(OPINION) I’ve seen a whole bunch of religion, good and bad. Maybe the one thing I’ve come to understand is what good faith looks like. You may or may not agree, which is your privilege, but here are my signs any particular religious organization — megachurch or storefront, famous or obscure — is spiritually healthy:
Read More(OPINION) After researching everything I could find about supposed miracles — from books and articles, doctors, religion experts, skeptics and, naturally, dozens of people who’d claimed they’d run smack dab into the hand of God — here are three conclusions.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Here’s a lesson that I’ve learned over the last couple of years: If the first book you write gets any traction at all, you will be remembered for that work for years to come. Not that it’s a bad thing. I am still giving presentations to different groups that use graphs that I first put together over five years ago. People want to read “The Nones” and talk about it. That’s truly a blessing. I think I speak for most academics when I say that I’m just glad that anyone wants to read what we spend years writing.
Read More(OPINION) More than anything else, I seem to hear from people who grew up in evangelical Protestant churches, as I did. They were taught a rigid set of doctrines to which they were expected to adhere unquestioningly. Often, these folks tell me the faith they were baptized in hasn’t held up for them. They’ve become disillusioned. They’ve quit believing in God.
Read More(OPINION) As I celebrate the Rangers taking me higher “to a place with golden streets,” I can’t help but draw parallels between baseball and Christian life. The ups and downs. The perseverance required. The journey together with those of like minds. The promise of an indescribable reward at the end.
Read More(OPINION) It’s not in any way trivializing the ongoing horrors in the Middle East to point out that all of us are equally vulnerable to our own private apocalypses. What does good religion say to us at times such as this — and at all times? Plenty, actually.
Read More(OPINION) The Washington Post recently featured an unusually lengthy newspaper essay by Kate Cohen, a contributing columnist. Cohen’s takeaways are that religion is irrational, there are a lot more atheists out there than you’d imagine, that they should share their beliefs widely and that atheists make demonstrably better citizens than do the religious. But for me, Cohen’s essay is also misleading.
Read More(OPINION) Faith isn’t necessarily easy. It’s work. If it does come easily, it’s possibly not real faith but only self-delusion or vapidity masquerading as faith. I’ve been considering this again in light of developments in my family and my personal journey.
Read More(OPINION) As Christians, we’re told to make our petitions known to God. That is, we’re to pray for ourselves and others, and to do so specifically. We can ask for wisdom, or healing, or financial relief, or the protection of our children and friends, or for a thousand other things. There’s nothing wrong with that and nothing selfish about it.
Read More(OPINION) No generation in history has had so many distractions to deal with. No generation in history has had so many temptations. No generation in history has had so much entertainment and defilement available right at our fingertips (quite literally). That means that it is much harder to live consecrated, undistracted lives for the Lord — lives that are free from the contamination of sin and the saturation of the world.
Read More(OPINION) We learn the most valuable things we learn not so much by embarking on a purposeful pilgrimage or a defined course of study — although such pursuits have their place — but by flopping blindly through life bumping into things.
Read More(OPINION) While the queen delivered thousands of public addresses, her Christmas talks — surrounded by family pictures and holiday decorations — were the occasions when she most openly discussed her faith and the challenges facing the nation and even her own family.
Read More(REVIEW) Valentina Pedicini’s documentary “Faith” spends time in a sect of Christianity called the Warriors of Light, composed of former martial arts champions who live ascetic lives and train daily to fight in a coming spiritual battle. The documentary focuses on why people have faith and what sustains it.
Read More(OPINION) Being old doesn’t feel much different from being middle-aged. I’d always expected something dramatic. A grand demarcation. Instead, I’m pretty much doing what I’ve done forever. But when you’re old, you may have 20 wonderful years left or 20 minutes. You wake up in the morning, cross yourself (even if you’re not Catholic) and pray for the best.
Read MoreFor four weeks each summer, Kids & Christian Camp brings children ages 3 to 12 together in the nation’s capital to cook Jamaican food, listen to African music, learn about Mexican history and Japanese clothing, practice Brazilian martial arts and tour the Tanzanian embassy.
Read More(OPINION) It occurred to me recently that I couldn’t remember even one piece among the thousands I’ve read that touched on the central factor that helped me become a practicing Christian long ago and has kept me in the fold since. I’m speaking of the sheer, inexplicable, even ecstatic joy at the heart of the Christian faith. It’s a joy I’d never experienced before, never knew existed, until I became a practicing disciple.
Read More(OPINION) The past half-dozen years have been nuts — and have driven a lot of otherwise normal, good-hearted folks nuts. But there will always be cycles of good times and crises, and faith can get us through the difficult periods.
Read MoreOnce upon a time — way back in the 1950s and ‘60s — the wealthiest Americans paid a top tax rate of over 90%. Now, the top tax rate is 43%, but many of the richest Americans use a variety of techniques to pay much less. A group called Patriotic Millionaires says the rich should pay their fair share to help reduce rapidly expanding economic disparities.
Read More(REVIEW) What would you do if you encountered God, seemingly the same as any other man, and He offered to save your life as long as you believed in Him? Would you believe? What would it take? These are the questions at the core of Mitch Albom’s new novel, “The Stranger in the Lifeboat.”
Read MoreFaithTech is tapping into an underutilized population, people of faith who work in the tech industry, bringing those people together to brainstorm tech projects to help ministries and charities. One, for example, involved buying out website domains like “howtokillyourself.org” and redirecting them to support networks — and there are dozens more.
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