotism Really Christian?
buy cialis onlinedth=”171″ height=”240″ />Fred Craddock tells of being on an airplane flight during which he visited with a woman who was returning from vacation. She had been to Switzerland,…
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Wild Goose: A Sacred and Safe Place
Love Wins Ministries’ exhibit at the Wild Goose Festival. Photo by Cathleen Falsani/Sojourners. By now, you have probably read about the Wild Goose Festival. You have heard about the big…
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Why singing “Our God is Greater” *might* make our God seem less great
By Kurt Willems
There’s a song that has made its rounds in the evangelical church circuit called “Our God Is Greater.” This song is commendable on many levels. First, the melody is catchy.…
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"Basically good" and "I'm not a racist, but…"
No one wants to see the sin in themselves. We don’t like to look at our brokenness square in the face. We tend to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt because we know…
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No Bullies – No Victims
By Morf Morford
I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return. -W. H. Auden Sometimes an issue emerges in a culture that…
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Wild Goose 2012: An Exercise in Mindfulness
How do you know when someone has a Prius? Don’t worry; they’ll tell you. We got a Prius about four years ago, and immediately we bought into the hype about…
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5 Questions with Jon Huckins — Thin Places
Living as part of an intentional Christian community, I often search for other creative expressions of missional communities around the world. One such example that I love is NieuCommunities. It…
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Senator Coburn Says “Look What I Found”
At the first of the year I accepted my pastor’s challenge to read through the Bible. I’ve finished reading about the kings of Israel and Judah, and none of them…
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WWJB (What Would Jesus Brew)?
There’s a well-known saying, often attributed to Ben Franklin, about God and beer. I’ve even seen it on T-shirts and the like, but it turns out it’s mis-quoted. The one…
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Why I voted for Jesus instead of Obama in the primary
By Kurt Willems
Why I voted for Jesus instead of Obama in the primary… Because, obviously, President Obama is uncontested during the primary election so nothing is actually on the line by writing…
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The Fallacy of Statements of Faith
A while back, I was applying for an editing job with a fairly prominent Christian media company, and in the application process, I was asked to sign a statement of…
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Hijacking Jesus for Partisan Gain
It really gets old, doesn’t it? Every election cycle, the story is the same. This Christian says that Christian is not really a Christian. And why is that? Is it…
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BREAKING: Obama administration stops deporting young immigrants
By RLC Editor
A day after the Evangelical Immigration Table released their “Evangelical Statement of Principles for Immigration Reform, ” the Obama administration stepped forward to announce they will stop deporting young illegal…
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Screw Your Neighbor
By Morf Morford
Have your ever noticed how we so easily invert traditional – even Biblical sayings and values? We might call ourselves Christians, but our language, if not our behavior, will betray…
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Look Up America! An Interview with Gary Moore
By RLC Editor
In a society of 24/7 media, political pundits and an “economic crisis” once a day, Gary Moore is a prophet. His latest book, Look Up America, carries the subtitle: “Financial…
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Thin Places: Glimpses of a New Narrative
By Jon Huckins
(Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images) We live in the downtown neighborhood of Golden Hill in San Diego. It is a place that contains a multitude of narratives. At times they…
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Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven. Nobody Wants to Die
Whether it’s Kony, Syria or Iran, one thing is clear: Americans think more of military intervention than preemptive love. This wouldn’t be surprising, except that so many Americans identify themselves…
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Missional Church: A Paper Revolution
It started with a few pieces of construction paper. If you’ve been following my blog at all over the past few months, you know that Amy and I recently moved…
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Making Space for the Feminine Voice
Women are natural communicators. No one doubts this, really, and a quick, unscientific glance at the blogosphere confirms the female desire to enter into the conversation about important issues impacting…
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When Did This Become My Job?
My husband David and I retired early last year to a small town in East Texas called Emory. There’s not a lot of excitement in Emory, but there’s always something…
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A Theology of America's Zombie Apocalypse
Zombie. Image by Aaron Amat /shutterstock First, Ronald Poppo had most of his face eaten off by Rudy Eugene, and now, Alexander Kinyua reportedly killed his roommate, Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie…
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A National Crisis – It is Time for the Church to Create an Act of God
Before — This Foreclosed Home was Donated by a Bank in Lousiville, KY The foreclosure crisis is a national disaster. The Christian Church should treat it as such and respond.…
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Greater Love?
By Morf Morford
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:12-14 That was the inscription under the stained-glass window in a military chapel of…
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Gracious Nonconformity
Source: The Naked Pastor As followers of Jesus we are to be different from others. We are to be, as a biblically derived phrase puts it, “in the world but…
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A "Red Letter" interpretation of Pentecost
By Marty Troyer
An idea, vision, or question forms in your mind. You feel compelled to do something or say something you might not naturally do. Like run for President, buy a BMW,…
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Are You For Real? Lessons Learned from the Velveteen Rabbit
One of my more memorable confessions occurred several years ago when I confessed to my Franciscan priest that I felt like a Christian poser. After reading the ‘Sermon on the…
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Looking Forward with Patience
“Don’t start me on stories!” – Dr. Vincent Harding. In light of both the Government and Coalition’s failure to let their yes be yes to the global poor, I want…
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Hating the Invisible Man
We finally made it to the Oregon Coast yesterday. I took some pictures in the redwood forest that I’ll share soon, but this post isn’t about that. We got in…
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RE-Membering Memorial Day
By Kurt Willems
Remember… …that life is a gift. To call it a gift is to imply that we did not earn it. Life is grace. Peace preserves life. So on this Memorial…
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Remembering Is the First Act of Love: War, Peace and Memorial Day
When I was a kid I’d go to mass on Sundays and hope that this week’s eucharistic hymn would be my favorite: We remember how you loved us to your…
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Considering the Cost
By Greg Dill
In America, when someone chooses to follow Jesus, not much is at stake in the way of danger or persecution. For this, I have been very fortunate and thankful to…
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Pastor Worley and the Slippery Slope of “Speaking the Truth in Love”
Photo By davidz Every time I blog about homosexuality and the church, I get at least one email or comment that says that I am either wasting my time or…
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Reborn on the Fourth of July
By RLC Editor
Logan Mehl-Laituri grew up in a community that celebrated military service. His faith reinforced his love of country and his sense that that love was best expressed by fighting its…
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The Witness of the "Sons of Hell"
Photo Used by Permission of Patty Akrouche The 23rd chapter of Matthew is probably the harshest speech that Jesus ever gave. We don’t hear many sermons about it because Jesus…
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A Story of Christian-Muslim Friendship: Entering Without Knocking
We all know the standard traditions of marriage in America: something borrowed, something blue… the groom doesn’t see the bride before the wedding… processional and recessional… the kiss, the toast……
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Oppressors, Activists, and Spiritual Stinginess: St. Paul’s Guide to Praying Better Prayers
“And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ.”…
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The Table is the Microcosm of a Practical Faith
By Jeremy John
My generation is a practical generation, and I am challenged by my faith to be a practical person. Don’t get me wrong: I love all verbal and theological things: story,…
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Dear Class of 2012
The weather was kind this year as SUV’s with license plates from New York and Massachusetts started showing up around town, driving slowly with their turn signals on, trying desperately…
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10 Skills Required for Intercultural Transformation
By Marty Troyer
Last week I wrote about Undoing Houston’s Racism, including my own silence when violence was jokingly threatened against people of color. There I said that, “Racism, antipathy and alienation between…
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"So, you speak in tongues?" What one Comedian doesn't get about Pentecostalism
“So, you speak in tongues?” This was the first question John Safran, one of Australia’s leading comedian-provocateurs, asked a young Christian peace-activist and preacher. Why? The conception of Pentecostalism embedded…
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I’m Done Dating Jesus Online
By Kurt Willems
© 2010 Sammis Reachers , Flickr | creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Maybe you’ve seen the commercials for the various online dating sites. The latest claim is that 1 in 5 relationships begin on…
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Verse a day makes for a good year
By Kay Campbell
Source: The Huntsville Times/Kay Campbell At about 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 20, 2012, sitting alone in the quiet and clean Taco Bell in the shadow of the new Sparkman…
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Drive-Thru Prayers to Drive-In Church: Is Religion Lost?
Author and theologian Diana Butler Bass shared a video recently about where she saw for the future of the church. She shared an interesting story about a priest who went…
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Let Them Eat Cake
That’s what she said. It wasn’t out of malice or even hard-heartedness that Marie Antoinette supposedly uttered these now infamous words, but out of a barnacled ignorance that grows and…
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Beyond the Culture Wars: A Faith of Our Own
By RLC Editor
The first President I remember is Bill Clinton. To be more specific: Bill Clinton’s second term. I’ve heard spectacles of the House Republican takeover in 1994 and stories of the…
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Beyond Bootstrap Success Stories
Few things are more offensive to those committed to the “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” philosophy than the message that “the race is not to the swift, nor…
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The Church and the New Civil Rights Movement
Richard “Dick” Brogan was a personal friend, and he was one of my heroes. Dick was a white Mississippi Baptist minister who worked tirelessly to build relationships between whites and…
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Sixty Percent
Sixty percent is a supermajority, who took time out of their busy schedules, who needed to make a statement, who wanted to leave a legacy, who knew exactly how and…
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The politics of having faith and serving in government
By Aaron Graham
It breaks my heart today to see how often politics shapes our faith, rather than faith shaping our politics. Over the years the church in America has become so biblically…
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Kony 2012 and the Golden Rule: How Do 'We' Tell 'Their' Story?
By Kent Annan
How should we tell stories about people we’re trying to help? Individuals, churches, missionaries, and nonprofit groups should ask this regularly. The answer is inextricably bound to the very justice…
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The Disease of Building Theology in the Theoretical
By Jon Huckins
I love and am enlivened by intellectual stimulation, specifically in relation to the integration of theology and ethics. In many ways, I feel that I am hardwired for this stuff.…
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Patriarchy, Pop Culture, and Pornography
Several years ago, I read “The DaVinci Code” to see what all the fuss was about. It was nothing special—a fast-paced novel with interesting, if inaccurate, historical details woven in—but…
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Wounded Healers & Healed Healers: Physician Heal Thyself
There is a slight problem with most of us that really want to make a difference and help. We’ve got a lot of our own issues! It’s definitely a catch…
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You Can Help George Win a Van
One year ago this week, as the birds were hatching on our porch and the rose bush was in full bloom, our friend George was shot, just four blocks up…
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Reduce, Reuse, Repent: Earth Day Revival Amuses and Transforms
By Will Braun
We had gathered, the faithful and the curious, 300 strong, for an old-fashioned tent revival meeting with a newfangled “consumption sabbath” twist. The blue-robed gospel choir — which had warmed…
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See you on the other side Chuck Colson (VIDEO)
Chuck Colson died on April 21. Colson worked with Nixon and went to jail over an obstruction of justice charge (interestingly enough, for attempting to defame the Pentagon Papers). But…
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Can we have a Rational Conversation about Guns?
By Morf Morford
How many more shootings, local or national, do we need? How many more school shootings do we need before have anything like an adult conversation about these playthings of death…
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Taking “Jesus Christ” Out of the Bible
A new translation of the Bible called “The Voice” (no, Cee-Lo makes no appearances in this one), published by Thomas Nelson, has created quite a buzz. The discussion is not…
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I Try to be Non-Partisan
By Tony Campolo
Red Letter Christianity tries to maintain a non-partisan posture because we believe that Jesus is neither a Democrat nor a Republican. We believe that to cast Jesus in the guise…
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Oh Yeah! Connecticut Abolished the Death Penalty
THIS JUST IN… Big news. Connecticut abolished the death penalty yesterday. Only 33 more states to go. It’s time we stop killing people who kill people to show that killing…
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What does Jesus think about Homosexuality?
By Derek Flood
Is homosexuality a sin? It’s an age-old question, and there are people on both sides of the debate, each quoting their Bibles. How do we know who’s right? What would…
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What To Do About “Radical Feminist Nuns”
It’s not exactly headline-worthy news that many Catholics actually hold personal beliefs that don’t line up with church doctrine. It does get a little more interesting, however, when an umbrella…
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Practicing Resurrection: Turning Vacant Lots Into Gardens in Philadelphia
“What’s that?” one of the kids asked, with big gleaming eyes. “That’s a firefly” I said, with a smile, realizing it was his first firefly-sighting. “Why does it glow like…
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The Truth of Success and Failure
“I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor…
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PregMANcy: The Video
This is a funny little trailer my son, Mattias, and I put together to tell folks about my new memoir on fatherhood, family and faith called “PregMANcy: A Dad, A…