Since Florida became the first state to try them in 1996, virtual public schools have enjoyed dramatic growth, with at least some of it coming from religious families. Worried ...

The only reason that I am Christian is because I am spiritual-but-not-religious. The only reason that I am Christian is because I am spiritual-but-not-religious. Right. That� ...

The Editors Spiritual growth through bread-making. Many congregations lament that young adults are leaving ch ...

Martin L. Smith Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C "EVEN IF I OWNED Picasso's &# ...

Rose Marie Berger The Beloved Community is not a utopian ideal. DURING THE unseasonably warm autumn of 1951, ...

Despite a deep drop in the number of Americans who identify with a particular faith, the country could be on the cusp of a religious renaissance, says Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of The Gallup Poll. ...

Anne Marie Roderick Joshua Witchger Many young adults are leaving the church these day ...

The Harvard Theological Review is postponing publication of a major article on the papyrus fragment in which Jesus seems to refer to his wife, raising further doubts about a discovery that was set to turn Chri ...

'Religion is bad for you' and everyone around you for that matter. 'Being SBNR is shallow and boring.' Well, if these statements are true then we are up Sh*t's Creek without a paddle. ...

What would it mean to the world if this year — and well into the future — we passed it a bottle of Wild Irish Rose, if we gave it the things that mean most to us? Let's try it! ...

2013 will be a year of healing and of leveling with the reality that I am broken. I have been broken and will be broken. And that's okay. My 2013 resolution is to continue the unraveling of 2012, 2011, 20 ...

Perhaps the best thing we can do for the peace and healing of our country is to take a weekly day of rest, beginning now. Hurricane Sandy. Sandy Hook.  The Fiscal Cliff.  Next ...

We realized the divide between rich and poor can be seen not by looking at house size, checkbooks, or retirement accounts, but by looking at a person’s smile. In  As I Lay Dy ...

In the end I think it is so important that we realize that we all as individuals contribute to this national tragedy even if we live thousands of miles away because WE are what makes up this culture. ...

There are a lot of emergent folk who shun creeds. They have let go of much of their free-range evangelicalism, but the anti-creedal posture still holds a principal place. Still, I am thinking about music and l ...

"In our hearts we won them all." I'll always remember it and hold it in my heart. I attended a basketball banquet and a girls team gathered together on the stage. ...

I look forward to another year of ministry with your help and your support. Bless you and your families in these special days of time together. The year has been a busy and ch ...

Pope Paul VI, who guided the Catholic Church through a tumultuous period of change in the 1960s and 70s, took a crucial first step toward possible sainthood when Pope Benedict XVI last week recognized his pred ...

Not only is this song fun to sing with its drum-like “pa-rum-pum-pum-pums,” but also it embraces a non-materialistic message that we all need to hear, especially this time of year. ...

This Christmas I hope those “three ships” will sail toward the light of my Advent candles. And that I’m ready to receive the treasures they bear. One carol I’ve been humming this ...

Absent from all of this analysis is any consideration of our own failure to do exactly what evangelicals should be all about: Evangelism, in the form of reaching out and giving meaning to lost souls like the l ...

Rather than a subversive message about the twisting of the Gospel, “Do You Hear What I Hear” was actually a call for peace during the turbulence of the 1960s. Whoops. I was joki ...

In this video produced by the New York Times, we get to witness what I consider a momentary intervention of God’s spirit in a beautifully, creatively nonviolent way. Many will re ...

One question I am left with as I think about Bethlehem and the places surrounding it this Christmas is What would Jesus have to say about this conflict? I don’t know about you, bu ...

As tragic as the shooting was in Connecticut —and I am truly not interested in minimizing the grief or outrage — we have to wake up and realize that more children are killed every year in the U.S \and we seldo ...

Certain Christians seem compelled to speak for God in disorienting moments like these, and the results are frequently terrible. The rest of the church has a responsibility to get angry and repudiate the statem ...

A billboard posted in Chico, Calif., that originally read “Don’t believe in God? Join the club” was defaced on Dec. 12, less than a week after it appeared, with vandals removing the word “don’t.” ...

Even though the song may seem like it only deserves a cursory glance, as it was originally published in theLittle Children's Book for Schools and Families in 1885, I purport there’s something more to the ...

As the names of those who died are made known, that cry is followed by a question: Why? Why does God allow evil? “Oh, God!” That cry has echoed ever since news of the horri ...

I have little to add to the Sandy Hook conversation at a certain level, but I have heard questions from many children, some from my own kids. I thought I’d offer some responses I’ve shared. ...

The estranged son of a Kansas pastor famous for protesting the funerals of soldiers and AIDS victims has condemned his family’s plans to picket the funerals of the 26 people — including 20 children — who were ...

There is a season for researching, debating, and discussing ways to end poverty and hunger once and for all. But this is not that season. When I go home for Christmas, I always en ...

and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’)” (Matthew 1:22-23 ©NIV).  Matthew was eager to point ...

I've been thinking, as Advent goes on, what it meant for God to lay aside infinity and put on a body that was not just tiny, inarticulate, and helpless, but also already marked, to the marrow of its littl ...

When it comes to sharing the Eucharist among faithful but separated Christ followers, I wonder if Jesus is waiting for the churches simply to be the Church? When it comes to shari ...

Change is hard. There is always a certain lamenting that comes with it, even when the change is, on many levels, a good thing. This was a difficult decision but one I felt I had to make in order to follow the ...

Sojo is ready to celebrate this season of Advent, our Savior’s birth, and all of the family time and Christmas cookies that come with it. So here it is: The Top 5 Ways to Get Into the Christmas Spirit. ...

Let us talk for a minute, blunt and honest and not polite for a change, about that which is never said and ought to be: that the divisions and disagreements among the Christian sects and traditions are silly a ...

At its heartwarming core, Christmas is the story of a birth: the tender relationship between a new mother and her newborn child. At its heartwarming core, Christmas is the story ...

New figures from the 2011 Census show that the number of people who identify as Christians in England and Wales has fallen by 4 million over the last 10 years. CANTERBURY, England ...

What would it look like for me to let myself be filled with the joy that comes from anticipating God's promises? "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord h ...

This Advent, as we wait for the true light who is coming into the world (John 1:9) we pause and reflect on our Christmas hope. As a friend said last night, we do not linger forever in uncertainty but as an exp ...

The masterful Irish writer Colm Toibin puts a jackhammer to the cozy, safe, Christmas-card version in The Testament of Mary. This month, as Christians set up their creches and ass ...

Many Christians may be surprised to hear a sermon during Advent that focuses on challenging our cultural assumptions about the meaning of Christmas, but doing so may be the most faithful witness a pastor can o ...

I dare you, whatever faith you are, to glance at the guestbook the next time you are in an airport that has a chapel, and in those pages you will find the most naked expressions of sorrow and need. ...

For those who seek to follow Jesus we are challenged with one of his core teachings: "You cannot serve both God and mammon." Mammon: wealth, riches, money, stuff. Ther ...

Religious faith, however, was never far from Brubeck’s creative mind. Indeed, there have always been strong links between jazz and religion — one of the main musical streams that have formed jazz has been gosp ...

Advent suggests so many mysteries of God's patience. One rarely commented case is God as Father and embryo. It is extra Biblical so imagination can only begin to tell the bizarre tale. ...

A key insight into this portion of the Christmas narrative is that God is revealed through the vulnerability of poverty and marginalization One of the most fresh and challenging i ...

The baby Jesus is not merely a sentimental or cute idea but is potentially radical, transformative, and controversial. There is a line from a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem about the ...