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The pastor seemed happy to meet Evan, and he said positive things about his work for the Calvary Center. Then he noticed Evan's yarmulke.

While this is a “teachable moment,” Bill’s knock on the door will remind his minister that the words uttered at previous teachable moments in the pulpit and in the classroom have fallen on rocky soil.

Christians have long found spiritual meaning in running. But the church has held this sort of personal experience at arm's length—until recently.

Mandela was a master of political theater. But I loved him for his lesser-known acts, acts that revealed a truly human genius for ubuntu.

I used to read Ephesians 4 and get that vague, warm glow we Mennonites feel when we see the word peace. Now the passage stops me cold.

Why have evangelical denominations joined the mainline's downward turn? We await the definitive study, but a few culprits seem likely.

Come to the river, wash away your sins, start a new life. Now—because something is coming.

How can Paul navigate the choppy waters of a pagan environment, with its idols and temples? The obvious place to start is the Shema.

The Old Testament displays an ongoing conversation between conflicting views of God's character. In light of this, Jesus' story becomes very important.

Battery Park's carnival atmosphere was just what my family was looking for. We needed to be somewhere with fresh, crass air—far from our parsonage home.

Leadership is big these days. And I've become suspicious of our emphasis on what looks more and more like leadership for leadership's sake.

At a seder or shul, I am with my primary congregation—even though I'm not Jewish. And the fact that I'm a rebbetzman is not the only reason I attend.

When my daughter broke her femur, it seemed clear that we shouldn't conceive another child who might inherit my bone disorder. That clarity was short-lived.

Reading or writing a poem requires that we step out of ourselves—which can be dangerous. It's the same thing I do as a foreign correspondent.

Her tiny cabin was part of an old Methodist campground, a fact that delighted her to no end. When it came to other religions, she had a sharp and amused tongue.

Opening ourselves to others takes time. But love is a prisoner who stays up all night with a sharpened toothbrush, working away at a crack in the wall.

"On my first visit to the United States, someone asked when I converted to Christianity. I told him 2,000 years ago."

The RCL includes a few "optional" readings, to be subbed in as needed. Of course, it's all optional.

"Fiction wasn't that big a leap for me," says Will Willimon. "We preachers are all 'artists' in the same sense that the gospel writers were."

If God is both the author and lover of creation, why would God develop complex beings through a process that necessitates species extinction?