Latest Articles
Voices of the arrested
I don’t want to do this, but I will. I have a gun.
I’m sorry I took those things. I lost my job.
Give me a break. I’m strung out on heroin.
These are the prayers of the people.
On restrooms, gender, and fear
My wife and I have a joke. We tell it when we are out in public, at an airport or a restaurant or concert, and I need to use the bathroom. When I stand up to find a restroom I say to her, “Okay, honey, if I’m not out in five minutes, come look for me.”
We always laugh but, actually, it’s not that funny.
Depths of evil and peace
Why would Psalms and Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian pop into my head?
Carnal theology
Flesh is indeterminate. It flows, changes over time, and is consumed and transformed. It becomes the reality of rich spiritual encounter.
Theology faculties adapt Islam for Germany
While Germany’s politicians are loudly debating whether Islam is compatible with democracy, five of its state universities are quietly developing new Islamic theology faculties that are striving to...
Jewish artist Tobi Kahn crosses religious lines
As Passover approached, Tobi Kahn worked in his studio in Queens, New York, putting washes of glaze on a silver-painted peg, a miniature sculpture soon to join 48 others....
Is Trump like Hitler? The value and limits of analogy
A narcissistic demagogue is different from a racist-völkisch one. But Trump's ideological unpredictability bears its own dangers.
Hubert Harrison’s wisdom on race, war, and equality
In 1911, Afro-Caribbean intellectual activist Hubert Harrison wrote in the New York Call that “politically the Negro is the touchstone of the modern democratic idea.”
This touchstone metaphor is both startling and profound.
The abiding place of God
John’s Gospel message can be summed up in several different ways. For many, the heart of the Johannine message is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that any who believe in him may not perish, but have everlasting life.” That’s a good one, and so is the very next one, “God did not send his son to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.”
There are also the seven “I am” statements in which Jesus not-so-subtly declares himself by the unspeakable name of God.
Old Testament
This Strange and Sacred Scripture: Wrestling with the Old Testament and Its Oddities, by Matthew Richard Schlimm. The Old Testament is deeply and sometimes distressingly s...
Faith’s ghastly legacy
Christians fail to realize that the responsibility for rebellion against the faith lies invariably at their own door.
May 15, Day of Pentecost: Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21
In Acts comes Luke’s imaginative way to build upon ancient stories. The tongues of fire are no longer seen from afar on top of God’s mountain. And the multiplicity of languages becomes God’s vehicle for bringing salvation to the entire world.
Theological horror
Few Americans may believe in witches—or in a Puritan God. Yet The Witch explores human impulses that are still with us.
The woman in purple (or Acts as a movie)
They met down by the river, some Jews, a handful of Gentiles, and the usual suspects from other places beyond the city of Philippi....
Top awards for the Century from the Associated Church Press
The first gathering of the Associated Church Press was held in St. Louis in 1916. Last week the ACP returned there to celebrate its 100th anniversary, gather a fine bunch of religion journalists, and hand out awards for work published in 2015.
I accepted two first-place awards of behalf of the Century staff: best in class for national and international magazines and best in class for blogs.
Canaan at the margins
When I read the book of Joshua, it is easy for me to miss God's call for genocide.
Precarious housing
In poor communities like the one where I live and work, evictions are not the exception. They’re the norm.
Phantom threats
Several recent state-level legislative efforts have something in common: they are solutions in search of a problem.