The Religious Right’s Vaccination Vexation

When it comes to teen sex, all parents hope and pray that their children make wise choices. Children as young as 12 or 13 weigh decisions with consequences that could impact the rest of their lives in a dramatic way. At this point in the conversation our teenage...

Is The Passion Biblical or Extra-Biblical?

Christians will likely ignore the most biblically sound theme in Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ,” and they will likely embrace the most biblically faulty problems of the movie. Both offer insightful congregational leaders a teachable...

Pastoral Ethics in Crisis Times

Some of us see ourselves as “good in a crisis.” Some of us don’t. For pastors, though, the real question is not, “How do you see yourself?” but rather, “How do your people experience you as a crisis leader?” Some of us see...

Racial Profiling is Everyone’s Business

When I was in my mid-20s, I decided to spend a spring weekend in the Big Apple. I was a young Latino man with shoulder length hair. I wore my hair in a bright red bandana (which I still own). At the time, my only earthly possession was a fairly new red sports car with...

History is a Jigsaw Puzzle

Up until four years ago the lands of Iraq and Iran would have been hard for many Americans to find on a world map. We knew next to nothing about their history, language and culture. We only knew they had a dictator of the worst kind. The British and French following...