Red Letter Christians

One Nation Under God: Christian Nationalism in the United States

RLC Editor — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 10:00:38 +0000

In many ways I’m grateful I’m an American. There are many opportunities, freedoms, and comforts that are afforded to me because I am. Though I have a sense of gratitude for the country of which I am a citizen, I must also speak to the fact that it is not all good. Many American Christians believe that America is God’s nation. As scholar Lanta Davis puts it, this belief transforms Jesus Christ…

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Catholic, evangelical leaders condemn public execution plan of Fort Hood gunman

RLC Editor — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 22:22:48 +0000

Editor’s Note: Previously published on Religion News Service on October 9, 2026. Soldiers hold a candlelight vigil at Fort Hood, Texas, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009, after a mass shooting event that killed 13 people at Fort Hood. (AP Photo/LM Otero) (RNS) — Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is joining evangelical faith leaders and…

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“BLACK TO THE FUTURE: From Ancestral Intelligence to Abundant Imagination”, excerpted from “The Pink Robe Chronicles: Womanist Wisdom for Healing, Liberation, and Love”

RLC Editor — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:30:56 +0000

To live “Black to the Future” is to honor those who saw from a distance and still moved. Hebrews 11 opens with a declaration, not a suggestion: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We often hear that and think of faith as blind belief. As trust without proof. My womanist Afrofuturist and African-centered interpretive lenses see something more radical.

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The death penalty is a cruel, gruesome, failed experiment. The people keeping it alive are Christians

RLC Editor — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 10:00:54 +0000

Editor’s Note: An edited version of this article was previously published on October 1, 2026, on Premier Christianity and is reshared here with permission. As I started this article, the original news story was that the state of Tennessee is poised to execute the first female inmate in over 200 years, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. But last night, she survived her execution.

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“How to Fight like Jesus”, adapted from “Every Table an Altar”

RLC Editor — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 10:00:23 +0000

Roughly five hundred years ago, Protestants and Catholics were at each other’s throats. Protestants were trying not to get distracted by fighting among themselves so they’d have more energy to fight against the Catholics. In October 1529, there was a famous meeting between Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli, both Protestants, who got into an argument over the meaning of the word is.

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Plowshares: A Word Addressed to the Present

RLC Editor — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 10:00:03 +0000

A plowshare is not an abstraction. It is a particular piece of iron, shaped for a particular task, used by a particular person in a particular field. It is heavy. It gets dull and must be sharpened. It turns the ground in a certain way, and the farmer knows the feel of it as he knows the handle of his own front door. The prophet’s hearers knew this. They lived close to the ground…

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Forging Peace and Disarming Hearts

RLC Editor — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 10:00:39 +0000

Editor’s Note: Previously published in Friends Journal (friendsjournal.org) on September 1, 2026. Reprinted here with permission. Sparks fly as a gun is cut at the June 2024 Asheville event. Photos by Marc Mullinax. Teresa kept pounding away over the face of the anvil on the gun metal as it drifted from bright orange to a dull red. Then the piece went back into the…

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We Must Sing Our Laments Together

RLC Editor — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 10:00:04 +0000

We live in this world, but we don’t act like its people or fight our battles with the weapons of this world. Instead, we use God’s power that can destroy fortresses. (2 Corinthians 10:3–4, Contemporary English Version [CEV]) Standing by for years in expectant waiting for the Inner Light to again clearly speak about conscientious objection to war had been a frustrating activity. I knew my beliefs…

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Faithfully Dissident

RLC Editor — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:00:33 +0000

In the fall of 2014, I sat in the lobby of my White evangelical megachurch and handwrote the opening words of the Nicene Creed into my journal. Five minutes earlier the band started up in my weekly moms group and I fled the room. I didn’t understand why, but I couldn’t sing the words “I believe in God the Father.” So, I wrote them down instead and asked myself what was happening to me…

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What Two Ancient Rulers Can Teach Us About Power and Conscience

RLC Editor — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 08:30:22 +0000

As the leaders of the United States and China prepare to meet, two rulers from the ancient world offer a different vision of what it means to wield great power. The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius believed that the character of a ruler mattered profoundly. A government could have armies, laws and wealth, but ultimately, Confucius taught, leadership began with the virtues of the person who…

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