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For years, I have sat in dialogue rooms across from people whose politics, experiences, and understanding of the place we both call home were very different from mine.…
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Praying at the NRA Convention
I believe in prayer. That’s why we went to the NRA prayer breakfast. But I also believe in action
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Amid Recent SBC Report Release, Abuse Victim Advocate, Ashley Easter, Reaffirms Her Commitment to Uplifting Survivors
Last month an explosive report was released detailing the massive amount of abuse and cover up of abuse that has taken place within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) over the…
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Whiteness is Rooted in Inadequacy (An Excerpt from Straight White Male)
By Chris Furr_1We are worthy only because God has made it so. The irony is, nothing puts just how unlove-able we can be in starker relief than when we soothe our own…
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Meet the first minister of gun violence prevention
“The mass shootings capture our attention because it could be us. The randomness feels so much worse as opposed to the one child that gets ahold of a gun or…
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The Small, Deadly Love of White Mothers
By Suzie Lahoud“…it is the nice, Christian mothers like me who are often the quickest to question the means and motives of good faith activism in defense of the Black right to…
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Stop Lying on God: white ‘Evangelical’ Bible Illiteracy Upholds Status Quo
There is no such thing as justice outside of community. There would be no need for it. It wouldn’t exist. The sin that is injustice can’t be done in isolation.…
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The NRA’s Thoughts & Prayers
Our society has also chosen to sacrifice our children, not merely in a valley but in our schools, churches, theaters, concerts, restaurants, grocery stores, homes, and basically any other place…
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June 17th, 2015 ( Excerpt from For such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness after the Charleston Massacre”)
“You cant heal in isolation, Trust your gut instinct and cling to your faith, Be prepared to get rejected. You’ve got to persevere. Don’t give up on humanity. Everybody has…
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Image: A Lament for George Floyd
“In the midst of all the work to be done, we must not forget—even two years later—to stop and lament the tragedy of his death. Let us mourn with the…
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Slow To Speak and Quick To Listen (An Excerpt From The Race-Wise Family)
“When we hold the Bible in one hand and the news in the other, our posture as a race-wise family will be to listen often and well, and to be…
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Why #IStandWithJemar & Hope You Will Too
“…having spent time on Christian college campuses, my heart aches for the young people who thought they were learning to follow Jesus and the faculty and staff who show up…
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The Beloved Community and the Heresy of White Replacement: How “Beyoncé Mass” Gave Me Hope After the Buffalo massacre
“…over the opening notes of Beyoncé’s “Halo,” which preceded communion, Rev. Dr. Norton also offered these words of hope: Repentance is not a one-time thing, but a developmental process, a…
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Masquerading as Compassion: The Church‘s Latest Move to Deal With the LGBTQ+ Issue
When Christians talk of rules, lines, and statutes, they’re focused on arbitrary commands instead of the law of love, which Jesus brought forth.
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To Affirm the Death Penalty Is to Reject the Christian Gospel
We need a broader moral reckoning on capital punishment—in the Bible belt, in particular. In a recent forum, we zeroed in on the challenge of problematic theology, which in Shane’s…
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Abortion, Racism and the True Origins of the Religious Right
By Jemar Tisby“Repealing Roe v. Wade stands as a perennial high-priority issue for conservative Christian voters, so much so that today it is hard to imagine a time when that was not the case.…
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A Call to the Transformational, Lifelong Work of Antiracism
I had been on a quest for years to prove to the world how not racist I was. Sitting in that room, facing the ugliest of truths about myself and…
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Change the Question
By Kathy BrooksThese talented artisans were very happy to have orders coming in. They would continue to work at whatever price we said we could pay. It is the nature of living…
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Grove City College rejects ‘wokeness,’ CRT in new report
By Kathryn Post“…the report uses CRT as ‘a junk drawer for anything about race or justice that makes a certain type of person feel uncomfortable.” Because of the rhetoric around CRT, he…
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An Excerpt From Indigenous Theology and the Western Worldview
The message was simple to understand: It’s just like when I used to pastor and I would tell the children’s sermon before the regular sermon. I would tell them, “If…
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The Feasts of God’s Calendar
We know through revelation of the scripture that blood that was on the doorpost was foreshadowing– was symbolic of the Blood of Jesus that was to deliver us from sin…
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An Interview with Tennessee Activist, Justin Jones, On the #March4Mercy: “God is calling Us to Be on The Margins”
By Justin JonesOn April 21—just days after Easter—Oscar Smith is set to be executed in Tennessee. The state has 32 people currently on death row and though they have written a letter…
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The Holy Thursday Revolution
This table is the hinge of history. The table is the point. Thursday is the Last Supper and the First Feast. The Holy Thursday Revolution.
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A Merciful Awakening: A Short Sermon on Mark 10:46-52
For those of us who are being transformed by new-to-us revelations of long-present realities, this awakening journey is surely God’s mercy to us. It isn’t good for us to be…
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Highlights from “MLK 55 Years Later: Can the Church Study War No More?” Event
We are up against some fierce principalities and powers – the triplet evils of racism, materialism, and militarism are as alive and well as they were 55 years ago. But…
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Critical Race Theory Is Not Incompatible with Scripture
By Francois“…Perhaps, in this moment, God is calling us to think more critically about the role of the church and its relationship to the least of these.”
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From Ferguson To Kiev: Dr. Bernice King to Join National Faith Leaders to Interrogate US Militarism at Home & Abroad
By RLC EditorReturning to the site and sound of MLK’s legendary ‘Beyond Vietnam’ speech to examine the enduring evils of racism, materialism, and militarism 55 years later NEW YORK – LIVE FREE…
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The Weight and Wait of Tenebrae
By PJ RiggsLight seems so much brighter when we are emerging from the darkness. This is why I need that Tenebrae service, to sit and bear witness to the darkness, to recognize…
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Holy Russia and the Consequences of Christian Nationalism
By David PiorekAs we watch the current tragedy unfold in Ukraine, our hearts and prayers must be with the suffering, and we must pray fervently that the Holy Spirit will change the…
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During My First Year in Seminary
Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. That takes a lot of work – and the work is letting go in…
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7 Things White Christians Can Do to Address White Supremacy at Church
I’m convinced that the most important thing white Christians can do is to simply start somewhere. And to start somewhere local.
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Americans’ Outrage About Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Is More About Race Than the Immorality of War
By Jonny RashidWhat this showcases is that opposition here is more political than ethical. Our outrage against war is too often rooted in who is doing the invading and where they are…
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An Open Letter to His Holiness Kirill from US Christian Leaders
By RLC Editor“In this moment, as the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, you have the holy opportunity to play an historic role in helping to bring a cessation of senseless violence…
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Stations of the Cross Illustrated by Tennessee Men on Death Row
May these paintings open our hearts up to the profound depth of God’s love, and may they stir in us a passion for extending that love and grace to others.…
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Free Melissa Lucio
To advance God’s kingdom on earth and pursue his vision of holistic shalom means we cannot avoid what’s happening on death row.
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Radical Forgiveness and Ableism in the Church
By Liz DayeWhile the disability experience is not a monolith, by & large caregivers and disabled people are familiar with the feeling of being excluded from environments that seemingly welcome their presence…
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The Best Defense…
What if we were to attack instead of retreat? What if, in place of despair or even a secure defense, we were to perpetrate an all-out offensive on the things…
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A Moment of Reckoning for White Christians
This is a moment of reckoning. White Christians have but two options set before us: to walk the narrow road with Jesus in the path of repentance of our exploitation…
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All Investment Has Impact—What Is Ours?
By Mark ElsdonThe source of both money and water affects the health of what it does in the world. Brackish or polluted water from upstream will kill everything downstream. The same is…
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“Nothing New Under the Sun”: Opposing Racism Today
White supremacy comes with a body count, and when racism reigns, death runs rampant, too.
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A Tribute to Steve Schapiro
Last month, we lost a giant in the movement for a better world – Steve Schapiro. Some of you may not know him because he was usually behind a camera,…
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Nominating a Black Woman to the U.S. Supreme Court Will Advance Justice and Democracy
To be clear, this appointment does not obliterate the president of his broader responsibility to the Black community. He still needs to raise the minimum wage and address housing insecurity,…
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Walk With Me
Rev Otis Moss III, founder of Unashamed Media Group, asked Common Hymnal to contribute music for “Otis’ Dream,” the Get Out The Vote film he wrote and produced for the 2020 election.…
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An Excerpt From Fortune: How Race Broke My Family and the World – And How to Repair It All
Standing before the court, eighteen-year-old Fortune was born free and should have remained free according to Lord Baltimore’s 1681 legal turnabout. But of course the application of law is different…
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This Book Will Be Banned
By Jemar TisbyThe manufactured hysteria about CRT and the 1619 Project puts any book that gives an honest accounting of racism at risk.
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Love Breaks Forth
Let us celebrate Epiphany not made bitter, but better, by the challenge of so many who lost their way to love.
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Finding Jesus in Rural America
We have to know God is here. Right here.
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The Sacred Work of White Discomfort
The minimization or denial of the Holocaust is prohibited, but the minimization and denial of America’s treatment of Native Americans and African Americans is mandated.
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The Heresy of Christian Nationalism
The Christian Nationalism that fueled January 6 is rooted in heresies.
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Heavy Burdens and Hope: A Review
Until now, learning how to discuss these Bible bullets with any confidence seemed overwhelming. But Bridget Eileen Rivera has done all the heavy lifting.
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Buddy Stouffer’s Execution Was the Last of 2021. Will It Be the Last to Be Proved an Error?
On Thursday (Dec. 9), Oklahoma executed Bigler “Buddy” Stouffer, a 79-year-old deeply committed Christian who has maintained his innocence since being convicted of murder in 1985. It was the last…
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Buddy Stouffer’s Execution Was the Last of 2021. Will It Be the Last to Be Proved an Error?
On Thursday (Dec. 9), Oklahoma executed Bigler “Buddy” Stouffer, a 79-year-old deeply committed Christian who has maintained his innocence since being convicted of murder in 1985. It was the last…
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Living Out Our Dual Citizenship
Might Paul’s example, together with relevant teachings and the life of Jesus, guide an exploration of our “dual citizenship” in the U.S. and in the Kingdom of God?
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Reflections from a Recovering Christian Nationalist Leading to the Anniversary of January 6th
By Liz DayeI didn’t know it at the time, but I was being thoroughly discipled in Christian Nationalism: the idolatrous entangling of God and country for the sake of power.
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Remembering the Insurrection
It was a terrible day for America and a terrible day for all of us who love Jesus.
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Unlearning the Gospel of Whiteness: A Tribute to the Arch, Tata Desmond Tutu
The gospel is only good news to the poor if it is good news for all those made vulnerable.
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In These 12 Days of Christmas, Thoughts on Mother God
Motherhood is an earthy, human, painful, female event, filled with soaring joy and searing pain. God came to us like this.
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Finding Security as the World Is Upended: Reflections on Isaiah 26
By Bob EkbladThey are willing to try trusting God without knowing exactly what this means. I want to too.
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Christmas in the Borderlands
By RLC EditorWith a week in the borderlands behind us, I am processing, and I am grieving.
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A Ride for the Common Good
By Joel SimpsonThese are lies that feed our fear of strangers, of non-white bodies, and of people who are poor and from poor countries.
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Mary’s Virginity Matters, but Not for the Reasons You Think
And so if we hold the virgin archetype up against Mary of Nazareth, we might be surprised by what we find. What if Mary’s virginity tells us not just about…
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A Here-and-Not-Yet Gospel of Peace
By Anna KellyToo often, we have numbed the aches and groans of the world in a false peace that seeks to resolve and explain away our neighbor’s pain (or worse yet, to…
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It’s What Didn’t Happen that Matters: On the Trial of the Murder of Ahmaud Arbery
And because of this, they trusted Dunikoski with a kind of trust that is often only extended to those closest to us—family—and called her Auntie to prove it.
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Jesus is Waiting at Our Border
To reject the foreigners at our border is in many ways to reject the very face of Jesus.
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The Kin-dom of God
When I first encountered a prayer using “kin-dom” instead of “kingdom,” I remember thinking that it was a sort of liberal watering down of the robust vision of Christ the…
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The New War on Christmas
This week also marks the 9th anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting (December 14), one of those all-too-familiar moments when our country said, “Never again”… and then let it happen…
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Life as a Lesbian Christian: This Is What I See
Then one day, bone exhausted, something hit me. What if this thorn is actually a mustard seed?
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Is Pro-Life Evangelicalism Killing Adoptees?
Adoptive parents can build platforms and careers off adoption, but adoptees who circumvent the system, usually offering their emotional labor at no cost, receive backlash.
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Where Is Jesus in the Pandemic Protests?
By Mal GreenOne person’s expression of unlimited liberty is another person’s experience of unwelcome restriction.
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Protecting What We Have
By Morf MorfordAnd no force in human history would dare confront such an ingrained and manifested belief system. Except one did.
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Can Theology Be an Idol?
One of my favorite classes in seminary was Christology. It was the systematic biblical study of the person of Jesus Christ (that’s a mouthful!). By collecting and summarizing passages of…
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The Time is Now for Justice for Caregivers
But the truth is that home care workers are struggling to make ends meet.
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Julius Jones was spared by a governor who prayed. Let’s all now pray to end the death penalty.
The irony cannot be missed. Christians all over the world were praying that a Christian governor would not execute a fellow Christian brother who is almost assuredly innocent.
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Deconstruction’s Critics Are Those With Much to Lose
I do not take deconstruction lightly, nor do I wish for churches to die. I want the church to flourish, and flourishing requires weeding out that which is harmful.
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The Only Border Crisis is America’s Disgusting Treatment of Migrants.
By Doug PagittThe border is safe unless you are an immigrant. For immigrants and asylum seekers, it is dangerous and even deadly.
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The Mark of Cain: On Who Deserves to Live
By Morf MorfordKilling in the name of God should be the ultimate oxymoron – the most extreme self-canceling, obvious-to-all contradiction.
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The Ones Who Led the Way
By Amy C RoemerIt is through their testimony, their witness, that they passed down the faith we have today.
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Single and Ready to…Rethink Church, Family, and What It Means to Belong
It can be less lonely simply not going to church than going and trying to be a part of something that largely was not designed for you.
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Stewards of Our Home: A Litany for Our Interdependent Relationship with All of Creation
To be a true steward of a truly hospitable home means we must remember that sacredness.
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To Anyone Else Feeling Stuck in Perplexity
I used to think I was losing my faith, but now I think I’ve actually been growing it deeper all along. If that statement is relatable, this article is for…
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Cultivated Meat and the Prayer of Saint Francis
In the current moment, I don’t think there’s a more effective way to be an instrument of peace than pushing for federal funding for cultivated-meat research.
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Transcending Boundaries as People of Faith
By Morf MorfordGod’s love, if we believe it, is unlimited and crosses every human-made boundary.
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We Must See No Stranger
By Valarie KaurAnti-blackness transcends political party; it permeates our culture and becomes keenly visible in moments like this.
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A Time to Grieve
Then I return to bearing witness, recognizing that there is indeed a time for grief, and we are in that time.
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Drawing My Own Map in a Post-Evangelical World
For someone who thrives on order and stability, drawing my own map is more than navigating uncharted territory. It’s calling me to trust myself, trust God, and believe that the…
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Money and Activism: Faith-Fueled Investing to Fight Climate Change
As someone who has been in advocacy work for a while, I’ve begun to wonder how much all this ‘righteous anger’ accomplishes if we don’t learn to examine our own…
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Hope for Hunger: We can Answer the Moral Call to End Malnutrition
By Mark VisoI believe in our country’s ability to boldly lead an effective global response to food security and adequate nutrition and this initiative offers a blueprint for faith-based and U.S. government…
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Bearing Witness as the First Step to Justice
Being a faithful witness means listening to survivors and believing them at their word without shaming, criticizing, or belittling.
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Bishop Barber’s Remarks to the Vatican Conference on Ending Poverty
I am honored to be here at the Vatican on the feast of St. Francis to share with you on behalf of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for…
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Dazzling and Cruel Transitions Out of Homelessness
There is an aspect of health and wholeness that cannot be defined by Maslow or medicine or psychology during transitions like this.
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Facing Our Shattered State
By Bob EkbladWhat will it take for people to finally acknowledge our broken, shattered state?
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Jesus Among the Insurrectionists
It is good and right to speak out against harmful distortions of the way of Jesus, but Jesus invites us to go further than that.
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The Only Way is Through
I had no clue why something in me snapped. Then a couple of months ago, I picked up Brian McLaren’s book Faith After Doubt.
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Seeking Wholeness: Moving Beyond the Abortion Debate
Maybe when we stop arguing over legality, we’ll be able to see the women and the children who are caught between the battle lines.
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Why Are There So Many Toxic Pastors?
By Jon MathieuWhat’s wrong with us? Why do we keep empowering, following, and fawning over this type of leader?
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Reaching Past the Obvious to Find Belonging
The challenge, then, is for us to go beyond the surface-level labels we wear, to go beyond visible markers of identity.
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American Altar: Poetry, Gun Violence, and the Gods to Whom We Sacrifice
We Americans are much slower to see the idols of our own times and cultures.
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Pastor of . . . Doubt?
The life of those who follow Jesus can be beautiful and amazing, and that beauty almost always includes doubt.
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Why Do You Say You Love Jesus?
By Morf MorfordWhat I really want to know is why this “love” so often doesn’t look like love; why this “faith” doesn’t look like faith. Would they say, “It’s not about what…
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In Opposition of the Line 3 Pipeline
Now, four years later, I want to follow up the heartfelt message of that video by expressing my public opposition to the Line 3 pipeline — and by asking you…
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The Wrong Debate: On Alabama’s New Gas Chamber
By Chris BrownAs states grapple with how to resume killing, the only debate seems to be over the method.