By Roger E. Olson One of the last theological giants passed away Sept. 5. Wolfhart Pannenberg was without doubt one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. He was born in Stettin, Germany, (now part of Poland) in…
I can do more: A lament
By Barrett Owen It’s been a bad month. People are angry. Humans are dying. Cultures are dividing. These are the talking points we have to discuss: Depression is a disease. Ukraine is in turmoil. ISIS just beheaded two American journalists….
As for me and my house, call me a thug
By Connie Stinson I pastor a racially mixed church in a densely populated Maryland suburb of Washington. We accurately call ourselves diverse. One month ago, one of our young adults, a particularly gifted 20-year-old, preached “Judge Not” from my pulpit…
Monks and mediation
By Julie Pennington-Russell Seventy-five miles north of Santa Fe there’s a high desert canyon so ancient, so primordial, I half-expected to see pterodactyls in the sky instead of hawks as I steered my rental car along 13 miles of single-lane…
What to do about ISIS? A Christian’s anguish
By Chuck Queen When I think about ISIS and what our response as a nation should be to their reign of terror my soul is in anguish. Why the anguish? Does ISIS not completely devalue human life and are they…
Like its name, ‘Calvary’ offers view of atonement
By Michael Parnell Calvary begins in a confessional in Ireland. Father James Lavelle (Brendan Gleeson) listens to a man describe how he was raped as child by a priest. The man then tells Father James that he will kill him…
Bumper sticker theology
By Russ Dean We live in a frightening world. Everywhere we turn there are reminders. There is violence in the streets; multiple killings seem commonplace and no place seems to be immune from the crosshairs of the lone gunman; our…
Smuggling and trafficking: What are our responsibilities?
By Nell Green It was a normal school day. She worked with the children who needed some help with their English. One day a child asked her if she knew what a “coyote” was. She said, “Of course. It looks…
God’s gonna trouble the water
By Rob Lee At the church I serve, I had the opportunity to participate in my first baptism as a Baptist minister. I was raised Methodist, so this was a new and awe-inspiring experience for me. In true mountain fashion…
Missing Gwen
By Pam Durso It has now been a year since that moment on Aug. 27, 2013, when I learned that Gwen had died. She was my friend. She was my pastor. She was my Panera Bread lunch date, my fellow…
‘Jesus is my savior, but I’m a killer!’
By Alan Bean Dan Page, the St. Louis police officer who famously pushed CNN anchor Don Lemon, has been relieved of duty. Pushing Lemon in front of a national television audience had nothing to do with it. It was Page’s…
Should Christians fear being ‘on the wrong side of history?’
By Roger Olson We have all heard people say that Christians should adjust their view of sexuality because otherwise they are going to turn out to be “on the wrong side of history.” That’s code for turning out to have…