First Words

Even the most mechanical routines can transform our inner lives.

My friend Angie’s life is crippled by compulsive acts of decontamination.

Our identities—gender and otherwise—are shaped by community and God.

Hate isn’t new, but it does appear to be thriving.

She gave birth to a son in the back of a squad car.

Does being a good citizen require keeping up with current events?

Practice the beatitudes. Speak truth to power. Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

Small deceptions work like a narcotic, making us feel nicely respectable. Especially in church.

Instead of glorifying the past, what if we treated the present as precious?

He was exonerated—but the state refused to pay him for his 30 years on death row.

What to do with that stack of old Bibles (or that stack of old issues of the Century)?

A missed flight, a cheap motel, and a mushy apple

As I drive past boarded-up churches, I am more convinced than ever that many congregations could afford to revisit their neighbor ethic.

In America, we cherish the inalienable right to have things our way.

The cross is anything but a success story. Failure and disappointment are at the heart of Christianity.

Those of us who sought to change the congregation's communion practice met with indifference. So late one Saturday I took matters into my own hands.

My friend the public defense attorney doesn't teach her clients to evade error. She helps them acknowledge it—and stop pretending.

What the people see in Jesus is more than raw power.

An eccentric existence is one where God forms the center of life, becoming the axle of our self-understanding.

After sharing laudatory remarks about Nai-Wang Kwok, the YDS dean invited him to respond. I have thought a lot about the three sentences Kwok said before he sat down again.