Can you be a "good Christian" and support LGBT rights and same-sex marriage? When NBA player Jason Collins announced this week that he's gay -- the first active, professional American male athlete ever to do so -- the public reaction was overwhelmingly positive. ESPN on Jason Collins & Scripture Writers like ESPN's Tim Keown noted just how un-noteworthy and "normal" the announcement is. "It's a big worl ...

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 ...

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. ...

It was a proud moment in the Ericksen household. The five of us sat down for lunch and my six-year-old Boy said, Let’s pray. This is every pastor’s dream. Usually I have to coerce people into prayer. Now my Boy is offering to pray. With great pride and a smile on my face I said, Yes my Son. Will you lead us in prayer? He took a pensive moment and agreed. We bowed our heads, closed our eyes, and then … this ...

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. ...

Can we watch a video with that guy who has the weird hair and the dark rimmed glasses? -Member of My Youth Group Love wins the in the sense that God’s will is the reconciliation of all things—the soul, the body, the earth, the cosmos, and everything in it. -James Wellman, Rob Bell and a New American Christianity, 59. American Christianity is experiencing a theological shift. Many have tried to explain it, s ...

“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 ...

Last week I explained why I was feeling a bit giddy. The Forgiving Victim video course of introduction to Christianity, a project I’ve been working on with James Alison for over 3 years, is entering what is known as the beta phase. Now we are asking folks to try the course out in their communities and give us their feedback so we can get ready for an official launch in spring 2013. To our delight, over 65 p ...

The day has finally arrived! After nearly four years of planning, filming, building sets, sewing costumes, and film shoots till midnight, The Forgiving Victim video – all 18 hours of it – is edited and floating somewhere in a digital cloud! Now all that’s left to do is – okay, there’s a few things left to do, but before I list all of those I thought I’d celebrate a bit and give you a little background about ...

Adam discusses the question: Is the Higgs boson the God particle? Adam did pass his high school science classes - barely. He is clearly no scientist so any mistakes he made in this video should not be held against him. For more on the Higgs boson, see the essay in the Economist here: http://www.economist.com/node/21558254 and the New York Times interview of Christopher Buckley here: http://www.nytimes.com/2 ...