Dear God, do You ever get discouraged? My heart is breaking. I wept when I heard of the bombs in Boston: God, we were just there a week ago! I was grateful that it was a shared grief -- the news and Facebook all joined in grief and prayers. But...

These past weeks I read what friends have written about gay marriage, gun rights, gun violence, personal rights, etc. I see some friends post pictures that vehemently propose their rights come before life (an "over my dead hands" kind of approach). I see others declare that their right to say...

I was on the airplane and looked forward to reading Taylor Branch's new book, The King Years: Historical Moments in the Civil Rights Movement. As I opened my Kindle I realized that it offered large excerpts of Branch's previous works -- and was glad that while I have the other...

I write as a woman in a very Republican family. The Thanksgiving after the last election I was the only one who voted for President Obama of 30 people around the table -- and I suspect that will be the case again, this year. Most of my neighbors will vote...

April 4 is the 44th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This week is Holy Week. So what do Trayvon Martin, Dr. King and Jesus have in common? No, this question isn't the beginning of a bad joke -- the answer is hopefully apparent....

Several days ago my friend Michelle Alexander, author of the profound 'The New Jim Crow,' asked via her Facebook page, 'Is the life of a black boy worth anything today?' I wept when I read her question, because I knew the answer. This is an edited portion of what I...

Dear Mr. Santorum:

I live in Michigan and write to you as a sister in Christ. I worship the same Christ as you do -- only radically differently. I have been touched by the stories of your daughter with Trisomy 18. When I was pregnant with our daughter we were...

This Christmas season I yearn to hear the good news -- perhaps a little more than most years. Perhaps it is because I grieve the fracture of good will in our American Congress. Perhaps it is because many Christmas trees (if folks can even afford those) will be pretty bare...

Wangari Maathai died Sunday night. Her death diminishes our planet, but her dreams continue. Though most Americans have never heard of her, I invite you to learn why so many of us in the world mourn today.

I met Dr. Maathai in the summer of 2007. My children's school has...

This is a prayerful request for all who are leading or participating in a Remembrance Service this coming Sunday, on 9/11. Please, by God's grace, do not pretend that it's about "us." So often it seems that we in America become fairly egocentric, imagining that we are the center of...