by Crystal St. Marie Lewis R3 Contributor*First posted at Crystal St. Marie Lewis Blog This Sunday, millions of churches all over the country will celebrate Easter, or as we called it in my Evangelical days, “Resurrection Sunday.” The sermons preached in those churches will recount the story of how Jesus died a brutal death at the hands of the Romans before His tomb was discovered empty three days later. Many of those preachers will insist that the crucifixion and resurrection can only... Read more

Most successful religious leaders have also had a solid business mind. All institutions, spiritual or otherwise, need revenue to survive. They must also, argues Rob Bell, meet the needs of their constituents. Bell is an evangelical Christian who, at the age of 28, founded the Mars Hill Bible mega-church in Michigan after his Christian rock band, Big Fil, folded. In 2011, he published the book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, which... Read more

On Monday, more than 400 Episcopalians spent a few hours in cold and snowy Washington, DC, praying a modern-day stations of the cross as a public witness against gun violence. More than 20 bishops were there in their purple/magenta cassocks, and a few hundred clergy in their collars. All of the witnesses were following a large, prominent cross throughout the city, stopping to pray at the Capitol Building, Ford’s Theater, the White House, and the War Memorials, among other places. (Photo... Read more

There is a close relationship between culture and cult — between the shared attitudes and values of a people and their religious views and practices. American culture is increasingly shaped by men and women who would rather sleep in or play golf on a Sunday morning. The nation’s religious composition — as revealed in a recent presentation by Luis Lugo of the Pew Research Center — is changing. In 2012, America ceased to be a majority Protestant country — the result, mainly, of a decline... Read more

Far too often, the conversation about what feminism means and why it matters stops before it even truly starts. This is especially the case for many who grew up in conservative religious communities that vilified the other f-word, labeling all feminists as bra-burning, man-hating, and baby-killing women. While clearly hyperbolic, this trifecta of terms successfully upheld a straw (wo)man argument against feminism in communities of faith because it appeared to denigrate the top three holy expectations for women: femininity (by... Read more

While popes have for centuries washed the feet of the faithful on the day before Good Friday, never before had a pontiff washed the feet of a woman. That one of the female inmates at the prison in Rome was also a Serbian Muslim was also a break with tradition. “There is no better way to show his service for the smallest, for the least fortunate,” said Gaetano Greco, a local chaplain. Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 inmates aged... Read more

On this Good Friday as on many before, I consider anew the full range of torture and humiliation to which Jesus of Nazareth was subjected, physical and sexual. The latter is so traumatizing for the Church that we have covered it up – literally – covering Jesus’ genitals on our crucifixes. But the Romans (and others) who used crucifixion as more than a form of execution, as a form of state-sponsored terrorism – really lynching – to control subject populations... Read more

“It’s hotter than hell out here,” mutters a man leaning against the defaced outside wall of a bar on Lorimer Street. He is smoking what remains of the cigarette he found on the curb, so I offer him two of mine. It is Easter Sunday, after all, and no one deserves a used cigarette. He tucks the fresh cigs into the breast pocket of his black leather jacket, and walks into the bar. There are two jagged holes in his... Read more

The members of the First Baptist Church of Wayne, Pennsylvania will install R3 Contributor Rashad Grove as their new pastor. They will hold two services on April 21, 2013 to celebrate the occasion. They will hold the first one at First Baptist Church of Wayne, 1012 Upper Gulph Road Wayne, PA.  Rev. Sean Wise, Associate Minister, Sharon Baptist Church, Philadelphia will serve as guest speaker. The church will hold the installation service at 4:00pm at Memorial Church of God in Christ 747... Read more

The Center for Media, Religion, and CultureUniversity of Colorado BoulderJanuary 9-12, 2014A vibrant international scholarship has developed at the intersection of religion and the media.  The new Century dawned with clear evidence of the resilient validity of religion in contemporary life, evident in national, regional, and international settings.   The so-called ‘return of religion’, or resurgence of religiosity in public life, implies, however, not the mere return of an invariant essence of religious meaning, but also creative innovations in both... Read more