We did a focus group here as part of strategic planning at Trinity Episcopal Church. CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — We did a focus group here as part of strategic planning at Trinity Epis ...

Elaina Ramsey Be a witness against the bomb--share these graphics! The Cold War is over. However, the U.S. go ...

Sen. Rand Paul filibusters Brennan nomination over drone strikes. The Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday confirmed White House adviser John Brennan as CIA director on a 12- ...

Now it's time to ask Congress to show some courage and enact sensible measures to prevent gun violence. Too many parents have already lost their children. As a mom of two sma ...

All around us, death and life, life and death. Pitch black darkness, confusion, pain, redemption, hope, joy, life, and healing hover around us and within us each day and it’s rarely a smooth, seamless process. ...

It's a marvel that people hate vehemently enough to end their lives and those of complete strangers as a solution to their actual suffering or perceptions of injustice. It's expensive to make this me ...

Drones are beginning to fill U.S. skies. The Federal Aviation Administration is scheduled to begin issuing commercial drone permits in 2015, allowing for a massive use of domest ...

What's it like to wrestle with the Divine One? You know, like Jacob did there in the desert one night. You can contend with God, can you not? Is God not then your enemy in some way? ...

There were at least 5,000 honor killings in 2000, according to a U.N. report. In 2010, a British newspaper estimated the number as high as 20,000. Most honor killings involve the murder of one family member — ...

When I first listened to Tame Impala, I was almost convinced they were the late-60s Beatles reincarnated. Lead singer Kevin Parker’s nasally yet gentle voice sounds about as John Lennon as you’re gonna get. ...

THIS JUST IN — horrific news from our friends in Kabul. Over the weekend two kids, age 7 and 8, were killed by NATO forces while herding cattle in the Uruzgan Province in Afghanistan. ...

to an ancient idea whose time has urgently come: the common good. $17 ...

March, 2013 Life, unplugged: Richard Rohr on finding God in the depths of silence. ...

The papacy of Benedict XVI came to a quiet end at 8 p.m. on Thursday, making him the first pope in 600 years to voluntarily leave office. VATICAN CITY — The papacy of Benedict XVI ...

This past year, I’ve been working out of my house, something like a stay-at-home dad, what with the after-school hours and school holidays and such. ... What I have discovered, in all this mess, is that I am a ...

The House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on drone policy. The House Judiciary Committee yesterday held one of the first public hearings on U.S. drone strikes, with Democrat ...

February 27, 2013 Sojo in the News Anthony Bradley ...

British terror suspects stripped of citizenship, then killed by drones. While the U.S. continues to debate whether the president has legal authority to order the drone killing o ...

We’re approaching the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq — an appropriate time to reflect upon the antiwar ferment that gripped the globe at that time. We’re approaching t ...

You won’t find many Catholic churches named after Pope Benedict IX. You won’t find many Catholic churches named after Pope Benedict IX. Benedict IX squandered the papacy’s ...

Current events, like much about our lives, frequently leave us hopeless, fearful, and uncertain. Religious faith isn’t a matter of wishing away these experiences; it involves perceiving God in the midst of our ...

The bubble I see bursting is establishment Christianity in America. It is bursting ever so slowly, even as millions of people still find life, meaning, safety, and structure inside. ...

Opposition to gun control is about defending the gun market more than the Second Amendment. Mary Sanchez, op-ed writer for the Kansas City Star , offers in her column ...

“Stepping into community is far riskier than expected. It’s far worse than you expect it to be. But in the end, it’s far better than you could ever imagine.” I’ve been asked sev ...

The excuse of national security is being used to eliminate a basic foundation of democracy: transparency. If evidence used to convict a person is secret, if the accused cannot openly challenge the charges bein ...

To the accusation that a nonviolent Jesus is a projection of my own wussy imagination: That is false and, in fact, the reverse is true – a violent Jesus is a god made in our own image. ...

If you read the text as a propositional description of God, it can be a rather disturbing image as God keens agonizingly one minute, and rages menacingly the next. It is almost a frightening glimpse of someon ...

It’s hard to over-emphasize the importance of honesty with God in our prayers. Stifling that honesty in ourselves or in our children by demanding that he or she pray for world peace instead of an awesome Chris ...

Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Scotland resigned on Monday in the wake of explosive charges that he had made “inappropriate” sexual advances to four men, three of them priests, and one now a former seminarian, star ...

Former White House press secretary was told not to acknowledge drone program existed. Yesterday on MSNBC’s Up w/ Chris Hayes , former White House Press Secretary Robert G ...

U.S. troops are in Niger to support a new drone base. With a short note  to the Congressional leadership, President Barack Obama announced last week that a total of 100 U ...

I love Peter Rollins' honesty about his dark night of the soul. He's popularized a term for the intellectual position accompanying the dark night of the soul: a/theism. I interpret Peter's thoug ...

What if we, as a Lenten discipline, make a commitment to give up the fear of failure — for such fears are too often personally devastating and publicly debilitating if left ignored or unresolved? ...

On Saturday, Feb. 23, Bradley Manning marks his 1,000th day in prison without a trial. Manning, the 23 year-old Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks while stationed in ...

Violence against women at protests is at a chronic level due to security breakdowns and mass protests that are not policed. Violence against women at protests is at a chronic le ...

So you’ve heard the flu shot is somewhat ineffective this year, and, though you have a normal immune system, you don't want to take the Eucharist from a common chalice. Part of me kind of wants to slap yo ...

President Barack Obama will be visiting Israel and Palestine in March. I call on you to write to Obama and tell him that if he is coming to engage Israelis and Palestinians in talks that will lead to a just pe ...

The Gospel is public truth, available to everyone, that reveals to all flesh who it is who rules all things by love, who holds all things in the grip of grace, who is making all things new by Christ's res ...

efforts to defeat the Confederates. On Dec. 17, 1862, Grant issued General Order No. 11. “The Jews,” ...

This week, in the run-up to Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, we've been taking a look at each of the Best Picture nominees, the stories they tell, and the spiritual questions (and answers) they offe ...

Many young people enlist in the armed forces without understanding what they’re getting into. My county is rural and poor; jobs are scarce. Many students who lack money or grades to make college a viable optio ...

This world. It’s so beautiful. And every day, we have the opportunity to relish it. How many days are spent checking off to-do-list items on the backs of receipts? Why do we think we’re so busy all the time? W ...

Our friends and up-and-coming musicians Branches trekked all the way from California and stopped by our office in D.C. last week to play a couple of their songs during their East Coast tour! ...

February 20, 2013 Sojo in the News Jamie Sanderson ...

In Old Testament scripture, the resting place for the dead is called Sheol. While some believe this is the same as hell, there are indications to the contrary. In the ancient Jewish tradition, Sheol is a place ...

When we so disconnect our warriors from the realities of war, what does that do to their souls and to our collective soul? Do we lose sight of the horrible human cost of war? Do we become arrogant in our perce ...

Before Elvis and Chuck Berry and Johnny Cash. Before Aretha and Whitney and Beyonce. Before the blues met gospel and conceived rock ‘n’ roll, there was Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Be ...

This week, in the run-up to Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, we're taking a look at each of the Best Picture nominees, the stories they tell, and the spiritual questions (and answers) they offer. To ...

U.N. reports on drone strikes in Afghanistan. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan released its annual report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan on Tuesday, finding a decrease fro ...

We can argue day and night about whether fear-based theology is effective, biblically accurate, or even necessary. But it’s worthwhile to consider where our contemporary ideas about hell and Satan even come fr ...