Mindfulness is everywhere. From die-hard new atheists like Sam Harris to tech-gurus like Chade-Meng Tan, it is attracting a surprisingly diverse audience. Like yoga in recent decades, this derivation of a traditional …

Rev. Mark Whitlock, executive director of the Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement, was listed on The Orange County Register’s “Top 100 most influential of 2014” list. The story about Whitlock shared …

“When people ask me, ‘What good can come out of Skid Row?’ I tell them that the people of God come out of Skid Row!” Pastor Cue’s sermon hit a crescendo as …

(Image from Adam Baron on Flickr Commons) Back in March, I traveled to a two-day conference called “Rethinking Jewish Identity and Education” at the Mandel Center at Brandeis University. On the flight …

It’s in the proverbial DNA of faith communities to respond to human suffering. But most American congregations and major faith traditions have not yet developed a culture of disaster preparedness or an …

The Interfaith Observer wrote about the beginning of the Future 50, a collaboration between Interreligious Council of Southern California (IRC) and the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture. The initiative came …

As I watched nationwide protests flare after the grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson of Ferguson, MO, I couldn’t help thinking that despite the progress Americans think we’ve made …

Accounts of the Hong Kong campaign for political choice and universal suffrage that began in late September have emphasized the prominence of Christian activists in planning and leading that movement. Community organizer …

In 1989, just after college, I moved to Beijing to teach English to Chinese graduate students. I was in Tiananmen Square when the tanks rolled in and fled on my bike in …

This post originally appeared on Religion Dispatches. California mostly defied the rightward national trend in this week’s midterm elections. The victory of Proposition 47, for example, makes California the first state in the …

This post was a speech delivered to the Los Angeles City Council and a gathering of religious leaders whose communities are working with the City on disaster preparedness. Good morning, it is …

Samuel Chu has been a community organizer in Southern California for the past decade. On September 26, 2014 he left Los Angeles to join his father–a Southern Baptist minister, community activist and …

For many years in the United States, churches have been at the center of progressive political and social movements. From abolitionism to child welfare and of course the Civil Rights Movement, religious …

Nobody ever said religious innovation was easy—either as an undertaking in the context of a religious community or as the subject of a scholarly investigation. For one thing, creative and innovative activity …

Prompted by recent social unrest in Ferguson, MO, New York City and Southern California, the Rev. Dr. Cecil Murray, Tansey Chair of Christian Ethics at USC and Chairman of the Cecil Murray …

“Please come on Saturday morning, by 6:50am to get settled in for the 7-8:30am gathering.” So read the email from Kathryn, one of my research interlocutors, who helps coordinate a small group …

Photo by Eric Feferberg The aphorism “There are no atheists in foxholes” first arose to describe the pleas for salvation prayed by terrified soldiers facing impending death in the trenches of Europe …

Megachurches Adapted from the description provided by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. When researchers talk about “megachurches,” they are generally referring to any Protestant congregation with a sustained average weekly attendance …

I’m churched out. I’ve gone to more church services in the last two months than I have over the past 30 years. Now, I’m not exactly complaining about this development since these …

Cartoon by Matt Bors. Last week I met Gary Wexler, who teaches in the communications management program at USC’s Annenberg School. The two of us were having lunch with my CRCC colleagues …