Many people know that the New Testament refers to Jesus as a “friend of sinners,” but what does that mean exactly? Apparently not what some Christians think it does. In response to a twitter comment I made about Christian singer Natalie Grant walking out of The Grammys, Joe Carter, prominent Calvinist and director of communications for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission rhetorically asked, “Didn’t [Jesus] only welcome those seeking forgiveness?” He went on to agree with another that “The sinners Jesus partied with were already... Read more

For the past twenty years the Christian right have been labeled the ‘backbone’ and ‘base’ behind the Republican Party’s electoral successes, a view that deepened with Bush’s consecutive victories in 2000 and 2004. Until recently the alignment between evangelical Christians on the Christian right and the Republican party had gone unquestioned. Their symbiosis and power based on the constant re-iteration of the movement’s importance amongst commentators and academics, all stressing the fixity and importance of Christian conservatives to the American... Read more

As conservatives grapple with the reality of gay marriage and the Supreme Court weighs whether companies should be forced to offer birth control to employees, it’s very clear: The conflict between religious freedom and gender/sexual equality has become “the most important civil rights issue of this time.” So says Professor Katherine Franke, director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School and one of the driving forces behind the school’s Public Rights/Private Conscience Project, a new... Read more

Any halfway decent theologian will tell you that God is decidedly not an old man on a throne in the sky. That this image of God persists somehow in the popular imagination, most likely has to do with some language we find in the Bible and the layers and layers of patriarchy involved in the whole shebang. It takes some effort and imagination to dislodge this monolithic HE, but if you are willing to dig around a little or look... Read more

by Peter GathjeR3 Contributor*This first appeared in the Radical Hospitality Blog The morning had started cold, but by 10:00am or so it was warm enough that a number of guests were outside sitting at the chairs and picnic tables in the front yard. At one of the tables, two guests were playing a chess game, and this had caught Kathleen’s eye as she looked out the laundry room window. As she watched, she saw another guest, one who struggles with mental... Read more

This week, Pew Research Center published the results of a survey conducted among 40,080 people in 40 countries between 2011 and 2013. The survey asked a simple question: Is belief in God essential to morality? While clear majorities say it is necessary, the U.S. continues to be an outlier. In 22 of the 40 countries surveyed, the majority says it is necessary to believe in God in order to be a moral person. “This position is highly prevalent, if not universal, in... Read more

As I watched the first episode of the new Cosmos series March 9, I wondered a number of things in succession: Wait, who’s this Bruno guy? How are the show’s writers going to play the science-and-religion thing? More important, with so much science to explain–and to illustrate with nifty special effects–why are they playing the science-and-religion thing at all?The all-knowing Internet was able to help me with the first question right away. Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was one of several early modern thinkers... Read more

It’s been called the greatest story ever told, so it’s not surprising Hollywood has turned to the Bible for inspiration for almost a century.The trend toward these kinds of films remains strong; the movie industry expects to produce 16 faith-based movies this year alone. Many of them may be forgotten just weeks after their release, while others have the potential to become blockbusters.So what makes religion-inspired movies successful?Son of God, about the life of Jesus, opened recently and is doing... Read more

If you are preparing to do [urban ministry] and you’ve never had a non-white mentor, you are not an [urban minister], you are a colonialist. – adapted from Soong-chan Rah Last week I had the honor of meeting with a group of urban pastors who’ve devoted their lives to serving Buffalo, NY. While discussing the challenges they encountered while doing urban ministry in a predominantly non-white, socio-economically oppressed city, the black, Hispanic and Asian pastors with whom I met raised a... Read more

Verdell Anthony Wright seeks to reach others with God’s liberating message in groundbreaking and innovative ways. An Asbury Park, NJ native, he earned his undergraduate degree in Journalism from Rutgers University in 2006. He is a recent graduate of Howard University School of Divinity, and is currently attending Wesley Theological Seminary. Verdell currently attends Lincoln Temple UCC, where he serves as a minster. His aim is to do what he so that people can experience freedom and justice in the... Read more