Rev. Mary Robin Craig

Pastor, Nankin (OH) Federated Church

If we are people of faith, we are called to embody the recklessly abundant love of a God from whom nothing can separate us. Not depression, not the consequences of mental illness, not death by suicide. We can do better for those who suffer.

Jim Wallis

Christian leader for social change; Author, 'On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned About Serving the Common Good'

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a new comprehensive immigration reform bill with a bipartisan vote. It isn't perfect, but the key elements that many of us have been fighting for are intact. That really is a triumph of the common good.

Rodney Newman

University Chaplain, Oklahoma City University

When confronted with difficult times, especially disasters, we try to bring some order to the chaos. We tend to turn inward, a natural reflex toward self-preservation.

Christian Piatt

Author, editor, speaker

We preach that marriage fixes everything, from sexual infidelity to general moral decline in our culture. But it hasn't, and the way we teach about it, it won't.

Mark Osler

Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas

I read the Gospels, deeply and often, and each time I am struck by the revolution Jesus urges. He unsettled nearly everyone who came to him. But when I see people leave church today, I rarely see anyone who is amazed or disappointed or angry or unsettled at all.

Frank Fredericks

Founder of World Faith and Mean Communications

If my main reason for serving God and living righteously is out of fear of eternal damnation, then how authentic is my devotion?

Rabbi Michael Bernstein

Congregation Gesher L’Torah

May the bereft find comfort. May there be a healing of body and soul. May acts of kindness and memory inspire us to draw out our best selves and to strive to mend a broken world.

Staks Rosch

Blogger, atheist, and Humanist

Pope Francis went farther than just acknowledging that atheists aren't going to be tortured for all eternity. He also said that if we live virtuous lives, we will be "redeemed" by Jesus just like Christians. That last part goes a little too far for me.

Brynn Tannehill

Defense research scientist

When the Mormon Church officially endorsed the Boy Scouts' new "young gays OK, grown-up gays bad" position, I pricked up my ears. I asked myself, "What does this organization have to gain from it?" Simply put: everything.

Greg Carey

Professor of New Testament, Lancaster Theological Seminary

Many people take it as Jesus' definitive statement on Christian exclusivity: Have faith in Jesus, go to heaven. But so many things are wrong with this way of using the Bible.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Rabbi and Writer

Whatever the variation on this theme of the holocaust as punishment, let's be clear. These theories are ignorant, repulsive, and wrong.

Rev. Ian Punnett

Author, 'How To Pray When You're Pissed At God'

Nothing can mitigate the profound sadness of the deaths of dozens of people. But the families of all the victims would be right in wishing that there had been a few more miracles to go around.

Tonya Hurley

Author, "The Blessed" and "ghostgirl"

She goes, I was told, by many names: Lady Of Shadows. Holy Girl. Lady of the Night. The Skinny Lady. Santa Sebastiana. Frowned upon by the Church and the upper classes, worshiped secretly for centuries by the working classes, Santa Muerte has become the patron saint of the downtrodden.

Rabbi Aaron Alexander

Associate Dean, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, American Jewish University

We praise you, God, for providing a world in which the only true hierarchy begins with you and immediately ends, equally, with each one of us. In here, out there, everywhere.

Rev. Emily C. Heath

Clergy, United Church of Christ

During Irene I learned so much about what was and was not helpful during a natural disaster. With the recent destruction in Oklahoma, I offer these five suggestions to people of faith who wish to respond.

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

Educator, Activist, Writer

There are those who maintain that you have to make impossible promises in order to get elected or stay in business. However, we should always ask whether a promise is at least plausible or whether it deserves to be denounced as a shevuat shav -- a vain oath.

Barbara Wind

Director, Holocaust Center of Greater MetroWest

We must raise interest and awareness of protecting the history of the Holocaust in order to protect the world. The Shoah Seder, which took place last Sunday, aims to do that.