In the academic comfort of a library study alcove, I look out over the central green at Dartmouth College, where one week ago storm, troopers in full riot gear armed with batons moved across this space in the eerie hours of post-dusk darkness, forcefully breaking up a small, peaceful gathering of students and faculty supporters and tearing down a six tent encampment prohibited by college rules.
Part Three
Friends of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Brookings, Oregon Update: Good and Bad News in Two-pronged City Attack on Oregon Church’s Ministries to Poor
Christian nationalism that had led to the first world war, was now leading to the second. Almost all of the 60 million Germans in 1933 were Christians. The country was suffering in the aftermath of WWI, and it was ready for a new “Leader” who would restore the economy and national pride.
Part Two
Friends of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Brookings, Oregon Update: Good and Bad News in Two-pronged City Attack on Oregon Church’s Ministries to Poor
The fact is that civil-minded folk outnumber the forces on the other side. There are just more of us than there are of them. The problem is that we have not recognized the current existential threat. We slide along the path we are on, pretending as though next year will be the same as this year. It will not.
No matter what happens this election year in the United States, there is going to be further polarization, hateful rhetoric, and very likely, violence.
Whether you identify as a Christian, a follower of Jesus, or something else, one thing is overwhelmingly clear. The world desperately needs positive examples of authentic Christian living.
Decades ago, I wrote a blessing prayer for this season that began with a reference to nothing but a flicker of hope in “the fading glory of these autumn days, when night creeps early on to darkness; and leaves us, bound in shadows, longing for the light.” And yet, it remains that flicker of hope that I want to write about.
In the wake of the historical shifts surrounding Roe vs. Wade, the question of what the Bible communicates about abortion has become a prominent question that is often directed toward scholars and Biblical professors.
As the persona of Donald Trump continues to dominate our public lives, increasingly, we have become aware of the cult of personality that has risen up in his shadow. To be sure, it has evolved over time, but its existence as a cult cannot be denied.
So it was a great irony that some of the most homeful people in Palo Alto were the houseless. And some of the most homeless people in Silicon Valley were the housed.
Tim Scott is running for president. It's an impressive feat as the only African American Republican in today's U.S. Senate and the first Southern Black senator since Reconstruction.
Meeting the Moment for Progressive Christianity
There’s a lot of criticism about Big Pharma, Big Government, and Big Business. And there’s been plenty of talk for decades about the dangers of the military-industrial complex. What about Big Fundy? We should name it for what it is: the fundamentalist-industrial complex.
Part One
“Father Bernie” Lindley of Brookings, OR is the Episcopal priest of a parish facing harassment by a scofflaw city government attempting to fine it up to $720-a-day unless it stops certain ministries.
Toward an Ethics of Consequences
As a nation, we must move toward a place where the ethics of consequences weigh more heavily in our mind, heart, and spirit. In an ethics of consequences, the rightness and wrongness of our choices matter. Morality matters.
Love is, of course, an answer. And while most people of faith can agree on the command to love our neighbors, we need to face the reality of this moment. What is happening among us — the transnational struggles with democracy and attacks on human rights — is far more than a failure to love our neighbors.
We are considering how Courage, like Joy, is one of the signs of holiness in our time. In yesterday’s meditation, Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us that we “must love something more than the fear of death” if we are to live.
Understanding the distinctive nature of man and woman as consciousness is quite important in defining the uniqueness of human life beyond our biology or psychology. This distinction becomes paramount when faced with critical moral issues, such as abortion, capital punishment, and euthanasia.
When I look at the writers who examine the relation between religion and politics, most take their cues from the Bible. There are two problems with this approach.
Whisper ethics comes from process theology, the work of Alfred North Whitehead and several prominent Christian theologians.
Today there are Bethlehems all over the world as families are forced to leave home environments, travel to places unprepared for them, and find a way to survive on their own.
Sixty-one percent of Republicans and 17% of Democrats think the US should declare itself a Christian nation, according to a recent U Maryland survey. This, despite many recognizing that it would violate the Constitution.
I have lived long enough to see some patterns that I fear are being repeated. I came of age in a time when my generation wanted to turn the world upside down – and for good reason.
The Supreme Court has become a clear and present danger to us as well as certain provisions of the Constitution. We must mitigate them all now.
Join Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines for the highlights from his Sunday service on Reproductive Rights on June 26th, 2022!
So, if thoughts and prayers (of petition or intercession) cannot produce any salvific change when uttered to an imagined divine – who for anyone with eyes to see, or ears to hear is too deaf, indifferent or impotent to intercede — then with whom can we bargain, or utter any plea for help?
On June 12 was Boston Pop-Up Pride, to the surprise and joy of the throngs of revelers who gathered on Boston Common. When Boston Pride was dismantled last July, a coalition of LGBTQ+ community activists and groups stepped up and got busy.
I am a former gun owner who has come to realize how badly the United States needs to substantially restrict gun ownership in public spaces.
The Apostle's Creed was brought in with the Roman bible. But not too many people became believers. The Emperor Wu Zong of Tang Dynasty in 845 AD preferred Buddhism and made all other religions as forbidden.
As passengers and voting crew members on the American ship of state, we must recognize that we are sailing among icebergs more dangerous than those encountered by the Titanic. We must wake up, recognize the extent of the danger, get our values straight, and do our part when it comes time to vote.