Yesterday the devastating news poured in over National Public Radio as I was in the kitchen making dinner: four tornadoes, in a string of more expected in and around Moore, Oklahoma, including reports that most of the casualties were children from an elementary school; and that these tornadoes were touching down in the same general…

David Kuo died Friday from brain cancer at the age of only 44. Before the publication of his memoir, Tempting Faith, Kuo was the deputy director of the office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under the Bush Administration, an experience that ultimately caused Kuo to distance himself from overtly politicized expressions of Christianity and inspired…

Yesterday’s inauguration of Pope Francis seems a fitting juncture at which to take stock of him- this in response to a reader’s recent note asking what I think about the man who reminds him of his Jewish rabbi grandfather. And, in response to this reader’s question, and with the admission that much remains to be seen,…

We sang this hymn in church today.  In the wake of Friday morning’s massacre of a first-grade class of school children, the meaning of “O Holy Night” made me cry like a baby.  (Never mind my husband’s running joke that I cry at road kill.) Jesus was born into the very same dark world.  When…

We were driving home from school yesterday when the NPR reports came on.  Another horrific mass killing.  This time at a school.  28 dead, 20 of them children. The sound of gun shots on the school’s loudspeakers were in the background of the news report. My six-year-old son said, “Mommy, did someone get really angry?”…

We writers try to find ways to remind ourselves that what we are writing really matters.  One way I do this is to remember who I’m writing for. Some of you know by now that Grace Sticks is a book for restless souls- all of us religious misfits disillusioned by the church with one foot in…

After last night’s election victory by Barack Obama, the survey results regarding Christian voting trends are almost in- this according to one of today’s headlines from Religion Today, citing as its source the The Christian Post. Apparently, the post-election survey of Christians, including evangelicals and voters across denominational lines, will be released later today by…

Maybe some of you have asked that question.  Maybe you’re asking it today as we head to the polls to elect America’s next president. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint, because I don’t have an answer.  The truth is, I’m suspicious of those who do, be they Republican or Democrat. The other day someone I love…

Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” seems fitting today as tomorrow we Americans head for the polls to elect our next president. I fell in love with this version of the song, compliments of the group, “Playing for Change.”  Enjoy!

The other day in class, someone made the following declaration: “That’s not theology.  That’s meteorology!,” he said.  I love it- hence the inspiration for a new series here at the intersection between life and God, titled “Christian Meteorology.”  We’ll feature the many and various, often ridiculous ways that we Christians take it upon ourselves to…

More from Beliefnet and our partners
More from Beliefnet and our partners
Close Ad