Robin Myers Interview – Do You Believe in God?

Robin R. Meyers is an American Christian minister, peace activist, philosophy professor and author of seven books on Progressive Christianity and Western society.

As progressive Christianity has absorbed the Emergent label it has inherited a tension between those two macro factions. Mainly, those who still see Jesus as ontologically unique in comparison to every other human ever to live — and those who don’t.

Why do we keep telling ourselves that we can’t do things?

I keep hearing it over and over again: We can’t have . . . Universal health care. Public education that includes college. Higher minimum wage. Sustainable energy. Humane immigration reform. Safe harboring of refugees.

We can’t. We can’t. We can’t.

What good is “God?” We know well how much violence is committed in the name of “God.” If we were to delete both our traditional Western word and notion of “god” from both our speech and thinking, what are the implications for such things we ourselves know and experience to be true in our own human experience? I’m talking about conceiving of such things as love, compassion, mercy, grace, reconciliation, forgiveness, even absolution, redemption, and salvation. Part one in this series considers a scripture text considered sacred, but noticeably absent is the presence of any deity.

Traditionally, religions offer a God who is omnipotent, all-powerful, almighty, the cosmic sovereign in control of everything.   He/she/it is also said to be all-knowing, omniscient, so he knows not only what he is doing but what everybody and everything else is going to do, and will do, from beginning to end.  This is brave belief of what God is. But is this the sort of God we observe today?

How can a fourth-century theology be relevant today? Is the Bible meant to be taken literally? Can Jesus be stripped of some of his titles? These are just a few of the questions that the author, a Progressive Christian Episcopal clergy person, answers in this provocative book.

As Trump Administration Escalates Attacks on LGBT Rights, Lambda Legal Announces New DC Office, Ambitious Campaign to Thwart Attempts to Unravel Nearly Two Decades of Progress. Lambda Legal Previews Bold Plans and Vision for $100 Million Campaign at Annual DC Event, Featuring Sens.Cory Booker and Chris Coons.

In this political climate hate speech is becoming common use. And there has been an uptick of the use of the n-word, even from the mouths of people one would not expect.

Loyola University Chicago and the International Jesuit Ecology Project (IJEP) have launched Healing Earth, a free digital environmental science textbook. The textbook is intended for fourth-year secondary school students, first-year university students, adult learners, and independent learners worldwide. Unlike any other environmental science textbook, Healing Earth presents an integrated, global, and living approach to the ecological challenges we face on our extraordinary planet.

Islamist attacks on Western democracies pose a deep philosophical and moral problem to anyone sympathising with a progressive, humanist vision of society. The Islamic fundamentalists are targeting the very heart of our democracies and, more importantly, our entire way of life. They are trying to drive a wedge between the Islamic community, which they are supposed to be part of, and the rest of us. We, as a democracy, must not fall into the trap they have set. If we do succumb to their provocations, our entire society will change forever, if it survives at all. It is ironic that the civilisation that brought Greek philosophy and Islamic science to Europe, at the end of the Middle Ages, should now be so determined to bring down the very societies that it helped to create. Whether they succeed or not will depend on our response to their provocations.

The world is in disarray. The changing climate sets a course towards catastrophe for the future of our children. Social inequality is growing. Populists and notorious liars are closing in on democracy’and racism creeps forward from all corners.

Stan Walker – New Takeover

Trump’s desire to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord is an isolationist move at a time when our global environmental connection is increasingly obvious. Still, the Paris agreement was too little in the face of the enormity of the challenge that lies ahead of us. People of conscience must continue to work for a much more aggressive response to the necessary transition to renewable energy sources and sustainable living.

While we all rev up each June for pride so, too, do the fault lines of race and class in our larger white LGBTQ community.

With advances such as hate crime laws, legalization of same-sex marriage across the country, and with homophobia viewed as a national concern, the LGBTQ movement has come a long way since the first pride march in 1969. Many laud the distance the LGBTQ community has traveled in such a short time as a disenfranchised group on the fringe of America’s mainstream to a community now embraced.

OK, you say, but this is all changing now, right? The Trump phenomenon is bringing us together in a united front for the freedom and dignity of all persons, right?

I wish I could believe it.

We will see how it goes. I will certainly be marching in Los Angeles on June 11. But somehow I can’t envision West Hollywood’s powerful gay white men doing a whole lot of sustained resisting when their unacknowledged core values—white supremacy and the rule of wealth—align so comfortably with those of the Trumpians.

Deeper Love is a short, practical guide to the use of religious and spiritual language in progressive social activism. It began as a web resource at PCU-LA.org, offering faith-rooted language for progressive political and social action. It provides activists, lay and clergy people, politicians, campaigners, and organizers with inspiring rhetoric to advance progressive social change, and insight about how to use it. PCU board member, Rev. Jim Burklo, organized the project, with inspiration from our former executive director, Rev. Peter Laarman, and much editorial help from our current executive director, Rev. Dr. Timothy Murphy, and our former associate director, Sean Patrick Coady. Its premise: We can and we must craft a fresh political rhetoric that flows from our shared spiritual experience of compassion, giving life and purpose to our democracy.

We seek communion in a time of dread
Yearn for a table that for all is spread
Our broken hearts are blind to creed and caste
But burn for love to reconcile at last

An interview with Blake Osborne – Do you identify yourself as Christian? What words do you use to describe your faith?