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You never know the day your life will change—or the person who will change it. For me, her name was Om Hassan. I was 23, an American soldier…
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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 MorfordGreater 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 TroyerAn 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 WillemsRemember… …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 DillIn 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 EditorLogan 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 JohnMy 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 TroyerLast 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 CampbellSource: 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 EditorThe 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 GrahamIt 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 AnnanHow 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 HuckinsI 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 BraunWe 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 MorfordHow 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 CampoloRed 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 FloodIs 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…
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Trayvon Martin – Race, Guns, or Pride?
By Dan MartinThe killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman earlier this year has brought out the usual political punditry. Everyone “knows” the “real” reason Martin took a bullet, even though they…
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Should This Family Be Illegal?
A decade ago, when we moved to Walltown and were getting to know our neighbors, my friend Andy Marin moved to Boystown in Chicago. Like me, Andy is an evangelical…
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Speaking Out Is Complicated (And So Is Staying Silent)
For 24 years of my life, I was a church planter and pastor. At the beginning of those years, I would have gladly called myself an Evangelical. But those years…
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A Moderately Conservative Case for the Defeat of NC Amendment 1
As soon as my husband accepted our friends’ offer of an “Another Family Against the Amendment” yard sign in January, I knew exactly how it would play out. The corrugated…
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"The land is mine" (the importance of Leviticus 25:23)
As the debate rages within Christianity over what the Bible teaches about economic “fairness, ” a key chapter to peruse is Leviticus 25, which introduces the concept of the year…
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The Gospel Shell Game
By Morf MorfordPhoto: FlickR/Still Burning Have you ever known anyone imprisoned by a cell of their own making? Perhaps we all do it to some degree, but some do it to the…
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Young Adults: Forget Church, Follow Jesus
Two recent articles grabbed my attention, partly because they resonate quite a bit with the pieces I’ve written about Why Young Adults Leave Church. It’s also interesting to me that…
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"Does once saved always saved apply even though he became an atheist?”
By Kurt WillemsSource: staytondailyphoto.com I stand at the graveside of a young student. Fifteen years old. Dead in an instant. Skateboarding on a foggy night and a car that never even saw…
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Offensive Jesus?
Nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes. I’ve made plenty. I’ll make plenty more. And in the future, when i err, I’d like to err on the side of grace. We’ve…
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God's Word to Evangelicals…Through Brian McLaren
By RLC EditorA stone’s throw from Starbucks – Joe, homeless and a dead ringer for blues singer Robert Johnson, tells Wheaton College freshman Wendy Gullivan that He is God and has a…
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True Meaning of Easter Lies in its Beauty, Not its Violence
By Kay CampbellSpringtime bursts on us with a flourish of daffodils, a hallelujah of dogwoods, and a vesper of leaf buds. A rainbow materializes to transform an evening commute into a highway…
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The Problem With the Tebow Easter Extravaganza
I didn’t see Tim Tebow’s Easter Sunday appearance in Texas. For one, it’s in Texas and I’m not. Plus I kind of have a standing gig on Sundays. But more…
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The Love in Resurrection
By Tony CampoloAt Calvary, we see what the power of Satan can do. We observe the demonic nature of political and religious power infused by evil. The Roman governor and the Hebrew…
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The Love in Resurrection
By Tony CampoloAt Calvary, we see what the power of Satan can do. We observe the demonic nature of political and religious power infused by evil. The Roman governor and the Hebrew…
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The Easter Surprise: Celebrating the first day of a new kind of week
By Kurt WillemsWhen you are small, the wonder of an Easter egg hunt is exiting. But as you grow older, the awe of the experience begins to fade. I remember a particular…
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It’s Friday…But Sunday’s Comin’! (VIDEO)
By Tony CampoloMy most popular sermon undoubtedly is, “It’s FRIDAY…But SUNDAY’s Comin’!” I’ve preached this story for decades now ever since I first heard it preached in my home church in Philadelphia.…
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Jesus, the Ham of God
By Morf MorfordHow did we go from the Passover Lamb to the Easter Ham? It’s a complicated, not very pretty story, central to modern religious identity and, for those reasons, tucked away…
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Letter From a “Demon Possessed” Woman
It’s interesting how certain patterns emerge in our lives sometimes. Part of it, I expect, has more to do with awareness than actual coincidence, like when I start seeing blue…
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Hungry for Virtue
Christian responses to The Hunger Games have run in one of two directions. Some see the trilogy as a powerful critique of violence and the role in plays in contemporary…
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Pigeon Monday
By Roy GobleTo Order Cheap Cialis day is Pigeon Monday. Or at least that’s what I call it. Hopefully I’ll start a new trend. It would seem that Jesus had something against…
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Blue Like Jazz: I Was Donald Miller (w/ INTERVIEW)
I was Donald Miller. Once upon a time, a lot of us were. Some of us still are. I, too, grew up in the church. Then it hurt me. So…
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Lent: My Hypocrisy, To Dust?
By Kent Annan“From dust you were formed, to dust you shall return.” Those are the Ash Wednesday words. Ashes were rubbed in a cross on my forehead. Maybe on yours too. I…
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Is the Church Saving Souls and Losing Students?
Recent data suggest that African American and Hispanic males are the primary victims of the nation’s dropout crises. According to the Schott Foundation for Public Education, only 41% of Black…
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Hero of War: “Rise Against” Violence or Lose Your Humanity
By Kurt Willems© 2006 | “We Could Be Heroes” | TheGiantVermin | Flikr Many of us dream of becoming a hero. To be the one who saves the day. To know what…
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Bullies R Us
By Morf MorfordWatch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes…
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Four Reasons I Came Back to Church
I’ve written a couple of pieces lately that have gotten a lot of attention about why younger people tend to walk away from church. If you haven’t seen them yet,…
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Hoodies, Skittles and a Mother's Nightmare
I have a son. He is 12 years old. He is handsome, sweet and kind-hearted. He has a great sense of humor, is a good student, a sports fanatic and…
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Showing Jesus the Door
Feet stuffed into women’s pumps and skirt obligingly hoisted to reveal a mottled backside, Leslie Cochran presided over Austin’s parade of oddballs for over fifteen years, their undisputed Queen. Leslie…
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The Tale of Two Shootings
Back in the day, my college mid-term and final exams often had an essay question that began, “Compare and contrast…” We were asked to show our knowledge of what we…
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Worship, Evangelism and “Earning the Right” to Invite
Those of us who are involved in church are well-trained to invite people to worship. We find ways to bring up in conversation how great our music is, how compelling…
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Indicting Violence: A Pacifist Review of "The Hunger Games"
By Marty Troyer75 years after the end of the world, reluctant teenage heroine Katniss Everdeen brings it to an end yet again. Welcome to The Hunger Games, a trilogy dripping with the weight of…
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The Dark Side of Kony 2012: Look in the Mirror
Most folks are at least somewhat familiar with the “Kony 2012″ phenomenon by now. Millions have become captivated by the story. But by and large, no one knew a thing…
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Understanding the Criticism of KONY 2012
By Derek FloodThe viral video Kony 2012 has over 80 million hits on YouTube, and has become an internet phenomenon. The video is an artfully crafted and emotionally moving plea to stop…
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It's (Almost) Illegal to Feed Those without Homes in Philadelphia
On March 14, 2012 Mayor Michael Nutter announced a plan to ban “outdoor feeding” in the City of Philadelphia. In effect this would make it illegal to share or distribute…
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God's Word to Democrats – An Interview with Brian McLaren
By RLC EditorNo one enjoys being told bluntly, “you’re wrong.” It’s a statement that, even when surrounded by certainty, must be conveyed and expressed with grace, tranquility and, sometimes, a little humor.…
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When a System Demands our Allegiance Away from Christ
By Jeremy JohnWhen I am faced with dishonesty and fraud on a systemic scale, I ask questions of God. But as I trace the origins of injustice, I am directed back towards…
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An Opportunity for Justice: Israel and Palestine
By Tony CampoloRecently I was in Palestine/Israel as a speaker for a conference sponsored by the Bethlehem Bible College entitled “Christ at the Checkpoint.” The Conference was designed for Palestinian Christians and…
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Four More (BIG) Reasons Young Adults Quit Church
There has been a surprisingly positive response to the article I published earlier in the week called “Seven Reasons Why Young Adults Quit Church.” And as I noted, it was…
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An Unholy Wall in the Holy Land
I just returned from Bethlehem, and brought this nativity scene back as a gift. It’s a beautifully hand-carved nativity made from the olive wood distinct to the region. But you…
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Seven Reasons Why Young Adults Quit Church
From time to time I revisit the question: why are young adults walking away from religion? Although the answer(s) vary from person to person, there are some general trends that…
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A Nonviolent Response to Joseph Kony
Armed with the power of social media, some young North American activists set out this week to take on one of the most violent rebels in the Great Lakes Region…
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An English Teacher Looks At Rush Limbaugh
By Morf MorfordI teach English, writing and public speaking at the college level. There are three key principles of communication; to inform, to persuade and to entertain. Effective and memorable communicators will…
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Of Janis Joplin and Christian Women (Owed to Being Unladylike)
I was three-years old the first time I heard Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” on the radio. In 1971, Dad (though not a fan of rock and roll) thought it quite…