Opinion

(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.

One hundred years ago, a bold experiment died. But it could be more than a historical footnote; it should serve as a prophetic whisper that things are not as they should be.

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.

Mysterious people with political connections arrived from a country off in the East. They brought news the ruler did not like.

(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.