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 ...

Rob Bell came out last week with his latest book What We Talk About When We Talk About God. Bell is one of the most controversial figures in American Christianity, evidenced by the fact that he engenders an extreme polarity of love from his fans and hatred from his detractors. Bell recently added more fuel to the fire when he was interviewed at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. He was asked whether he suppo ...

I was a Religious Studies major at a small liberal arts college near Portland, Oregon in the year 2001. One requirement for that major was a course in modern theology, specifically the modern liberation movements. We read impassioned writings about justice from feminist theologians, Latin American theologians, and Black theologians. I must admit that, for an all-white cohort of late teens and early twenty s ...

There was an angry deity in need of appeasement at the Cross that day, and it was us. As it has always been us when it comes to sacrifice. ...

For Benedict, the Christian axiom that God is love means that you are the object of God’s love. You are loved more than you will ever know. Benedict knew the urgency of this message. “In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant...” ...

God renews Creation from a cross where Jesus would take the worst we have to offer one another – the ridicule, the beatings, the shame and horror of public execution – and offer not vengeance but forgiveness. Luke’s good news is that the high Priest has returned to make the Great Atoning Sacrifice on our behalf and the impact of that sacrifice has been working its way through human history for 2000 years. ...

Well, I immediately thought, “WHAT!?! Wait a minute…Religious leaders basing theories on misguided interpretations!?! How could that happen? As a Christian, I’ve never heard of such a thing…” ...

“Guns are why we’re free in this country, and people lose sight of that when tragedies like this happen.” Scott Ostrosky, Newtown resident, owner of informal shooting range, as quoted in the New York Times. “We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.” President Obama, speaking at a Newtown, CT prayer vigil In the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, CT on Friday, w ...

“The 1970s were the beginning of the end of older forms of Christianity, and now, decades later, we are witnessing the end of the beginning.”  --Diana Butler Bass I graduated from my Catholic girls high school in 1973 as an avowed agnostic. Having rejected Catholicism and all of Christianity for that matter, I had no idea that I was part of a tidal wave of change sweeping  American Christianity. I felt alon ...