Monica A. Coleman is Associate Professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religions and Co-Director of the Center for Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology in southern California. An ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Coleman has earned degrees at Harvard University, Vanderbilt University and Claremont Graduate University. She has been featured as an expert in religion and mental health on NPR, blogtalkradio, BeliefNet.com, PsychCentral.com, Huffington Post and HuffPo Live. She blogs on faith and depression at www.BeautifulMindBlog.com.... Read more

Several states have recently introduced bills that would allow people to withhold services to their fellow Americans if they base their decision on “sincerely held religious beliefs.” In Arizona, one of these bills has made it all the way to Gov. Jan Brewer’s desk, and she is currently deciding whether or not to sign the bill into law. These bills are deemed necessary by religious conservatives on account of several cases where Christian business owners refused to offer services to LGBT... Read more

Jesus is coming– and he’ll be carrying a really big gun when he does.That’s what former U.S. Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin thinks, according to a speech he gave on behalf of the conservative Family Research Council at the WallBuilders’ Pro-Family Legislators Conference, in which he describes his vision of the Second Coming of Christ, that he believes will be led by a blood-stained, gun-toting Jesus armed to the teeth with an AR-15 assault rifle.Right Wing Watch obtained audio... Read more

Struggling with Depression? New Book Talks Honestly about How Not to Lose Faith As a magna-cum-laude Harvard grad, tenured professor, in-demand preacher, and author of popular as well as academic books and blogs, Monica A. Coleman is what most people would call “a success.” Behind her impressive achievements, however, is a story that many of her friends and colleagues knew nothing about—her ongoing struggle with severe depression. In Not Alone: Reflections on Faith and Depression – a 40-Day Devotional, ($14.95 Inner... Read more

Surreal in its normalcy, I found myself this week enjoying a fabulous panel at the Jewish Theological Seminary on the “Future of Judaism and Islam on American Campuses.” It was a deeply moving conversation, but felt hardly out of the ordinary to have an Imam, a rabbi, and even a Muslim scholar of Holocaust Studies on a panel moderated by a pastor. They seemed at home together — as did the many who gathered to watch and listen. Though the... Read more

Brite Divinity School is pleased to announce that Dr. Wil Gafney will join the Brite faculty as Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible in the Fall of 2014. “We are very excited to welcome Dr. Gafney to Brite,” said Joretta Marshall, Executive Vice President and Dean of Brite Divinity School. “During her campus visit, our students and faculty immediately recognized in her the gifts of teaching, scholarship, justice-making and practice for which Brite is known.” Dr. Gafney holds a Master of Divinity... Read more

A who’s who of conservative celebrities gathered in November in Asheville, N.C., to honor and praise Billy Graham, the famed Christian evangelist, on the occasion of his 95th birthday. Inside the hotel ballroom, Donald Trump and Sarah Palin rubbed elbows with Rupert Murdoch, Glenn Beck, Greta van Susteren and Rick Warren. “Billy Graham, we need you around another 95 years,” Palin said. “We need Billy Graham’s message to be heard, I think, today more than ever.”At one of the head... Read more

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) urged Americans to realize that God “wrote the Constitution” and predicted an upcoming “awakening” during aninterview on John Hagee Ministries’ Global Evangelism Television network on Wednesday. “I think we got off the track when we allowed our government to become a secular government,” DeLay told host Matthew Hagee, the executive pastor of the Texas Cornerstone Church. “[W]e stopped realizing that God created this nation, that he wrote the Constitution, that it’s based on biblical principles.” DeLay,... Read more

Excerpted  from “The Twilight of the American Enlightenment: The 1950s and the Crisis of Liberal Belief” As late as 1976, the political sensibilities of revivalist evangelicals were still unformed when many of them voted Democratic for Jimmy Carter, largely on the basis that he had declared himself “born again.” Prior to 1976, “born again” was not a familiar phrase in mainstream public discourse. Moreover, the term “evangelical” was seldom used, at least not in connection to politics. When Newsweek declared 1976... Read more

This Super Bowl season we’ve learned that social justice is in fashion. It sells. It sells Coke, it sells cars, and it sells us short. So it begins, imagine it with me. The loud roar of the ocean, waves crashing across the screen. Then the small child-like voice of an African American girl speaks. We see her awakening in her bed in the morning light, and she narrates to us the story of the little ones. “The world is full of giants,”... Read more