The Question: Jeremiah Wright's sermons continue to be an issue in the presidential campaign. Why? What do you think of his preaching style? What do you wish you understood better about it?

If Jeremiah Wright were like most pastors in America’s 300,000 or so congregations—baptizing, marrying, visiting the sick and burying—his sermons wouldn’t be an issue. But like the name he bears. he speaks often in the thundering tones of the prophet.

Any pastor’s sermons can be an issue for the folks in the pews. But these sermons are now in the relentless news cycle. And there, blinded by the bright lights and passions of a presidential campaign, most observers will miss the real dynamics of the pastor-parishioner relationship.

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The Question: What can Pope Benedict XVI say and do to repair the growing rifts between the Vatican, the clergy and the laity in America?

There is the well-demonstrated truth about communication: we usually hear better when we are overhearing than when directly addressed.

Every faith community I know of, including my own, has painful, internal disagreements, so I can hardly presume to advise the leader of another community. But the Pope himself has observed this week that his U.S. visit comes at a time that is “a crossroads for the church and for humanity as a whole.”

I think he’s right, and in that spirit a few comments about religious leadership might be in order.

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Universal rights might be the place we should begin. My understanding of Christianity is that its contribution has been to go beyond—and in many cases has given up—its own specific privileges in the larger cause of advancing the rights of all.

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Governor Huckabee’s claim is breathtaking. I can say that because I have to confess that I’ve given in to the temptation of that kind of thinking.

In the 1970s I ministered in a suburban parish where I was, among other things, youth minister with a couple hundred teenagers in my charge. In a prosperous community, these kids didn’t lack for opportunities, and I was jealous of how filled their calendars were. My program—and church time in general—was usually not the great priority.

Conventional church life was then helped by a state law. Believe it or not, Maryland still had blue laws strictly regulating what stores could open on Sundays. A convenience store and a gas station were the only visible distractions in that small community. The mall, one town over, was shuttered, and we had at least a fighting chance for people’s “Sabbath” attention.

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The question itself—which is the worst of the sins?— is a temptation. It assumes a list, and it plays to our love of ranking and categories. But not so fast.

In my tradition, we try to remember to make a crucial distinction between sins and Sin. Those who talk endlessly about sins seem to want to scrutinize the behavior of others. And where there’s scrutiny, moralizing will follow, and close behind will come judgment and the call for laws. The presidential campaign trail is already littered with calls to put someone’s moral code into civil law. And religion is reduced to our nanny.

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My faith doesn’t just come from verses in a book. It comes from people with the authority of lived experience.

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If there is another place on this planet where we are required to be more spiritually sensitive and achingly careful than Israel and Palestine, I don’t know where it is.

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Prayer is a lot of things we don’t think of at first. If a picture of someone kneeling in church or at bedtime, comes to mind, put it away for a moment. If the thought of talking in religious jargon comes to mind, think again.

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Let’s admit it. Christianity, my faith tradition, has a mixed history on war. Though Jesus embodied a radical ethic of loving one’s enemy, and though early Christianity was almost wholly pacifist, Christians have also been crusaders and war-makers.

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Let’s admit it. Christianity, my faith tradition, has a mixed history on war. Though Jesus embodied a radical ethic of loving one’s enemy, and though early Christianity was almost wholly pacifist, Christians have also been crusaders and war-makers.

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Down here on the ground, where ordinary people try to practice and think about their faith, we know a little about atheists. We respect them. They are often us.

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You can’t answer this question in a vacuum. And, in spite of the marvels of the Internet as a forum for ideas, that’s what we have here. At the end of the day, the answer that matters is the answer of anyone who thinks the question is important enough to struggle over, to inquire into and think about deeply.

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It’s either wishful thinking or willful error to say America is “a Christian nation.” Worse, those who make that claim raise the suspicion that they trying to gain some public advantage for their faith.

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There ought to be an oath for parents and pastors like the oath doctors take, based on Hippocrates: “Make a habit of two things — to help, or at least to do no harm.” I’m a parent and pastor, and I should know.

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In pure theological terms, Christianity and Islam have a lot in common. We share sacred texts, a received revelation that God is One, and a passion (variously embodied) to share our faith with others.

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If you’re religious, Thanksgiving is religious. If you’re not. it’s not. And it ill behooves someone like me to tell non-believers what to celebrate.

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I had a young parishioner who had come to New York from her native Maylasia to work in a successful internet startup. She had a new MBA and internet smarts. She could use the degree at home, but she had to leave to capitalize on her internet talent. The reason: her native country was trying to hold on to the monopoly on truth.

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