Matthew L. Skinner

The system is rigged. It always has been. ... View Full article

Why We Can’t Wait is the familiar title of Martin Luther King Jr.’s book from 1964. The volume includes his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (written April 16, 1963)... View Full article

Stop me if you’ve heard this story before. It’s familiar to many. ... View Full article

Disagreements about whether and how a society should respect people’s “religious liberty” are nothing new. But, in case you hadn’t noticed, they seem to be growing louder. ... View Full article

National Geographic magazine recently named Mary, the mother of Jesus, “the most powerful woman in the world” as an appraisal of her ongoing influence and popularity. But do... View Full article

So far, eight men and women from the two major parties have formally declared their candidacy. Actually, eight is the number of candidates whose names you might know. There are... View Full article

Many people fear death. It’s an understandable fear. And one that’s socially acceptable. View Full article

At the same time, many find it harder to watch professional football now than ever before View Full article

What does the Christian life consist of? What does God expect from us? View Full article

It’s hard to follow through on our commitments. It’s hard to do what we know to be right. View Full article

Recently, a large wealthy church decided to break up with my denomination. I’m not 100% sure I know why. But the no-regrets explanation they wrote implied that... View Full article

At least, when we read the opening sentences of his Sermon on the Mount (found in Matthew 5:1-12), it seems his values are light years away from the confident and muscular ethos... View Full article

Do you want to see what God is like? It just got harder to do so on Wikipedia. ... View Full article

How do we encounter God? Some assume it comes from adhering to tried and true practices and traditions. But sometimes we experience God through opening ourselves to what or to... View Full article

Current events, like much about our lives, frequently leave us hopeless, fearful, and uncertain. Religious faith isn’t a matter of wishing away these experiences; it involves... View Full article

The story began, in Luke 4:16-21, with Jesus unveiling his mission statement: he says he intends to be God’s instrument for releasing people from oppression of all kinds --... View Full article

Sometimes, the worse the tragedy, the more abhorrent the theology it elicits. View Full article

Temptations to hold and wield power are usually tough to pass up. Power is alluring whether we imagine having it over others or on behalf of them, whether it’s power in society,... View Full article

If pondering Jesus’ crucifixion doesn’t make you uncomfortable, you probably aren’t doing it right. I’m not referring to the gore and humiliation, which makes crucifixion... View Full article

“Parents just don’t understand” might be an ever-present theme in popular music, but it’s hardly a modern phenomenon. View Full article

The Trayvon Martin story is tragic for many reasons. We see one of them in what his death has again brought to the surface: deeply rooted convictions that the system... View Full article

Maybe the most divisive religious statements are the ones that make claims about how and where God can be found. Disagreements among people of faith today remind us that... View Full article

Jesus was concerned about the very poor. ... View Full article

The season of Advent (four Sundays preceding Christmas) traditionally begins, not with backward-looking remembrances of circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth, but with eerie... View Full article