By Peter Gathje R3 Contributor I was struck this morning, once again, by how exhausting it is to be without a home.  The homeless panhandler Jesus once said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Mt 8:20, Lk 9:58).  I imagine Jesus, like our guests, got quite exhausted from not having a regular place to stay.  During the course of a morning at Manna House, at least three or four... Read more

I pay attention to the peopling of the world in the vision filmmakers. I want to know if there are people like me in their worlds, people of African descent, people of color. In Darren Aronofsky’s vision of Noah and his world I do not exist. People like me do not exist. Black, brown and beige people do not exist even though the story is the story of the destruction and re-peopling of the whole Earth. Noah and his family... Read more

When the humanitarian and disaster relief giant World Vision first announced its new short-lived, semi-inclusive policy permitting the hiring of people in  legal same-sex marriages, the evangelical outcry was immense, with many questioning whether they should withdraw their donations from the iconic evangelical institution. Presumably those objecting are less reticent now that World Vision has reverted to the old policy of refusing to hire LGBT people at all. But its not just World Vision’s donors who contribute to its substantial coffers (in 2012, it... Read more

Warren S. Goldstein, Executive Director of the Center for Critical Research on Religion,  is a Visiting Fellow of the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University and a Religion Fellow at Boston University’s School of Theology. His Ph.D. is from the New School for Social Research. He is Co-Editor of Critical Research on Religion and Book Series Editor of “Studies in Critical Research on Religion.” While his research aims to develop a critical sociology of religion as a “new paradigm” in the sociology of... Read more

Hobby Lobby’s overt Christianity shocked Charity Carney when she started working at a Texas outpost of the crafts chain a few years ago. Most staff meetings began with a prayer, Carney learned. You could always find a Bible in the break room, she said. “It was just assumed that you would be a believer if you worked there,” said Carney who left the company after a few months and is now a historian, studying the rise of megachurches at Western... Read more

There’s something that makes the current Supreme Court different from some of its recent predecessors. The justices got religion. Or at least they seem more open about their faith, appearing before devout audiences and talking more about how religion shaped their lives or guides them now. As the court this week weighs religious conviction vs. legal obligation in the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act, those who study the court say the change is hard to quantify but easy to notice.... Read more

Of those aged 18 to 35, three in 10 say they are not affiliated with any religion, while only half are “absolutely certain” a god exists. These are at or near the highest levels of religious disaffiliation recorded for any generation in the 25 years the Pew Research Center has been polling on these topics. As encouraging as this data is for secular humanists, the actual numbers may be significantly higher, as columnist Tina Dupuy observes. “When it comes to self-reporting religious... Read more

R3 Contributor Elizabeth F. Desnoyers-Colas is the author of the forthcoming title Marching as to War: Personal Narratives of African American Women’s Experiences in the Gulf Wars. Dr. Desnoyers-Colas notes that since the American Revolution, African American women have served in every U.S. military conflict. Despite this dedicated service to their country, very little empirical research has been published regarding African American servicewomen, including those who have served in the Gulf Wars. Seen through the eyes of eleven African American... Read more

Delphine Rogers Newsum is a minister of the Gospel, having served as a pastor in the Christian Methodist Episcopal church denomination for twenty years, and has a wide variety of other Christian leadership experiences. She is the divorced mother of two adult children. She maintains that nothing has been more challenging or rewarding as her servant leadership experiences in the church setting. Rev. Newsum has earned a Bachelor of Professional Studies in Organizational Leadership from the University of Memphis, a... Read more

Description of the Documentary: Gone are the days of working class preachers who didn’t expect financial gain in exchange for spiritual guidance. A new breed of pastors has emerged: the mega-pastor…one who aims to sell their religious brand and get rich off the gospel. Black Church, Inc. is a feature-length investigative documentary that examines the sensationalism of the black church and its present day relationship with serving the community. The documentary compares the black church’s origins to its modern day... Read more