Over the past few years, I have been involved with a fascinating project: I am Christ's prosecutor.

The setting is a modern re-creation of Jesus's trial, under the current law of the state which hosts the event. For efficiency, we limit ourselves to the sentencing phase of the trial...

This week, Baylor basketball star Brittney Griner made her first public statements about her sexuality, and at least one headline read that this announcement is "no big deal." In the sports world, that has been true. Griner's impressive talent and character speak for themselves.

It is a big deal...

A bipartisan cadre in the Senate has now rejected a very reasonable expansion of background checks for gun purchases, largely in the name of "law abiding gun owners." Their mistake is identifying the person and the gun as a single unit. Unfortunately for public safety, they aren't.

What this...

In recent months, a striking array of people -- from the Kardashians to those within the Heritage Foundation -- have called attention to the often-forgotten ability of the president to shorten sentences and pardon convictions. It's no wonder: There is a crisis of over-incarceration in this country, and the pardon...

Lent is now over. Easter has come and gone.

Perhaps the most important part of the story is still to be remembered, though. Sure, we have already celebrated the triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the cleansing of the temple, the last supper, the crucifixion,...

Lent perplexes me. The events it recalls are chaotic, especially the last few weeks. Jesus enters Jerusalem to cheers, but then it is bedlam. He tears up the temple he says is doomed, denounces the powerful, his disciples pull swords from their cloaks, and there is an extended scene of...

Could it be that we are more threatened by kittens and puppies than we are by guns? Perhaps we are. My own community, like many others, has restrictions on pets that don't apply to firearms. We track pets through licensing, but are loath to do the same with guns. We...

Much has been made of the "rise of the nones" -- that is, the increasing percentage of Americans who identify with no religion. It is a fascinating and undeniable trend, and one that should catch the attention of religious leaders.

I know quite a few Nones. Few of them were...

The pictures mean it must be true: the shooting, again, of innocents in a public place.

How can this happen? Some will blame the evil that hid within the shooter, and they are, of course, right. Others will blame guns, and they are right, too. It appears,...

As a people, we often cringe when religion and politics combine. We avoid it when we can. That said, the two must be discussed together in the context of Proposition 34 -- which would abolish the California death penalty -- for one simple reason: It is likely that the majority...

Azusa Pacific University's motto is "God First Since 1899." It is there, on October 18, that I will stand before a crowd and condemn Jesus. The night preceding, I will do the same thing at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, an evangelical graduate school for future ministers.

What will I say?...

The pardon power is the drunk uncle of presidential politics, awkwardly ignored until there is a disaster. It has been the source of great controversy over the past three decades, with clemency granted to Richard Nixon, Marc Rich, and Scooter Libby, but too few others. Yet, the pardon power and...

In the past few months I have read several agonized reports on the supposed death throes of the Episcopal Church. I have not studied the statistics or interviewed masses of people. However, I have traveled in the opposite direction from those who have left the Episcopal church, and am glad...

The end of this year's term in the Supreme Court was a legal, moral and political thrill ride. The Affordable Care Act decision, of course, sucked most of the air out of the room. Beneath, and slightly before that decision, though, was the announcement of an opinion that resonated with...

Because I write as a Christian in favor of marriage equality, I receive a lot of correspondence from people who feel I'm mistaken. There seem to be a large number of suggestions, for example, that I will burn in a lake of flaming sulfur. I usually respond, as kindly as...

This past Sunday, a man named Michael Bradshaw reportedly tried to leave a Walmart store in College Station, Texas with a shopping cart full of goods he hadn't paid for. He was approached by security officers, and a scuffle ensued. One of the security guards fired a gun and shot...

I'm a sinner. At one time or another, in the course of my own advocacy (on the death penalty and other issues), I have committed each of the five sins I am about to describe. In fact, so have most who work in advocacy, whether they are progressive, conservative,...

Over the past week, two stories have dominated the news out of Mississippi. First, on Thursday, March 8, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld former Governor Haley Barbour's controversial last-minute pardons of over 200 convicts. The second big story was the Republican primary in that state just five days later.

The...

Christianity is an odd religion in that the central human figure, Christ, is executed by the state. We don't see that in other faiths: Siddhartha Gautama Buddha died of food poisoning at age 80, and the Prophet Muhammad died of natural causes at 63.

It should mean something to...

I am the son of a painter. On summer days, I have often found an excuse to sit near him as he worked. I might pretend to read a book, but I'm really watching him. A better and more compelling story than any book can tell is unfolding in front...