News of James Robison’s death reminded me of one of the most powerful transitions in my life. When I was growing up in Texas back in the ’70s, Robison was a larger-than-life regional evangelist. He developed quite a reputation for…
Most Americans see Trump as ‘not religious’
President Donald Trump is either “not too religious” or “not religious at all,” according to 70% of U.S. adults polled this month by Pew Research Center. “At the same time, many Republicans and white evangelical Protestants say Trump stands up…
Resurrection’s joy ascends, but so, too, its detractors
For many years the joy of Easter Sunday’s resurrection observance has been contested by the continuing powers of death. Easter’s portable feast (due to its lunar calculation) means it typically falls in the vicinity of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s execution by the…
In conversation with my grandmother
This wasn’t the In Conversation I thought I would sit down and write this week. I did not plan to interview my grandmother from a hospital chair. The room was quiet in the way hospital rooms often are — machines…
Confessional Christianity and the choice Jesus offers
If you were listening to R&B in the early 1990s, especially in Cleveland, you may recall Chris Bender’s hit song “Who Will I Choose?” In the song Chris has a dilemma, he has two love interests contending for his heart….
Trading the Cross for a cause
Many moderate and progressive-minded Christians are trying to live our faith in the most actionable way possible. We want a church that takes suffering seriously, tells the truth about injustice, shows up for neighbors and looks like Jesus in public….
Is Scott Adams in heaven?
‘Dilbert’ cartoonist Scott Adams died Jan. 13 after a short battle with prostate cancer. Adams was known for his wry satire of white-collar office life through his long-running comic strip, which appeared in 2,000 newspapers in at least 70 countries…
Remembering Stephanie
On the third Sunday in Advent in 1991, as we returned home from Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., 16-year-old Stephanie Erin Leonard announced to us: “I think it’s time for me to be baptized.” It was the first…
On being ‘just Christian’
A couple years ago, when I first moved to Wisconsin, I joined a local megachurch Bible study that wasn’t attached to my church. Despite attending a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod congregation, I found Wisconsin was generally bereft of young folks…
Seven commendations for resisting counterfeit faith
Night owl that I am, these thoughts began composing in my mind at the stroke of midnight, just as the U.S. government closed (many of) its doors. I began imagining the anxiety, even panic, hundreds of thousands of federal employees…
Hymns bear witness to faith and fear
Sitting and looking out on the frothy waves crashing on the rugged shoreline outside the window of our room at an inn in Depoe Bay, Oregon, these old words came to me: I was sinking deep in sin far from…
From the pulpit to the picket line: For many miners, religion and labor rights have long been connected in coal country
In October 2025, Cecil Roberts will officially retire from his role as president of the United Mine Workers of America. A sixth-generation coal miner, he has led the union for 30 years. Only one man held the role longer: John L. Lewis, whom…