It is way past time for the Church to let go of its own collective ego and get real with life and faith and the big issues of our time.

The Christian Church has blessed and become entangled in too many marginal issues. It has become the marketing agent for Hallmark cards, the blesser of wars and military actions, the cheerleader for patriotism and the endorser of all kinds of social policies.

Conventional wisdom suggests otherwise, saying that science is more likely to kill religion than rescue it, but I'm convinced that science is the last best hope for religion in the modern world.

Complementarian megachurch pastors are like pitchers who only throw 40-mile-an-hour change-ups. It feels cheap and dirty to swing at their pitches, but I'm genuinely bothered by what I've been hearing lately from that strange foreign land where Christians believe that wives are supposed to submit to their husbands.

Christianity is being reshaped through an intense global interest in spiritual experience and personal faith. As old structures of religious life erode, new patterns of faith are forming.

We must find a "third way" between upholding religion as the solution to all of society's ills and dismissing it as unfit for the public square. Seeking that balance is the principle agenda of the upcoming third annual Kiev Interfaith Forum.