(RNS) My last two columns said what I needed to say: Christian congregations have inflicted pain on themselves. And better days lie ahead for those Christians who can think beyond inherited institutions.
(RNS) The big downtown church isn’t empty because church leaders failed or people were unappreciative. It’s empty because people are finding life elsewhere.
(RNS) Christianity isn't in trouble at all. Churches are in trouble.
(RNS) A nation grounded in laws and justice requires a trained cadre whose work is to enforce laws fairly. We thought we had that cadre.
CORVALLIS, Ore. (RNS) For this fresh day to last, church leaders will need to embrace a truth that too many congregations simply cannot hear: There is too much shallowness, not enough depth.
(RNS) It's time we stopped being naive about the current state of American democracy: These are ugly times, and the forces of decency in both parties are under assault.
(RNS) The fight in Indiana isn't just about a piece of legislation. It's about fair-minded citizens speaking out against discrimination and for the common good.
(RNS) Most feel impotent, watching things they care about implode or coarsen or move in a direction they feel powerless to affect. So we tell old stories.
(RNS) Christianity in America faces a crossroads: Do we serve only ourselves and people like us, or do we serve the larger community, especially its outcasts and vulnerable?
(RNS) The goal of these angry preachers seemed specific: promote laws and lawmakers who will restrict accepted morality to narrow 1950s-era parameters.
(RNS) Some in the Republican Party want official approval to oppress and marginalize nonconformists, dissenters and freethinkers -- in other words, the very kind of people who founded the United States.
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (RNS) Facts get in the way of teaching the history that many want to remember, the history in which whites play a starring role, not their actual and much more complicated roles.
(RNS) In some places, whites seem to be on a mission to preserve the benefits of white privilege, even if that means gun violence, police brutality, unfair sentencing and the languishing of urban schools.
(RNS) When we deny any culpability, we merely perpetuate ignorance and hubris in our own ranks and make ourselves seem dishonest and dangerous in the eyes of the world.
(RNS) Over the course of 30 days, I'll be driving cross-country with no idea where I'm headed. But God knows. I just need to follow.
