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A subversive approach to a subversive parable [From Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43] On the surface, the story reads quite clearly—maybe a little too clearly. If you’re a regular church attendee…
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Who Will Be Our Next Monster to Fear?
On the death of Osama bin Laden, theologian Miroslav Volf expresses my sentiments when he writes: “We are right to feel a sense of relief that a major source of…
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A Humble Obituary for Osama bin Laden
By John Harris
Osama bin Laden, organizer, crusader, defender, soldier, terrorist, son, husband, and father has died last night at the young age of fifty-four. He was assassinated by the US military at…
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When Jesus Quoted the OT. . .And Why It Matters
By Andrew Marin
Ever Wonder What Old Testament Verses Jesus Quoted More Than Any Other? I take Jesus’ words very seriously. Very seriously. My understanding of Scripture tells me that those red letters…
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A Post-bin Laden Reflection on Violence
[Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the Q Ideas Blog and has been re-posted with their permission] In the spring of 1999, during NATO’s bombing of Serbia, I was…
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Osama bin Laden is in All of Us
This is a strange blog for me to write because I am sharing my immediate feelings about something I am experiencing right now. I know that good bloggers shouldn’t immediately…
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Christians and the Common Good
For the longest time, when Christians have thought about political engagement, they have often begun the discussion with the question: what is the biblical role of government? This is not…
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The Cross Destroys Evil (Not Killing Osama)
My favorite t-shirt (a gift from my mates at “On Earth Peace” ) simply reads “When Jesus said, “Love your enemies, ” I think he probably meant, don’t kill them.”…
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Whose Death Does God Cheer?
I’m not a pacifist—but I do not celebrate the death of another human. Even Osama bin Laden. I remember watching the riots and flag burning in parts of the MIddle…
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When Good People Do Nothing
By Tony Campolo
Cynicism says, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Faith says, “You’ll see it when you believe it.” In Obadiah, verse 11 (the book only has one chapter), we read…
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Violence in the Name of Faith
I received a question from a reader recently that asked: You write a lot about the plight of the Palestinians. Do you have anything to say about the murder of…
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The Worship is Over but the Service is About to Begin
By Tony Campolo
There are people who go to the symphony and clap because they know that’s what they are supposed to do at the end of the concert, but the music has…
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Good for Goodness Sake. . .Not Conversions
By Tony Campolo
We should do good for goodness sake, not to achieve some other goal. A good act is good in and of itself. There are some people who believe that the…
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Substituting the Offense of the Gospel for Just Being Offensive
I know Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that “Christians should give more offense, ” but, to be completely honest, I’m getting really tired of Christians who are offensive for all the wrong…
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Three Cups of Truth
By Kent Annan
Last week I watched the “60 Minutes” expose on Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea. It felt like a punch in the gut, even if it’s of the…
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Jubilee on Wall Street: Reimagining God's Vision in Action
All the ruckus on Wall Street has created an incredible moment for the kingdom of God. Across the planet folks are asking questions like: “Can the world afford the American…
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Celebrating Easter Reconciliation: Alive & One in Christ
By Mimi Haddad
As we celebrate Easter and Christ’s empty tomb, we recognize that Calvary changes everything! Through Christ’s victory over death we not only receive forgiveness for sin, but if that were…
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It's Friday. . .But Sunday's Coming! (VIDEO)
By Tony Campolo
Once a year in our church, we have a preach off. Folks, for the most part, don’t even know what that is. That’s when you get about five, six, seven…
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Death Be Not Proud: The Easter Gospel of Non-Violence
Tomorrow is “Good” Friday, the day Christians around the world remember Jesus’ crucifixion. Last year on Good Friday one of my neighbors said to me, “I thought it’s supposed to…
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Sexual Assault, Cold Nights and God's Plan
At 23, most people her age are very conscious of their appearance, but Stephanie’s wardrobe consisted of thrift store finds and cast offs, leaning heavily toward stretch pants and sweatshirts…
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The Future of College Ministry: Credibility Over Credentials
By Andrew Marin
More than any other type of life and faith in culture, there is no doubt in my mind that college ministry is consistently the most rapidly changing population of believers.…
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UnChristian: Who Do I Emulate?
I have been doing some thinking about the book UnChristian in which non – Christians had the opportunity to share their views of Evangelical Christians. Not surprisingly they are not too…
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Ride the Donkey: Love Over Power
By Tony Campolo
I sometimes think that many Evangelical Christians tend toward becoming modern counterparts of the ancient Gnostics. While the theologically liberal doubt the deity of Jesus, we have a tendency to…
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Changing America and the World for the Common Good
By Tony Campolo
There was a time when I thought that a handful of committed persons, wholly dedicated to their cause, could change the world. After all, Margaret Mead had said we could. …
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Turning Again: Tax Day
This year, Tax Day (April 15) happened to be the Friday before Good Friday. For those of us on the Lenten journey, this puts the question of whether we should…
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The Ryan Plan: A Declaration of War on the Poor
I’ve been fasting for 18 days in solidarity with the hunger fast for a moral budget because something incredible is happening in our country, and we haven’t seen anything like…
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Jesus is My Koan
By Tony Campolo
Recently, at a public forum, I was asked to address the question as to whether or not America is having a spiritual revival. It was an easy question to address…
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Do I Deny the Resurrection?
Occasionally I get emails demanding to know my stance on a particular piece of “historic orthodoxy”. People wonder about my view of hell, or who I think Jesus was or…
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Hunger Fast: The Call for Justice
By RLC Editor
“When I walked outside people, thinking I was a doctor, began handing me their dead children. Within minutes I watched 25 children die.” These were the opening words of Ambassador…
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My Letter to the IRS
As a Christian, Easter marks the most stunning act of grace and enemy-love in human history – Jesus’ death and resurrection. As Jesus was being tortured and executed, he cried…
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A Proposal for "Illegal Aliens"
By Tony Campolo
The Hebrew Scriptures clearly call for the children of Israel to make room for the alien. The Israelites are reminded that they, too, were once aliens in a strange and…
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Religionless Spirituality
By Tony Campolo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christian martyr, once prophesied from a Nazi concentration camp that there would come a day when there would be a religion-less Christianity. With ambivalence he looked into…
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Digging Deeper: The Coming Evangelical Split
I wrote a short article a few weeks back on the split of Evangelical Christianity. It started out as simply a Facebook note and went viral at online hubs such…
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Faithful Christianity Means a Walking Hypocrite?
By Andrew Marin
A couple months back my good friend Adam McLane posted these profoundly truthful words on feeling like a hypocrite. When I read it I quickly remembered a series of conversations…
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Lose Yourself
By Tony Campolo
As a college professor, I could always count on someone coming into my office around the beginning of May and telling me he wasn’t coming back net semester. (It was…
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What Do You Mean by Sin?
By Tony Campolo
From time to time, I have been asked in the academic classrooms where I have taught to define what I mean by sin. I always respond by saying, “Sin is…
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Dear Rob. . .An Open Letter to Rob Bell
Cheap viagra softb-Bell.jpg” alt=”” width=”153″ height=”211″ />Dear Rob, It was great being with you a couple of weeks ago – before the entire media stir. If it is not too…
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Resurrection City: For a Living Wage
When Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, the world stopped for a moment. Shaken, confused but searching for a way to continue the fight, civil rights…
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Mona Lisa and Jesus
Fe cialis online without prescription w paintings throughout the world are as well known as Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (or La Gioconda, as the Italians refer to her). The image…
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Why Christians Don't Like Jesus
By Tony Campolo
As the Red Letter Christian movement came to be known, I realized it would never be accepted. This is because many Christians don’t really like the God that is revealed…
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Faith in a Time of Cholera
By Kent Annan
The litany of horrors somehow won’t end: an earthquake kills 230, 000; 80 percent of people already living on less than $2 a day; cholera spreading with help from a…
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Are Evangelicals Fixated on Homosexuality?
By Tony Campolo
Sigmund Freud would have something to say about the ways in which we Evangelicals seem to be fixated on homosexuality. That fixation became abundantly clear to me a few years…
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Will 'Love Wins' Win? We're Early in the First Inning …
Because of my own experience as a writer, I’ve been anticipating the baptism in hot water (or worse) that Rob Bell was about to experience with the publication Love Wins.…
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Remember the Widow
By Tony Campolo
Most of us concentrate our ministries on reaching young people with the Gospel. However, sociological studies make it clear that, in the churches of America, the elderly are the most…
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A Prayer for Japan
It is too soon for meaning-making with the ongoing crisis in Japan. There will be time later to determine its ramifications for the world economy, for the future of the…
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"What a Saviour" vs. "What a Preacher"
By Tony Campolo
When I was in Seminary, I took a course in homiletics. During that semester, each of the students was required to preach a sermon to the rest of the class.…
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Give to Uncle Sam What Is Uncle Sams: Tax Season War Resistance
Image Courtesy of Paul Soupiset Imagine what would happen if a massive popular movement of ordinary Americans decided to voice their concern about military spending – by withholding $10.40 from…
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Stone Throwing at a Glass House
By Tony Campolo
As the news of the financial woes of the Crystal Cathedral is heralded across the country and around the world, a host of critical voices have been raised, at times…
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Does it Pay to Pray for Healing?
By Tony Campolo
A widowed mother of six dies of breast cancer. In the months preceding her death, the members of her church held weekly prayer meetings, begging God to heal her. Twice,…
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The Callousing of Morality
purchase cialis onlinealt=”” width=”149″ height=”225″ />A few years ago, a series of commercials for a shampoo product saturated television programming. Each ad portrayed a woman experiencing sexual ecstasy as she…
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10 More Reasons The Gospel That's Good News for the Poor is Good News for the Rich
Today’s RLC Blog Challenge: It would be super-easy to skim this Top 10 list and then leave a snarky comment at the end about all the ways the author is…
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The Perils of Well-Meaning But Short-Sighted Generosity
By Tony Campolo
Rick Warren, the most prominent evangelical pastor of our day, has established a highly successful program arranging teams from his church to help specific villages in Africa. Given the effectiveness…
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Jesus in Japan (Libya & Bahrain): “I was hungry, thirsty…” and you fought about Rob Bell on Twitter?
I’m not one of these people who thinks doctrine isn’t important. I think it’s incredibly important. I think part of the huge popularity of the New Reformed movement is that…
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Is Christianity a Casualty of War?
By Tony Campolo
Recently, I sat in dismay as I watched a television show that featured a prominent Christian author defending the use of torture in the war against terrorism. I was outraged…
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Radiation Leaks, Creation Care, and Much Prayer
By Tony Campolo
The latest reports say that over 140, 000 people are devastatingly positioned in Japan to be affected by potential radiation leaks from the nearby Nuclear Plant. Japanese officials have ordered…
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Naked Spirituality: An Interview with Brian McLaren
By RLC Editor
RLC Editor (R): Brian, this book is written for what type of reader – a church-going person of faith, one who has fallen away from organized religion or someone who…
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Love Wins: A New Split in Protestant Evangelicalism
There has been an inordinate amount of craziness around this book. Everyone I know seems to have weighed in on this topic. Everyone is watching… Is this really about Rob…
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America's Greatest Deficit is Spiritual, Not Merely Financial
With all the angst about the economy, the deficit, and a looming government shut-down, I’m still concerned that we’re treating symptoms rather than diagnosing the underlying disease. I know something…
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Trusting God in a Consumerist Society
By Tony Campolo
Consider what Jesus said about wealth and how he told us that we cannot love both God and money (i.e. material things) at the same time (Matt 6:24). Danish religious philosopher…
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The New Scarlet Letters Christian Women Are Wearing These Days? R. L. C.
When I had the happy fortune of sharing breakfast with Tony last year, I asked him if there was a particular way to inspire and equip women whose basic needs…
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Remember You Will Die (It Helps You to be Alive)
By Kent Annan
Just before the earthquake, Père, the grandfather of the Woshdlo family I first lived with in Haiti, pulled me aside to tell me about the latest project he was starting.…
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Choose Love Not Power
By Tony Campolo
One of my recently published books is entitled Choose Love Not Power. It may be the most important book I have ever written. It’s an updated version of a book…
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Caffeine, Workout Routines, and Sweets
By Tony Campolo
“So. . .what are you giving up?” It’s the question of the day as people everywhere embark on the Lenten journey. Answers include everything from soda to chocolate and fast…
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Compassion Towards the LGBT Community
By Tony Campolo
Eric Hoffer, in his book The True Believer, makes an incredibly profound statement. He declares that a movement can exist without a god, but never without a devil! Hitler understood…
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The Myth of Busyness
By Tony Campolo
Busyness is a futile attempt to convey to yourself and to others that you are a person of great importance. The overwhelming thought process is that a very busy life…
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Spoiled Witches, Puerile Vanity, and Compassion International
“I do get tired with rich western women complaining that they are being forced to be thin. If you don’t like it, don’t buy the magazines…So blame yourselves and shut…
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Growing Where We’re Planted
By Tony Campolo
To make a difference for good in this world a person has to have a sense of place. But few of us have such a sense. We are a people…
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While the Blood Dries: Loving Our Enemies
Tonight I drove my close friend Michelle to the airport for an unexpected trip home to Denver. Hours earlier she had received a phone call from her mother share news…
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Love Wins: Rob Bell and the New Calvinists
What Slavoj Zizek is to cultural theory, and what Radiohead is to … (insert genres that are now transcending), Rob Bell is to the art of preaching. To borrow a…
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Budgets Are Still Moral Documents
The What Would Jesus Cut? campaign, launched by assumes that massive budget cuts are coming, but raises the question of where we start. As Shane Claiborne expounded on yesterday, there…
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What Would Jesus Cut? Bread vs. Bombs
Growing up in the Bible belt in East Tennessee, I can remember an entire campaign built around – “What Would Jesus Do?” There were WWJD bracelets, stickers, and t-shirts. Today…
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Deeper Meanings for Sabbath Keeping
By Tony Campolo
I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood and I knew that Orthodox Jews make a big thing out of observing the Sabbath. Having a day off from the hectic activities…
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What You and Frodo Might Just Have in Common
I can’t be trusted with Christian fiction. It’s not that can’t be trusted to write it. I can’t even be trusted to read it. When my fifth grade teacher, Mrs.…
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Destructive Donations?
By Tony Campolo
Henry Thoreau once said, “When people come and say, ‘I want to help you’, I flee.” I think that what Thoreau was trying to tell us is that sometimes those…
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The Myopic Nature of Greed
We have all heard before that money can’t buy happiness. We have all heard before that it doesn’t matter how much money we attain we will always want more. We…
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National Debt as a Biblical Issue
By Tony Campolo
Two days ago I was interviewed by abcnews.com for a piece the journalist was writing entitled, “National Debt as a Biblical Issue: Did Selfishness Lead to Giant Deficit?” In preparation…
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Tired Exhausted Ministry
By Tony Campolo
Jesus said, “Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” All around me, I see people who are weary. They are…
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Let Us Pray. . .Together
A few years ago, a bunch of activist-types and a bunch of prayer-warriors got together to create a prayer book with the goal of bringing together the bible and the…
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Should Churches Hire Youth or Elderly Care Pastors?
By Tony Campolo
It seems strange to me that churches should show such favoritism to the youth and do little, if anything, for the elderly. When a church adds a new staff member,…
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Adopted Girl Found Dead in Truck, I May Be at Fault
As an adopted person and adoptive mother, I pay attention when adoption hits the news. Early this week authorities in West Palm Beach Florida found Jorge Barahona and his adopted…
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The Egyptian Revolution and Theological Reformation
It’s risky to make historical comparisons. If we say, “This event is exactly the same as that event, ” our comparison blinds us to the uniqueness of a historical moment.…
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When Goodness and Evil Grow Together
By Tony Campolo
Those who would discourage us in our attempts to work for social justice and end poverty and oppression claim that “the world is getting worse and worse every day, and…
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Chocolate Lovers: Help Stop the Bloodshed in the Ivory Coast
By Tony Campolo
Could Valentine’s Day chocolates seriously be contributing to the Ivory Coast’s potentiality of entering a Civil War? Many activist organizations believe so. Most recently I was reading my friend Ron…
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Daydreamers
All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find that it was vanity; But the dreamers of day are dangerous men, that they may act their dreams…
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Leaving Auschwitz with Love
By Tony Campolo
“Where there is hatred, let me sow love” This line from the famous prayer by St. Francis has permeated my thoughts for years. Upon it rest many decisions I have…
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Q Ideas: A Hidden Mural, A Reminder of God's Resources
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) is a trend that doesn’t seem to fading in the United States or overseas thanks to the economy, but one couple from across the pond is upping the…
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Staying Alive to do Justice
By Tony Campolo
I try to start each day by setting aside about twenty minutes for centering prayer. I empty my mind of the hundred-and-one things that are apt to start spinning in…
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Entrepreneurs for Biblical Justice
By Tony Campolo
In a garage turned into a mini-factory located in a slum on the edge of Santo Domingo, a half-dozen women are singing hymns as they work alongside each other. These…
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Confusing Our Kids
I catch up on my news in the airport. Yesterday I watched this obscure story about a second grader in Rhode Island who wore a baseball cap to school with…
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Excuse #947 To Not Live Out God’s Love For a World in Need: “I’m Not That Bad”
When it comes to making excuses for why I am not living out God’s love the way I really want to be, I’m a real genius. One of my favorites…
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Can Civil Disobedience be Christian?
By Tony Campolo
The time may be at hand when we will see an outbreak of civil disobedience being practiced by Christians on a scale that has not been witnessed for decades. Already…
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Commercialization of Ministry
By Tony Campolo
buy cialis online uk.jpg” alt=”” width=”250″ height=”250″ />This blog post is in response to a tweet comment based on Margot Starbuck’s recent post, “” The tweet went something like this:…
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Defending 'Red Letter Christians': Answers to the Most Common Critiques
By Tony Campolo
Today’s blog post is in response to a comment I received from my post “Why the Religious Right Will Dominate”: “How sad that the depth of the ‘new and improved…