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"I saw him in the parking lot with her. I think he wanted to get caught," my mom's hushed voice bleeds with betrayal. Unlike most gossip,...

This week reminded me of the story of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. She maneuvered through the crowd that swarmed Jesus, reached for the hem of his garment, and was healed. She wasn't supposed to touch him. According to the law, she was unclean. Yet, she...

Marianne Gingrich, Newt Gingrich's ex-wife, revealed that Newt asked her for an open marriage or a divorce while speaking around the country about family values.

It's not the first time we've heard about a personal indiscretion from those who seem to be working hard to protect our...

The SlutWalk came to D.C. Unfortunately I missed it. If I didn't have a conflict, I would have been there, not in a short skirt or highheels, but in my clergy collar.

Why? Because the Slutwalk is a protest against a rape culture. Women are speaking out against...

You're getting married. You've always dreamed of having your wedding in a church, but you don't attend a congregation, and you have no idea how to start looking for the right person to preside over your ceremony. If you don't have a pastor or a church, don't be concerned. Even...

I still have the song in my head. The haunted voice of Amy Winehouse echoes through my work, as I answer emails and file papers: "You know I'm no good."

Her voice is clear, strong and beautiful, even in the reverberations. As the song unfolds, we hear how much she...

Jose's phone rang. When he picked up the receiver, no one was on the other line. He hung up.

The next time he heard the ring, his wife answered, and a menacing voice said, "Tell that man to calm down his tongue or we will cut it out."

It's not...

As the ground begins to thaw, and we start venturing out of the house with a few less layers, I become giddy with thoughts of spring. As a pastor in a local church, I notice that our attention moves to our tables. As Christians, our tables have always...

Amy Chua is at a dinner party when she tells the story about how her daughter was disrespectful to her, and how she responded by calling her daughter "garbage." The reaction of the guests is intense. She is ostracized and one woman breaks down in tears and has to leave....

During these twelve days of Christmas, while Christians put decorations away, vacuum up the tinsel, and find places to put our new toys, I often wonder what it all means. After the pregnant longing, after the birth, how do we understand that God is with us?

Finding...

I was standing in front of the communion table in my cold musty sanctuary. Even in the midwinter, the air never lost the dampness and smell of the swamp. It was an ideal country church, a white structure with a tall steeple, although it sloped a bit and there was...

As the air becomes crisp and we see the vibrant falling leaves around us, often people of faith turn their attention toward giving. Even while we get caught in the frenzy of holiday decorating and menu planning, we think about how to share the abundance of the year and how...

I was watching The Social Network, squirming as the story of Facebook opened with Harvard women becoming outraged over Facemash, the pre-Facebook site that Mark Zuckerberg created in order to let Harvard students compare female undergrads and rank them based on who was hotter. I cringed as I watched the...

I was at a party, holding my plastic cup of beer and talking to a stranger in a crowded house. She was in thirties, like I was. "So, what do you do?" she asked. "Where do you work?"

I smiled because this part of the conversation can become really interesting....

The rainbow scarves fascinated Libby Shannon. Throughout the Assembly she saw them, hanging proudly over the necks of people over the age of 70 as well as those in their 20s. Men and women wore them as a witness to their support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people...

Almost anytime in the news, we can scroll down the screen and see that someone has been caught in an outrageous act of hypocrisy. Right now, the person in the spotlight is Ted Haggard, an anti-gay pastor who was the leader of the National Association of Evangelicals until...

There are many reasons why I'm thankful that I'm a pastor, this odd position in which I'm often surprised to find myself. One reason is that I experience the full circle of life, over and over again. Our faith communities are extraordinary places because we don't let things pass by...

I had a hard time breathing when I saw those pictures; my chest began heaving when I realized those were birds covered in oil. I felt as if the soul of our nation was drowning in the muck, along with our precious wildlife. You see, for my first job out...

It's hard to watch the YouTube video of Rep. Mark Souder and part-time staffer Tracy Jackson talking about Souder's unwavering commitment to abstinence education. Souder is the latest family-values guy to get poisoned with his own venom, as we find out that he and Jackson had an affair....

Christian women have shown amazing resilience in the last few weeks. We began with health care reform, when sixty leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 courageous nuns sent a letter encouraging lawmakers to support health care reform. Even though Catholic Bishops were concerned that the abortion restrictions were...