February 11, 2012

Archbishop Timothy Dolan
Archdiocese of New York
1011 First Ave
New York, N.Y. 10022

Dear Archbishop Dolan:

I write you as a fellow Christian ordained to preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It has been with great disappoint that I have watched...

Mitt Romney told CNN this morning that "I'm not concerned with the very poor. We have a safety net there." He'll probably want to bet $10,000 to prove me wrong, but we aren't doing enough to fight poverty and Romney's proposed economic agenda -- a mirror...

Dear Mr. President:

As you near the State of the Union Address, I wanted to write again this year and urge you to use the opportunity to specifically address issues of poverty and to re-confirm your 2008 pledge to cut poverty in half within ten years.

The economic situation you...

Newt Gingrich might not be the GOP nominee for president -- though who knows in this out of the ordinary nominating contest? -- but his recent comments about federal courts deserve further consideration because those views have strong support in conservative circles and have for years.

As the former House...

GOP presidential candidate and disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich made it clear last week that he felt child labor laws -- meant to stop children from being exploited -- were, in his words, "truly stupid."

Tonight he repeated his belief that children living in poverty as...

On Nov. 17-19, The Westar Institute, home of the Jesus Seminar and Polebridge Press, will launch a new project called The Bible Seminar.

"Today the Bible is deployed in the service of all manner of conservative and right wing causes. Biblical scholars need to weigh in...

One of the truths of human existence is religious conflict. Those conflicts exist not just between different religions but within religions. Christians understand this through experience. There is great diversity within the Christian faith and with that diversity has come disagreement and plenty of violence. The war in Iraq illustrated,...

Starting with Occupy Wall Street, protests have spread across the United States with Americans from all walks of life decrying the economic inequities faced in our nation today. This movement is a new "Great Awakening" with implications for our spiritual lives.

People of faith are called to stand with...

President Obama unveiled his American Jobs Act in a bold speech before a joint session of Congress last week. In short, the president offered up a moral vision of what America should be and in doing so he provided a stark contrast with the Tea Party Congress and...

The 10 years since 9/11 -- a decade of horror and hardship -- have increasingly become known as The Lost Decade. Our nation moved from a time of progress and prosperity to a time of unending war and economic chaos where moments of hope have been hard to find or...

As I've preached before, my hope is that churches and religious leaders will take an active role in political affairs. That hope remains as we approach the 2012 election cycle but with important words of caution for those who might engage in such activity. People of faith have...

Texas Governor Rick Perry is just into his first week as a presidential candidate and already has suggested the use of violence against a federal official, as Think Progress notes:

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who entered the presidential campaign on Saturday, appeared to suggest a violent response would...

The United States of America lost an incredible political leader last night when former U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR) passed away after a long illness. He was 89. In his two terms as Oregon's governor and five terms in the United States Senate he developed into what many...

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to speak briefly with key White House staffers concerning the on-going debate about the budget and the debt ceiling. Like every White House, the Obama Administration routinely invites constituency groups to offer advice or hear briefings on important matters. On occasion,...

Just as in the days after the Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11, people across the globe are pondering the meaning of terror in the wake of attacks in Norway. Central among the questions being asked this time are what roles religion, in particular the Christian faith, and Islamophobia played in...

Anyone paying attention to the 2012 presidential race knows that Texas Governor Rick Perry is a likely candidate and that he'll run to the right of, well, everyone else in the race. With this GOP field that will be a hard feat but Perry will try. Many observers...

July 7, 2011

The Honorable Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

First, let me thank you for the remarks made at last week's press conference where you pressed Congressional Republicans to abandon their support for the continuation of...

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a regular on cable television, had a message this weekend for scandal-plagued U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, which he sent, quite naturally, via Twitter, according to USA Today:

"Dear Congressman Weiner: There is no...

Portland, Ore. is known for being a progressive and tolerant community. Voters elected an openly gay man to serve as mayor of this city in 2008.

This is also the city, however, where FOX News personality Bill O'Reilly helped to launch his career and where today Lars...

Since the night of Sept. 11, 2001, when the church I then served as the director of community outreach held Portland, Oregon's largest memorial service to grieve our nation's losses, I've lost track of the number of times I've personally invoked that day in prayer or sermons. This...