In early May 2011, a majority of the 173 presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (USA) had approved a change to the ordination standards.  The amendment will remove the constitutional requirement that all ministers, elders, and deacons live in “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a...

I don’t remember how I got to Rachel Held Evans’ blog, but once I got there, I was hooked.  I connected immediately to Rachel’s provocative, yet disarming manner of taking on certain traditional statements, stances, or interpretations of evangelicalism.  Asking questions of her readers...

A couple weeks ago I posted a short survey to collect some experiences readers here have with faith and church. This was as close to the same survey as I could replicate of what the Barna Group did in June, albeit mine less scientific. Nonetheless I am very fascinated in the current changes in Christianity,...

In my last column, I wrote about some analysis of the centering of beliefs within the re-formation period Christianity is arguably going through currently. That centering includes how people are experiencing God is different ways than were available or organized even 20 years ago. To gather some less-than-scientific...

I’ve been reading through a fascinating book by Phyllis Tickle called The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why. Ms. Tickle knows her religious history, as you will see if you read the book. Her top resume item alone is impressive: founding editor of the religion department...

I apologize for the unintentional hiatus I took. Eight weeks ago I had my third surgery in two years trying to repair damage from dislocating my knee cap. This is the first week I’ve been walking, still mostly using one crutch, and almost totally limping and struggling to regain my strength....

One of the things I like about being a centrist is sometimes I can take on provocative topics. In fact, the more I try to find middle ground in controversial issues, the more I like to read form both sides. Sometimes I find that I learn more from those I agree with the least. Last summer I read a book...

In the middle of the day, I realized that I had not fulfilled my commitment to publish this column. I’ve been traveling a lot over the last 28 days, in fact as many days this month as I have in a typical year for my job. It was a reasonable excuse, but not one that sat well with me. Tonight...

Like many around the country, I took time out of my business day last week to watch the inauguration. In fact, I was one of the hosts of a conference for a research project for which I work. Attendees came from all over the country, and even Australia and Canada, and we stopped our work, had lunch brought...

As I was walking out of our local farmer’s market grocery store almost two months ago, I passed a bell ringer of the Salvation Army. The sign behind him read “Doing theMost Good” and I skeptically wondered “since when did charities become competitive?” This idea stuck...