First Words
Why we need the grime of Ash Wednesday
Like the sludge on a car in the winter, most of our messes accumulate gradually.
Loving your political enemy at the National Prayer Breakfast
Arthur Brooks gave the room an important assignment. President Trump turned it down.
When we advertise our righteousness, it becomes self-righteousness
What we can learn from the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector
Adopted and loved
One of the greatest mysteries of faith is that God loves us as is.
A legacy of wealth amid scarcity
The abundance of giving
Has family become an idol?
The Bible gives no sense that the family is an end in itself.
Cultivating uncertainty
Marilynne Robinson calls it “a form of reverence.”
What mercy in the criminal justice system could look like
What if all were extended the gift of a second chance?
To avoid risk, don’t get close to God
Sometimes faith is like encountering a grizzly bear.
Our legislators’ silence is a failure of moral courage
Margaret Chase Smith and Abraham Lincoln modeled a better way.
“Self-interest seemed almost omnipotent”
Langdon Gilkey’s account of his imprisonment during WWII is a study in how humans act under pressure.
Fear that manufactures numbness
I went to a haunted house. I did not enjoy it.
When our past sins come up
There's no perfect way to atone, but humility is a good start.
The Century and the forgetting curve
We read, forget, and are formed anyway.
Cancer is a struggle, not a battle
3 reasons the warfare metaphor is problematic
Can clergy earn back the public trust they’ve lost?
Respect for pastors is at an all-time low. What would help?
True generosity comes from joy
Bone-deep generosity has nothing to do with means and everything to do with desire.
Do gentle people need to toughen up?
Being wise as a serpent doesn’t mean having a hard heart.
Life is not a zero-sum game
Neither is religion.
Anti-abortion legislators need a dose of compassion
These draconian new state laws seem more pro-birth than pro-life.