Advent, a season during which Christians honor and attempt to approximate the longing for a Messiah more than 2,000 years ago, is often described as a chance to exercise our patience muscles. ...

I have a great deal of respect for the desire to keep the focus on Jesus and his birth at this time of year. And, yet, I allow my children … I encourage them even … to believe in Santa. ...

The beautiful anonymity and soft innocence of a young girl in Nazareth would be stripped by an angelic visitation. Who could ever envision the global veneration soon to commence? ...

Anyone who has been paying attention has noticed that, of those left within the walls of most churches, the majority still hanging in there are women. I’ll preface this piece my ...

December, 2012 Redefining success. December 1, 2012 ...

Many evangelical women say they wouldn't touch Fifty Shades of Grey, often described as "mommy porn" because of its escapist appeal to working mothers and suburban housewives. But evangelical le ...

When we think of radical monotheism, we hear, “My god is bigger than your god. No, wait: Your god’s a fake!” But theologian H. Richard Niebuhr proposed a kinder, gentler, more generous idea of radical monothei ...

I am not compelled to "reclaim" or "rescue" Christmas from the many who ignore and the few who despise its magnificent origins. Are you put out that a commun ...

I'm one of those lefty liberals that have declared a War on Christmas. Yes! Sign me up for the War on Christmas! But maybe not for the reasons you might imagine. Ah — I L ...

I’ve been asked how I knew I was called to be a writer. For me, calling is fairly easy to recognize. If the thought of doing something fills you with equal parts joy and terror, it’s probably a calling. ...

Thanksgiving Day keeps coming around, keeps reminding us of what could be, keeps giving us tastes of what God wants for us. Thanksgiving Day speaks the bold truth that God isn't done with us. A world of w ...

Martin L. Smith Reflections on the Common Lectionary, Cycle C "NO ONE SPEAKING by the Spirit of God ever ...

To rejoice in not being God means to rejoice in being ourselves. To accept that we are not God is to accept our imperfection. How is it possible that the creative life can feel si ...

Too often, I fear the church is silent and bashful about sex. One reason, I purport, that youth look to society and friends for answers to questions is they fear it's taboo in religious settings, perhaps ...

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- Until his recent retirement, the Rev. Dale Schaefer spent most Sunday mornings wearing vestments and leading worship services at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. But whenever he had the time ...

Editor's Note: The following is a poem written by Trevor Scott Barton following reading The Violence of Love by Archbiship Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in El Salvador in 1980. ...

with a preaching scenario that would challenge any 23-year-old priest-to-be. His homily was for a marriage between ...

During the upcoming season of Advent we ask God to provide us with a full portion of urgent patience. On the morning of Nov. 7, just hours after polling places closed and as vote ...

As the assistant humanist chaplain at Harvard University, Chris Stedman coordinates its “Values in Action” program. In his recent book, “Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious,” he te ...

Is "sabbath" a verb? Can one "sabbath?" "I'm sabbathing right now"...or..."Mike is not available right now. He's out sabbathing somewhere and cannot be reached for ...

Sojourners received 23 awards in a wide range of areas, from interviews and spiritual reflections ...

A long-running struggle between Catholic authorities and the Rev. Roy Bourgeois over his support for ordaining women has ended with Bourgeois’ dismissal from the priesthood and his religious order, the Marykno ...

Kenyan church leaders are lining up in opposition to proposed new marriage bills, which they say will weaken marriage by allowing cohabiting couples to register as married. One bill would bring Christian, Hindu, Muslim, civil, and customary marriages ...

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said on Nov. 15 that the Diocese of South Carolina can't unilaterally secede from the national church, as she urged conservatives to stay despite sharp ...

In an attempt to make sense of the 2012 election and the unfolding David Petraeus sex scandal, I consulted the Bible and the Sayings of the Fathers, a collection of sage rabbinic teachings written between 200 ...

The Catholic bishops gathered here for their annual meeting couldn’t agree on a statement on the economy on Tuesday morning, but with a unanimous voice vote that afternoon they easily backed a measure to push ...

How could they not recognize the risk they bring on themselves, their careers and their families in being so apparently careless, or even reckless, with their communication? First ...

I like the image 'landscape of being' as I see my neighbors around me. I like the action 'continually jumping about' and 'moving imaginatively' as I live with my neighbors, apprec ...

common Protestant text for the Table,  it generally comes from I Corinthians, 11:23-26, which says: ...

When life seems fragile, it's clear some things matter more than others. It reminds us that attention must be paid to family, friends, and the differences we make in our work and our faith. ...

In coffee ceremonies back in Africa, the beans were ground by hand with a mortar and pestal. They’d be uneven. Chunky. When steeped, the coffee needed to be sieved over and over to make the final product perfe ...

In a world where the law of evolution is in effect, where there is survival of the fittest, where only the strong survive, there is an art in life where the smallest and most forgotten paint a picture of strug ...

Some claim that God causes evil. In which case, my question becomes relevant – Is God a Cosmic Jerk? Is God a Cosmic Jerk? That’s how I ask the question, but professional theo ...

I cannot think that you don't sound or breathe weep or grieve I cannot think that you don't sound or breathe weep or grieve I will not think that you don ...

If we try to mold faith into something more certain than simply faith, it becomes something else. A crutch, perhaps, or a drug. So how or when does this happen? I get asked somet ...

CANTERBURY, England -- Bishop Justin Welby, a former oil executive who's emerged as a critic of corporate excess, was named Friday (Nov. 9) as the 105th archbishop of Canterbury, primate of the Church of ...

The Right Rev. Justin Welby, bishop of Durham in the U.K., has been named the new Archbishop of Canterbury, succeeding the retiring Archbishop Rowan Williams as head of the Anglican Communion. ...

I offer you a list of things emergent Christians can and should strike from our daily lexicon. Following the creation of my first five articles in this ongoing series about Christ ...

There we were talking with Diana Butler Bass in an online chat and the words flowed forth: Neighborliness is the new sexy. It was ridiculous, but then I started mulling the idea over and this is what happened. ...

We have far less imagination about, and sympathy for, the one who whisks the car away and then sits for long hours in his heated glass cube, watching Nigerian satellite television. And I am hardly exempt from ...

Christians gather to celebrate unity in the midst of differences. Tuesday, Nov. 6, is Election Day. As we’ve seen these past months, in a closely divided country, elections bring ...

“People who insist that the sacredness of Scripture depends on belief in creation in a literal six days seem never to insist on a literal reading of ‘to him who asks, give,’ or ‘sell what you have and give the ...

Since there was nothing within myself that could fix me, where could I look? Where could I turn? Where can any of us look? “The prevailing view in much of contemporary Christia ...

mission in the world is God’s reconciliation of all creation (see, for example, Colossians 1:15-23 ...

smaller; quieter, quieter.” When Sojourners started in 1971, I was 23 years old. Seven young seminary ...

PBS Religion & Ethics Newsweekly has wrapped up its three-part new mini-series on the rise of the religiously unaffiliated. Editor's Note:  Sojourners has launched  ...

As Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Renaissance masterpiece, the Vatican said the growing number of tourists who visit the historic site every year might eventually lead t ...

Perhaps the change I am most thankful for (other than a new awareness of justification by faith alone, simul iustus et peccator, and imputed righteousness of course) is that the Reformation paved the way for ...

Calvinism ... seems to be more of a “Daddy loves me best” argument than any legitimate basis for a religious movement. I’ve had a number of interesting discussions with various pe ...

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, thoughts on natural disasters, the divine, and 'why bad things happen to good people.' In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, though ...