Other Opinions

(RNS) — One of the holiday season’s biggest ad campaigns has spectacularly backfired. The commercial for Peloton, which sells $2,200 indoor exercise bikes that can interface with the company’s studio-based spin classes, went viral for all the wrong reasons.

This summer, while vacationing in Yellowstone National Park, I noticed how many tourists were carrying backpacks. I learned the hard way that not everyone who straps on one of these totes is socially responsible.

1 John was written because people within the church John was affiliated with were having a hard time liking, let alone loving, each other. This is the paradox of the Christian life: God chooses to love people who are sometimes unlovable and then asks them to share that same love with people who are just like them.

(RNS) — The scripture readings for the First Sunday of Advent speak to us of the second coming of Christ (not the coming of baby Jesus at Christmas). This is not an imaginary exercise, either, because Jesus is coming, we just don't know when.

(RNS) — Celebration is what we are called to. We are called to practice joy by celebrating. Celebration doesn't mean to celebrate only the good moments. Ecstatic joy embraces all of life and does not shy from painful moments, departures and even death.

I always tell people I’m terrible at memorizing things. But that’s not the whole truth. I used to be great at memorizing all kinds of things growing up. But as I’ve gotten older, I struggle.

(RNS) — Over the weekend, Rick Perry, the U.S. secretary of energy, became the latest highly placed evangelical Christian to claim that President Trump is the "chosen one." 

(RNS) — Ideologies have become things for us to buy and sell. We should expect that the people selling them to us treat them — and us — as products.

(RNS) — As the impeachment hearings proceed on Capitol Hill, it's astonishing to follow the reactions to the developments on social media, where the constant stream of tweets, likes, comments, and shares is apparently further polarizing the American electorate.

Churches must courageously abandon outdated practices and attitudes. Congregations must change drastically in order to touch our world with God’s grace. But sometimes, amid all the pulse-taking, evaluations, strategy planning, and critiquing, we forget to love the church we have.