A few months ago I posted about my training in mixed martial arts and how I reconciled it with my faith. I still don’t have a rationale worked out. But the NYT ran an article about mixed martial arts “ministries” and offered what I thought was a fair critique. The training we offer...

Rescue crews hadn’t even begun to unload supplies before Pat Robertson began to upbraid Haitians for their “pact with the devil.” Robertson said Haitians joined forces with Satan’s Army:  “They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story. And so the...

On Christmas Eve of 2006, I boarded a plane in Connecticut and flew home to Chicago.  My parents and siblings picked me up from the airport, and we drove to church for the Christmas Eve service. I had always hoped I’d be like Mary – a young woman who loved God, whose life took an extraordinary turn. ...

I’m working on a book about Christmas and I’ve been wrestling with the ugliness of what Biblical scholars call the Slaughter of the Innocents. I hate that Jesus came to Earth in a way that caused countless infants and children to be murdered by King Herod. In fact, I struggle with the Bible...

In 1883, Emma Lazarus, a young American woman from a wealthy Jewish family, wrote a sonnet called, “The New Colossus.” Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is...

“Empathy.” That’s what she was looking for. It was the first night of our church small group, and I had asked what people wanted out of the experience. Most of the responses were predictable, but this one stopped the conversation in its tracks. Being good, robust evangelicals, we immediately started...

It’s easy to be critical of the church, especially retrospectively. Like Monday morning quarterbacks, we can all look back through the centuries and see the folly of crusades, colonization, slavery, and the unholy marriage of political power and wealth with the name of Jesus. These failures are,...

I sometimes joke that the only two things that I am an evangelist for are Jesus and Gmail. Each, to different degrees, has shaped my life for the better, and yes, I realize how sacrilegious that sounds. Even so, I am much more likely to verbally evangelize for Gmail than I am for Jesus, more likely...

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....

(Guest post by Karen Spears Zacharias) I’ll admit to treading in deep waters, into matters way over my head. To be quite honest, that usually occurs for me before I reach the edge of the four-foot section of the pool. But this Easter Season has me pondering this matter of Christ Risen. Having...