Just like Judaism is a religion that can exist independently from Jewish ethnicity or Jewish culture, Islam is a religion, and even though Muslims are ethnically and racially varied, there really is such a thing as a Muslim culture that can exist separately from Islam.

When reading the Bible we don't need to choose between a literal reading and a rejection. Both are small-minded and spiritually deadening positions. The Bible is far too rich to be reduced to such a flat formula, and we are far too magnificent to allow ourselves to be so small.

Has the story of Passover made a people better or more secure? Has it stirred its believers to blame others? Has it encouraged a sense of victimhood? That it has is cause for concern and for discussion at the annual Passover meal.

For some folks, God is the guarantor of American freedom including in particular, gun ownership.

A closer look at the original context of the words of the Bible can help readers see past these translation mistakes, which range from awkward phrasing to misrepresenting such central themes as the Ten Commandments.

When it comes to the Bible, modern Americans are at a distinct disadvantage. They know both too much and too little.

When we Christians are tempted to lob Bible verses at one another like hand grenades, we might do well to consider Jesus' example.

In the United States, in the year 2012, we are seemingly beholden -- for the next few weeks, at least -- to powerful Congressmen serving on the House Science Committee who think that anything other than their beliefs amount to "lies straight from the pit of hell."

It should be no surprise that biblical scholars run in all shapes, sizes, colors and denominations. What would surprise many people, though, is this one fact: many of us have our roots in fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity.

The more seriously one takes the Bible, the more seriously one should be willing to wrestle with its internal complexities. It is a remarkable collection of countless people's perspectives from a broad range of locations over the course of centuries.

Consider how every time we talk about sex and sexuality in dualistic terms -- as either right or wrong in whatever form -- we are controlling others' experience of it instead of being interested in their well-being.

Heaven knows that I am no biblical scholar. I am a pastor with a seminary education. That said, I do not believe we get to that Truth by interpreting Scripture literally.

Jesus was more interested in love than he was in rules. That was what got him into so much trouble with the fundamentalists of his day

The atrophying of our national understanding of secularism has dramatic implications for the country's well-being, including, most fundamentally, its ability to separate politics from religion.

Doubt has many roles. We sometimes forget that God is mystery and a life of faith is one that is lived in the tension of never fully knowing.

In the name of protecting Christianity from a secularism perceived as corrosive to the faith, the creationists are unwittingly driving the best and brightest evangelicals out of the church.

We're obsessed in today's world with facts. Every syllable uttered by people in positions of power is put under a microscope, and we, the general public, love nothing more than to have subterfuge reveal in the media spotlight.

In the world of Christian scholarship, for example, to read the Bible literally is regarded as absurd. To call the words of the Bible "the Word of God" is more than naïve.

By killing all preconceptions we have about who or what God is, we do indeed free God simply to be, as stated in Exodus and by great theologians and philosophers ever since.

With several new English-language Bible translations that have been published in recent years -- including ones that use gender-neutral and conversati...

Having spent the last several years writing a book about people who search for the Garden of Eden on earth, I am a little sensitive about the topic of apples.

Do people find in Genesis independent evidence against evolution and against global warming, or is it a matter of finding evidence for the one that strongly suggests the truth of the other?

By Daniel Burke Religion News Service (RNS) In recent weeks, an arcane and scary-sounding religious term has crept into the lexicon of the 2012 ca...

Critics of religion enjoy pointing out how many wars and how much suffering has been caused in the name of religion. But only science has given us the tools to kill each other in ways never before imagined.

Why should anyone be dismayed that all the evidence ever collected points to the implausibility that two persons named Adam and Eve once lived in a paradisiacal garden and gave birth to all humanity?