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This past Sunday was the Epiphany, the celebration of the incarnate Christ made manifest. It also happened to be the Sunday I decided to visit a congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church.  The MCC is more theologically liberal than I am, so I braced myself for some hangups. But I also wanted to remain as open as possible to experiencing God in a different context. I’m glad I went.

If you graduated from college, you know the drill. Every so often a magazine arrives in your mailbox, full of glossy photos of happy, successful people....

New today from the Century: Faith-based anti-death penalty work, LaVonne Neff reviews Chris Haw, more.

My first thought upon learning that Chris Haw had written a memoir about his journey to Catholicism was, Oh no—not another one.

"How can you defend those people?" That's a question we public defenders hear a lot.

This year, I have decided to make space for more non-urgent reading. This is reading that isn’t about keeping up with work-related issues or the latest, best writers....

A while back I spent a good chunk of a week at a denominational pastors' retreat in the Alberta foothills just north of Calgary. One of the things we did during our worship times each day was spend some time “dwelling in the Word.” The specific text we focused on each session was Luke 7:36-50, the story where Jesus is anointed by a “sinful woman” at the home of Simon the Pharisee. It’s a scandalous story—a woman of ill repute showing up a bunch of religious elites, crashing their party with her sensuous, inappropriate display of penitence, love, and devotion.

New today from the Century: Jeanne Bishop on being a public defender, Heath Carter reviews David Swartz, more.

I was ordained last February, and since then I’ve been invited to preach at more than a dozen churches as a supply preacher....

David Swartz recovers the story of the unlikely coalition forged by progressive evangelicals in the 1960s and 1970s.

Some Americans see themselves as isolated individuals struggling in a forbidding environment. Institutions do things to them, not for or with them.

In a famous 1970s television commercial, legendary movie actor and director Orson Welles held up a glass of wine....

Here's some good news: despite our short collective attention span, despite the fiscal-cliff debacle dominating the headlines shortly after the Newtown shooting, the U.S. scourge of gun violence is still part of the national conversation. Now, every time I hear a public official mention Newtown and Aurora but not Chicago—which experienced a startling spike in gun homicides in 2012, mostly in poor, black neighborhoods—I'm ashamed at the implication that some killings deserve more shock and outrage than others. Still, whatever it takes to motivate people to take on the pro-gun lobby, I'm grateful to see it happening.

A couple of articles are making the rounds among my friends right now. The first is this Century article by Craig Barnes (the new president of Princeton Seminary), who provides his reflections on why pastors cannot (or should not) be friends with parishioners. Of course there can be close and intimate relationships, and pastor and flock are friendly to one another. But Barnes argues that the clergy role is such that true mutual friendship is impossible, or at least inadvisable. The second article is about a pastor of a large church in Charlotte who’s on a leave of absence at a treatment center after struggling with depression and alcohol abuse.

New today from the Century: Flea-market capitalists, gun control, clergy burnout, more.

In a famous 1970s television commercial, legendary movie actor and director Orson Welles held up a glass of wine....

As the nation marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, PBS premieres "The Abolitionists," a three-part series, on Tuesday (Jan. 8)....

CANTERBURY, England (RNS) The Church of England on Friday (Jan....

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican reaffirmed its commitment to dialogue with Jews on Monday (Jan. 7) after the head of a traditionalist breakaway group called them "enemies of the Church."...

When Peter Jackson plays up the theme of home, it's a loving riff on Tolkien. But why must he make war the driving engine of the The Hobbit?