They come in and sit on my sofa, young, engaged and primed for pre-marital counseling. Over the course of the time we'll spend together that evening, we'll talk about the marriage service, the music, and how many guests they have asked to share their special day.

Before they show up,...

Whatever happened to the Christian virtue of renunciation?

In the old days, when someone famous committed an offense against someone else, they retired to the desert -- or to a monastery.

For example, consider 12th-century philosopher/theologian Peter Abelard. After his affair and secret marriage to his lovely and intelligent...

A skull found in one place in New York's Nassau County, what appear to be "upper and lower extremities" discovered along Ocean Parkway in another, said the police.

In nearby Suffolk County, searchers have found eight bodies in burlap bags -- they seemed to be prostitutes in their 20s, some...

They saved the best news for last.

As I was about to leave the emergency room cubicle where Frank lay with two broken legs, a serious hemmorhage and a cancer diagnosis, his wife Holly described the doctor who had been in to see them before I showed up at the...

I am not a person generally prone to excessive wrath -- or to ranting about the state of Western civilization. Those type of people can be so boring at dinner parties.

But in the aftermath of the Tucson shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that left six people dead, I have...

What was he thinking, showing up here with a group of angels, a few sheep and some astrologers?

Ask us to go the distance with a God we can't see, touch or put on our Mastercard? If it weren't so outrageous, the idea would seem almost whimsical.

This past Sunday, churches in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran traditions marked the holy day of Christ the King. Appropriately enough, it marks the end of the long Pentecost season, a time in which to reflect on the season of Advent and the Feast of the Incarnation of Christ...

The current flap resurfacing the decades-old "he said, she said" debate between Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill is thick with religious specters.

One primary question that gets asked too rarely: How much honesty about the foibles and feet of clay of our clergy, politicians and judges can devout Christians tolerate...

Sometimes we'd run into each other after church. She dressed for worship like most of us used to dress 20 years ago, before it became a "come as you are" party. With a demurely made-up face, clad in clothes that bespoke modesty, she looked the perfect model of Christian decorum....

A few weeks ago, there was a rash of media coverage of a Duke University study that told a lot of us clergy what we already knew: those charged with shepherding the sheep are often not men and women who are good at taking care of themselves.

Many are overweight,...