The more I travel, the more I see how important it is to each population to see that their history of the good and the bad is remembered by others.

Christianity is at its best when it is peculiar, marginalized, suffering, and it is at its worst when it is popular, credible, triumphal, and powerful.

There is extreme poverty in Appalachia, where I was, and increasingly poverty is not just an urban thing.

Somehow Jesus's reputation has survived all the embarrassing things that Christians have done in his name.

To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians.

A lot of times people say whatever the government touches, they don't do that well, so why would we trust them with the power over life and death? Do we really believe the system is that perfect that it won't make any mistakes? You can't reverse these mistakes.

We can tell the world that there is life after death, but the world really seems to be wondering if there is life before death.