Some of the greatest Protestant minds of the last 50 years have, at the peaks of their intellectual careers, converted to Roman Catholicism. Respect for those leaders has led me to spend months reading about their motivations for converting and to pursue extended conversations with Roman Catholic theologians to understand...

I have friends -- people whose intelligence and character I truly respect -- who participate in loving same-sex relationships. Yet I have the audacity to believe that, because of the teachings of a man who lived 20 centuries ago, their lifestyle choice is less than what God desires for them,...

At different points in my life I have been a part of two organizations -- the Southern Baptist Convention and Campus Crusade for Christ -- which are now undergoing, or contemplating, name changes. Other Christian groups have preceded them, such as the Baptist General Conference (now...

In the mid-1800s, there were two issues that radical, Bible-thumping Christians were railing about, two practices which they said "would lead the nation into ruin." Those two issues were: alcohol and slavery. If the moral zealots of that era had been more considerate of the way average people thought, we...

I have no idea whether Rick Perry or Michelle Bachmann have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As a pastor, I hope for the best. But I would simply like to highlight the uniquely complex position they have put themselves in by making such explicit statements to that effect so...

As an evangelical pastor about to take a job in Berlin, I was horrified to hear that the man responsible for the tragedy in Norway last week, Anders Behring Breivik, is a "Christian fundamentalist." I do not self-identify as a "fundamentalist," but I believe Jesus was the Son of God,...