It's useful to recall this longstanding association between the Protestant mainline and the Christian intelligentsia as stories enumerating mainline decline pile up.

The evidence is in, and it is clear: New Atheists have been a media success and a societal failure.

Bell doesn't have to call himself a liberal or anything else, short of lover of Jesus. But it might be wise to reach out in a new way to people who have been his partners even before he preached his first sermon.

Christianity often forgets that our main man was a single, 30-something-year-old man. While his family was still a part of his life, his central support system was his friends and followers. So why is there such a large disconnect between single young adults and Mainline Protestantism?

The trouble has nothing to do with lacking biblical grounding. It has nothing to do with lacking an identity. The trouble comes with putting these theological tenets into practice.

We talk a lot about the power of the religious right to negatively influence the fate of LGBT civil rights, but we are talking about the wrong religious right there. What LGBT people need now is not more of the religious right.

The U.S. religious landscape is shifting, and no one may be more thankful than GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney. The spread of Latter-day Saints across the nation has paved the way for a Romney run.

I simply do not believe that at this point in time the distinctiveness of our different churches is more important than the values and common understandings of Scripture that unite us.

Why is it that advocacy positions influenced by deeply held religious beliefs about poverty, hunger, disease, human dignity and related issues are seldom, if ever, critiqued from the left?

My friend was troubled by the apparent silence of the churches. In fact, this was a misperception born of the lack of visibility of the leaders in the mainline tradition who had spoken out.

We are smothering God. And our church. We're engaged in an unholy combination of implicit theocide and communal suicide.

Programs like this are really a partnership between generations. Millennials get to imagine a new kind of Christian community, while older generations get to see their legacy live on.

Many news outlets marked the 30th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS with stories on the medical and scientific aspects of the disease. But was religion mentioned?

The point is not that Televangelists are scoundrels, or that many Christian pastors are hypocrites, but that these grand ministry failures represent examples of what many mainstream churches have, in desperation, come to believe is relevant.

The future is uncertain, but I'm convinced that there is a future for the essence of mainline Christianity -- a healthy, meaningful future that will continue to play a role both in society and in the hearts and minds of individuals.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has worked on the behalf of the poverty issues, civil rights, elderly rights, environmental causes, and feminist issues. Now, that yarn is rainbow colored, and we intend to prevail in this struggle as well.

It seems that once the issue of gay clergy has been resolved, usually after decades of wrangling, the denominations (or what's left of them, anyway) begin to experience a new freedom and energy to pursue their mission.

This transparency takes a look at the income levels of America's major religious groups, as compared to the average U.S. income distribution. ...