The Treasures of Darkness
Great Spirit, Source of Love and Life,
Help us bring an end to strife;
Fill all our hearts with peace and grace,
May we enhance the human race.
Quotations of Jim Burklo
Christianity follows the humble faith of an empty man. So how did we Christians become so full of ourselves? It’s time to empty ourselves of the belief that our religion is better than others.
read moreAnnouncement of the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury
The Queen has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Justin Welby for election as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. He will succeed Dr Rowan Williams who is retiring at the end of December after ten years …
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Joerg Rieger on Empire and Christianity
Indeed the Jesus Movement began as a resistance movement to the empire. While Christianity began as a counterpoint and an alternative to Empire, with Constantine it became wedded to the empire and shaped by empire with the purpose of unifying the realm.
read moreWhat’s next for religious conservatives?
The other tack that emerged, however, was to concede that Christian conservatives may need to change the tone if not the substance of their message in order to appeal to voters who are increasingly non-male, non-white and …
read moreMormonism Cost Romney the Election (But It’s Not What You Think)
Mitt Romney didn’t lose the election because he’s a Mormon, he lost because he isn’t Mormon enough. All political candidates must prove that they’re just like us, yet this requires some demystification: you cannot just tell us …
read moreHurricane Sandy Spawns Right-Wing Theodicy
As Hurricane Sandy heads ashore on the east coast of the U.S., far right-wing religious zealots are already calling it a sign from God for everything from U.S. policy on Israel to, of course, the gays. The …
read moreUniversity withdraws theologian’s invitation after pressure from financial contributors
The University of San Diego has canceled a visiting fellowship for a British theologian less than two weeks before her scheduled arrival at the university because of pressure from financial contributors, according to a letter from the …
read moreLiberal Mormons: A minority within a minority
ST. GEORGE, Utah (RNS) U.S. Mormons overwhelmingly share the party affiliation of Republican presidential nominee and fellow Mormon Mitt Romney, but there are liberal-leaning members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are finding …
read moreA Grim Warning from Science
One of the things that makes Sandy different from Katrina is that it’s a relatively clean story. The lessons of Katrina were numerous and painful—they had to do with race, with class, with the willful incompetence of …
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Outrageous Conception
Richard Mourdock crashed his dogma into the wall of logic. He totaled his belief system with one elegantly absurd utterance. Now would be a good time for him to get a new religion, and a new political philosophy to go with it.
read moreJesus Through Pagan Eyes Press Release
PRESS RELEASE As we approach Christmas and the celebration of the birth of the most famous man ever to live, perhaps it’s time for a new spin on a very old story. Perhaps it’s time to look …
read more“This is the most important election of all time!” (again)
You’ve probably heard by now that if Obama wins a second term we will become a socialist nation, gun ownership will be made illegal, our country will be unrecognizable by the end of his term, and on …
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Is a Bad God Better than No God at All?
The issue of the gods we believe in made headlines this week when Richard Mourdock, a Tea Party Republican candidate for US Senate in Indiana, stated that pregnancies stemming from rape, however horrible, are “something God intended to happen.”[1] While Mourdock has sought to soften the impact of his statement, I believe that his words reflected his – and many other Christians – understand of God’s presence in the world.
read moreFrontline: In-Depth Investigation into the Climate Denial Industry
Frontline goes inside the groups who shifted the direction of the climate change debate
Watch Climate of Doubt on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE. This story was originally posted on PBS Frontline.
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The Apostles’ Creed & the Lord’s Prayer As I Hear Them
As an Episcopalian I regularly recite the Apostles’ Creed and pray the Lord’s Prayer. In doing so, I stand with Jesus’ early followers as they struggled to find words that could frame how their lives were being renewed beyond comprehension. My life also is being renewed beyond comprehension, or so I’m convinced, as I try to live out the self-giving embodied in the common life Jesus began. But I live in a vastly different time and place from those of Jesus’ early followers. My everyday assumptions about the world and how it works are vastly different, not final truths, mind you, but still different, and just as inescapable as people’s everyday assumptions back then.
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All Saints Day: A Progressive Call to Remember
Stories of generosity and justice, about prophetic preaching and speaking truth to power.
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From Pisces to Aquarius: The New Paradigm
Before the 2012 SnowStar Conference fades into the background I would like to push forward some of Roy Hoover’s comments regarding the changing paradigm. As I recall – apologies for any inaccuracies – he spoke of the need for integrating the insights of Galileo and Darwin in order to make the paradigm shift from the age of superstition to the age of reason. History as a search for what actually happened and science now form the road to truth.
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