Like many, my faith journey began in my youth — 38 years ago. As a teenager, I committed my life to Jesus Christ. That decision presented a conflict because I was also experiencing strong same-sex attractions.

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The discovery of the so-called “Tomb of Jesus” takes me back -- back to November 2002 to the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Toronto.

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As a gay and ordained Lutheran pastor, it is precisely the resources of my tradition that have allowed me to find clarity and peace in my calling to serve the church.

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When I became a Christian in the early 1990s, I did what all good Christians are supposed to do. I started reading the Bible (which, by the way, my lesbian partner at the time actually gave me as a gift.)

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What James Cameron’s Discovery film successfully proves is that Jesus sells. What it doesn’t prove is what it claims—that anyone has authentic evidence about the tomb of Jesus and his family members; instead, like the Da Vinci Code, Cameron’s film proves that what sells best is fiction pretending to be fact.

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I met recently with a 73-year-old man whose health was
poor but whose eyes and spirit were alive.

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Over the past forty years, churches have failed the faithful by privatizing God. They have morphed the great omniscient God of justice and love into a shriveled and sensually challenged elder with a pinched, bitter obsession with sexual practices.

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Should religion be taught in public schools? Read the transcript of Barry Lynn and Stephen Prothero's debate.

Any doubt that anti-Catholic discrimination exists should have been erased recently by the reaction—or lack of it—to the notorious bloggers for John Edwards’s Democratic presidential campaign.

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A priest gives a sermon about living with doubt.

A child pulls away his wrist when the priest touches it.

A nun observes these ambiguous events and has no doubt about what they mean.

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God was in Croke Park on a blustery day in Dublin earlier this month.

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The United States may be one of the most religious nations on earth but Americans know woefully little about their own religions, or the religions of others.

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In 1970, as remembered in a story I've (too?) often told, for my sins I became associate dean at a Divinity School. Dean Joseph Kitagawa, scholar supreme and human being to match, did not like to raise money -- so he equipped me with a tin cup.

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Gilbert Earl Patterson preached his first sermon on a Tuesday evening in his father’s church 50 years ago. He was 17.

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It is an ongoing process, this thing called "coming out." Any gay or lesbian person who has been through it can tell you that we don't just come out once – we do it over and over again.

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I have just returned from a remarkable meeting of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church. It was remarkable for its importance, its intensity, and its civility. Yet, contrary to the expectations of many, our recommendations, “though not unanimously endorsed by the House, came at the conclusion of long and gracious conversation.”

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Pop Quiz. According to the Bible:

1. Did David slay Goliath?
2. Did Jesus stand for peace on earth?
3. Did God deliver the Israelites from slavery because He thought slavery was wrong?

There was a time when I would have answered “Yes” to all of the above.

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Recently, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case of eighteen-year-old Joseph Frederick, who displayed a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner for television cameras during an Olympic torch-passing rally on a street in his hometown.

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One of the most intriguing things that science can tell us is that human religious behavior has ancient roots.

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