Jason Lief

Sitting at St. Paul Catholic Church in Marty, South Dakota, we (fifty young people and their youth leaders) listened as Sr. Miriam spoke about her time living among the Yankton Sioux. "Yankton" and "Sioux" aren't the names they prefer; they…

For two weeks at the end of May six students and I walked the path of St. Francis from Assisi to Rome. Our guide, Alessandro, was honest: "We don't know exactly which route Francis took, so in the spirit of…

For the next two and a half weeks I’m taking six students on a Franciscan pilgrimage. We’ll be immersed in all things St. Francis, spending multiple days in Assisi, followed by a long walk to Rome where Francis petitioned the…

Yesterday, the Washington Post had a story revealing the young man who opened fire at a synagogue in California is a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian church. This denomination and mine (the Christian Reformed Church) are part of the Calvinist tradition.…

Prior to 1965, there were no limits on immigration from Western countries. There were plenty of quotas placed on other groups, primarily for racist reasons, but not for neighbors to the South or North. In 1965 that changed. The 1986…

Those who believe that Christianity is being co-opted by a leftist ideology tend to throw around the term “social gospel”. To bring the gospel into conversation with social problems like racism or poverty, in their mind, is a distortion of…

More than once over the last few weeks I’ve been asked if I “believe the bible”. What they mean, I think, is whether I believe the bible is the true word of God. Of course my answer is yes, but…

My spiritual formation students are reading The Thirst of God: Contemplating God's love with Three Women Mystics by Wendy Farley. The book explores the life and faith of Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and Julian of Norwich. Our conversation as…