Liberal Christians Come Out Swinging at Trump, Mostly
How liberal and mainline Christian leaders are reacting to Trump’s election
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Jesus Has Left the Building: Celebrating the Next Reformation
Today we have the same fossilization of institutional religion, only this time it is us Protestants.
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Female Deacons: Pope Francis Walks It Back, Women Clergy Weigh In
The recent flurry of headlines over the possibility of women deacons in the Catholic church may…
Read MoreSpringtime for Ross Douthat?
Ross Douthat’s latest column offers proof of Godwin’s law in the headline—and goes downhill from there. And the headline…
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Religion without God: “Cults,” Pious Atheists, and Our Own Human Bodies
Tired old Protestant-inflected definitions of “religion” are losing hold in diverse Western nations. And it’s about time.
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The Protestant Mainline Makes a (Literary) Comeback
Even with depleted social policy and outreach organizations, liberal Protestant denominations continue to address issues pertaining to war, intervention, and foreign policy; debt relief, foreign aid, and economic development; white supremacism, racial justice, and affirmative action; women’s rights, gay and lesbian issues, reproductive rights, and child welfare; acid rain, ozone depletion, bio-diversity, and eco-justice; and much more.
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Toward a Non-Malignant Faith: An Interview with Brian McLaren
What McLaren is after is a Christian faith that is not automatically hostile to other faiths and to no faith: he calls this “strong-benevolent” Christianity, observing along the way that only active peacemakers can really claim to be connected to God with any real degree of credibility—a point that should be obvious but isn’t.
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Spiritual But Not Religious? Come Talk to Me
Most Sundays I don’t go to church because, frankly put, it bores me; I am tired and church fails to provide any compelling reason to get out of my pajamas. (Were I living in a large, cosmopolitan city where churches with high liturgy, weekly Eucharist, beautiful architecture, and trained musicians abounded, my story might be quite different.) Although I like the people at church very much and I wish to support them in their hours of need, I am still unwilling to prioritize membership. I have an emotionally demanding job that takes up all of my time and psychic energy during the academic year, and I would honestly rather get work done in my off hours than act as an usher or sit on a church governing body.
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Spiritualism and Sex Meet Evangelical Censorship, 19th-Century-Style
“It was what I found in the archives that inspired me to write the book—Craddock’s unpublished book manuscripts on everything from ancient sex worship to contemporary marriage reform. And then there was her journal of mystical experiences—a diary so baffling and intense in its combination of spiritualism and sexuality as to demand attention.”
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Billy Graham Regrets Political Involvement, Again
In a recent interview with Christianity Today, the magazine he helped to found in 1956, Billy Graham expressed regret that he hadn’t spent more time with his family. But he also reflected that he had become too involved in politics.
“I also would have steered clear of politics,” the 91-year-old evangelist said. “I’m grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to. But looking back I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn’t do that now.”
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