We need to repent of blaming the victim so that we can respond to the suffering of our neighbors with compassion. And we need to repent of the idea that God is out to get people. God’s not against you or me or even John Piper. God doesn’t cause natural disasters. Bad things just happen so stop blaming God. God wants us to stop finding someone else to blame and to start working toward healing one another. ...

I love Anne Lamott. I have a spiritual crush on her because she says things about prayer like this: Prayer is taking the chance that against all odds and past history, we are loved and chosen, and do not have to get it together before we show up. The opposite may be true: We may not be able to get it together until after we show up in such miserable shape. That’s all anyone really needs to know about Anne L ...

A wonderful production of the play Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts is currently being staged by the AstonRep company at the BoHo Theatre in Chicago. My apologies to out-of-towners who won’t have the opportunity to see the show, because it is blessed with a gifted ensemble, headed by Mark Jacob Chaitin and Ryan Hamlin in the lead roles. Hamlin plays Adam, who, unlike the Biblical Adam, has no relationship with ...

How do you live peaceably within an institution you love that does not love you back? As an openly gay Roman Catholic priest, James Alison lives that question. Yesterday, James was in a televised debate on the British show Versus where he was asked, “Is the Catholic Church redeemable?” He was also asked why, as an openly gay man, he hasn’t left the church. His answer to those questions is found in Christ, w ...

What if we surprised our enemies? I mean, really surprised them. What if we surprised them with something totally unexpected? When our personal, political, and national enemies strike us, they expect us to strike back. That’s been the human script since the foundations of human culture. We mimic violence blow for blow. Only each side wants to be the side who delivers the final blow. What if we surprised our ...

Paul’s vision is that nothing can separate Matthew Warren from the love of God. Nothing can separate Rick Warren from the Love of God. Nothing can separate Fox News from the love of God. Nothing can separate American Christians who fear persecution from the love of God. Nothing can separate Iraqis and Afghanis from the love of God. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. And nothing, according to Pau ...

Watching sports is not as much fun as it used to be. I blame Jesus for that, because he just had to say, “Love thy enemy.” Or, as Chad Gibbs puts it in the title of his fantastic book on spirituality and sports, “Love thy Rival.” Here’s an example of how Jesus ruined sports for me. The University of Louisville and the University of Michigan will face off tonight in the final game of the NCAA men’s basketbal ...

The question is: Who is our ultimate model of authority? Rob wants us to consciously choose Jesus as our model of authority. When the church chooses Jesus, then it becomes the body of Christ, empowered not with the authority of coercive power, but empowered by the Holy Spirit to follow Christ in service and love. ...

Rob's thinking is that people are gradually cluing in to God's vision of a world without retributive violence. “Revenge always escalates.” he writes (Kindle Locations 1919-1920). Always. So, God takes vengeance away from us. He situates the conversation in ancient history and what we can gather about the cultural situation of their time and place in history. ...

(The Controversial figure Rob Bell has created another firestorm with his latest provocative book What We Talk About When We Talk About God. Raven Foundation Board Member Tripp Hudgins and I will share our thoughts on the book in this blogalogue. We invite you to join the discussion by leaving a comment below.)   Hi Tripp, You touched on something in your post yesterday that is essential to this discus ...