How do we encounter God? Some assume it comes from adhering to tried and true practices and traditions. But sometimes we experience God through opening ourselves to what or to who is different. This has particular relevance for our time, as the United States struggles...

Current events, like much about our lives, frequently leave us hopeless, fearful and uncertain. Religious faith isn't a matter of wishing away these experiences; it involves perceiving God in the midst of our hardships.

I still remember one Friday night when I, an overly sensitive...

Charity doesn't leave us unchanged, which is just one reason why it's hard to make ourselves do it.

To be more specific: When we extend generosity and justice to others, it alters our relationship to them. Especially when those "others" are foreign to us. Hospitality...

Sometimes, the worse the tragedy, the more abhorrent the theology it elicits.

Still numb from the overwhelming evil perpetrated against helpless children and schoolteachers last Friday, now we have to read idiocy from James Dobson and others who declare the senseless carnage a sign...

Temptations to hold and wield power are usually tough to pass up. Power is alluring whether we imagine having it over others or on behalf of them, whether it's power in society, at home or in a workplace.

'Not to Be Served But to Serve'

WATCH Jesus Predicts His Death:

"Parents just don't understand" might be an ever-present theme in popular music, but it's hardly a modern phenomenon.

Jesus' Family Discord

If you're looking for snapshots of well-adjusted and happy parent-child relationships from the ancient world, the Bible probably shouldn't be on your short list...

As the Gospels tell it, Jesus went into the final evening of his life aware that he would die soon. How could anyone in his circumstances have expected anything else? His recent words and deeds gave the ruling authorities little choice.

Assassination or execution certainly awaited him. The...

The Trayvon Martin story is tragic for many reasons. We see one of them in what his death has again brought to the surface: deeply rooted convictions that the system is flawed. We have a hard time trusting the criminal-justice processes in particular cases...

Maybe the most divisive religious statements are the ones that make claims about how and where God can be found. Disagreements among people of faith today remind us that disputes over God's "accessibility" never go away. Jesus' conflicts with the authorities of his day remind...

Jesus was concerned about the very poor.

I'm not trying to pile on Mitt Romney after the bad week he had. I think he and most other politicians are concerned about poverty, too, despite their occasional inability to do much about it. But their...

Here comes Black Friday, even earlier than usual. Bell-ringers are appearing outside stores. Advertisers are shifting the consumerism-as-therapy machine into high gear. And Christians say: This is a good time to think about the world falling apart.

We're not trying to be morose. We're...

It couldn't hurt for Jesus to show up and weigh in on America's current economic and political challenges. It might be helpful if he issued a declaration about who should pay taxes, and how much.

Then again, this would likely get him killed all...

Maybe you remember this old line: A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged, and a liberal is a conservative who has been arrested.

Our notions of justice usually cannot help but be influenced by our own circumstances and by our opinions...

In Matthew's Gospel, the story of Jesus walking on water morphs into a story of Peter walking on, then sinking into, the same water. It begins as a statement about Jesus' authority; for Jesus' contemporaries had learned from scripture that...

Last week on the radio I heard a summary of what psychologist Martin Seligman has been saying about unemployment and its effects on people's well being. Seligman, an expert on human happiness, reports:

Unemployment is a disastrous event for most human beings. Human beings tend...

Please don't refer to Pentecost as "the birthday of the church." The day is much more interesting -- and risky -- than that.

Because Pentecost is a time for Christians to be reminded that we're a bunch of dreamers. All of us are, whether we prefer to worship with our...

When I was a kid, my school had fire drills (calmly exit the building in a single-file line), earthquake drills (curl up under your desk to protect your head and neck) and occasional nuclear-bomb drills (same posture as for earthquakes, but I think we were supposed to close our eyes...

With apologies to Jesus, Paul, and others, I think the most interesting figures in the New Testament are Judas and Pilate.

It's not that I gravitate to villains over heroes. (Then again, The Godfather is my favorite film. And at a dinner party I'd rather sit next to

Sorry, Maya. Just when peculiar apocalyptic interpretations of the ancient Mayan calendar were about to thrust you into the media frenzy sure to come in 2012, some knuckleheads cut in front of you by predicting the return of Jesus on May 21, 2011.

They...