I. Be completely humble and gentle, be patient forgiving one another in love
Will American politicians stand up to Putin? Will they learn anything from the sacrifice of Navalny?
I pray, and look to scripture, and consider our role as people on an ever-changing planet as residents in and stewards of creation.
Jesus’ “Revolutionary” Teachings
In the context of the Christian faith tradition — is the “good news” that one might assert to be at the heart of the gospel message just too idealistic for what we might be able to instead empirically see happening all around us on a daily basis?
Our perceptions of gender are changing. The role of gender in our society is changing. The relationship between gender and sexuality is changing. It’s a paradigm shift that has crested and simply will not be rolled back.
The church of the future must change to help its members develop further along their own spiritual journeys. Seminarians should spend less time studying the Bible, Church history, and Christian theology. Instead, the focus of their training should stress positive child-rearing strategies, meditation in its many forms, and psychological therapy.
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.
Patriarchy probably started about 12,000 years ago. If you google the word, there’s a good chance that you will be more confused than before you started.
When they sang together, you could hear the harmony that should define this country’s relationships across race.
A five-part fictional story
A five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Reverend Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ.
Saint Paul is often regarded as a particularly troublesome writer for those who try to reconcile animal liberation and Christianity.
If one searches the origin and history of Valentine’s Day, one finds clouds and legends mixed with a bit of history.
A five-part fictional story
A five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Reverend Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ.
One of the most challenging things in life is to stay engaged in a conversation when there are clearly very different ideologies at play.
Lent is not about giving up chocolate. It’s about uncovering the blindness in our perception and being open to what others have to share with us.
Vigils are being held regionally and all over the world to protest the horrific war in Israel. Pro-Israeli and Pro-Palestinian advocates are demanding their people’s plights be heard.
Fierce love pursues peace through nonviolence
If we want peace, it has to start with us. We must uproot violence from our language, in the ways we relate to one another.
The cross, the symbol of the Christian faith, has been the subject of much theological discussion through the ages.
We recently celebrated the life, faith and non-violence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The moment triggers within us a host of emotions-thankfulness for heroes such as he, distress about the state of our country, anxiety about the future, and fear for the present.
As I’m writing this commentary, the news is filled with chatter about another anniversary observance of January sixth. It’s not about the liturgical religious observance known as the Epiphany, of course; but the third-year anniversary of those days surrounding the political insurrection in our nation’s Capital.
Spirituality is all about seeing, inclusivity, and reconciling apparent opposites via the "narrow way." The strait gate/kingdom that the spiritual Janus (Jesus) holds the keys to.
There’s no such thing as a nobody. That’s the message of Mary. Until her immaculate conception, until she howled out the Magnificat, she had become accustomed to being treated as a nobody.
After sharing his story, Jason asked me his provocative question, “So, do you think I am still a Christian?” I wasn’t sure how to respond. I mulled it over for a long time. I finally said, “I guess it depends on how you define Christian.
The Second Coming of Christ is an erroneous idea that developed among Christians in the last third of the first century AD. It weakened the assurance that the first Christians had that the kingdom of God had come.
To what extent do churches accommodate the values of their worshippers and merely give them a sense of comfort, and to what extent do churches set high standards and encourage Christian growth and social commitment?
Neil deGrasse Tyson is reported to have said that “the universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” No doubt true, but how about the inverse: are we under any obligation to make sense out of the universe?
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.
The Bible is a very human book with differing positions on who Jesus was and what he said. The result is you can find a passage in the Bible to support any political position you choose to take.
O come, O come Wisdom from on high – Send your wisdom and cast aside the myopic stupidity that comes from thinking only of ourselves, only of our own species, only of our own wellbeing, only of our own country, only of our own religion, only of our own historical moment.