The RBC’s meeting wasn’t, apparently, about the conversations that could be had at the TCC. To avoid any unexpected conversations, in fact, the bank blocked access to the meeting to any but shareholders, a practice that, I’ve been told, is relatively new.
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.
So, how did Christianity become so mean? Although many factors contribute to mean Christianity, the primary culprit is that large numbers of American Christians, both Republicans and Democrats, care more about partisan politics and culture wars than they care about following the example and teachings of Jesus.
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.
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the Combahee River Collective was founded in Boston by several lesbian and feminist women of African descent. As a sisterhood, they understood that their acts of protest were shouldered by and because of their ancestors—known and unknown—who came before them.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
"We transgenders here feel a bit more human because the fact that Pope Francis brings us closer to the Church is a beautiful thing," Carla Segovia, 46, a sex worker, told Reuters. "Because we need some love."
At the heart of the Christian tradition, we say there is “faith (πίστις, ‘pistis’ Gr. - trust), hope (ἐλπίς, Gr. elpis = meaning expectation, in a positive sense), and love ( ἀγάπη Gr. ‘agapé’ ‘love’ or φιλανθρωπία Gr. ‘caritas’ = charity).
So why do we persist in comparing ourselves to others? And suffering the frustration that results?
You have to live with hope for the possibilities of the future
Let's assume that a chance for peace still exists on the other side of the current Israeli/ Hamas war. By no means a sure thing, but we have to hope.
It has been so hard to watch the events unfolding in Gaza and not fall into the ease of a hardline
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.
The bodhisattva has one pair of hands at rest. One pair of hands is praying. 500 pairs of hands are acting in
The non-religious are by far the fastest-growing religious demographic in America. So how shall we who are progressive Christians talk about our faith with them, when the appropriate occasions arise?
Money, wealth, financial power, economic power, call it what you will, extreme wealth disparity destroys societies from within, eating away at the bond between people and the fabric of society.
The Easter experience is about the birth of a new consciousness. It is a consciousness that burst upon the followers of Jesus
Poetry for International Women's Day
As International Women’s Day rolled around, that simmering sense of anger came to the surface. It flowed out, however, not in the murky waters of a pity pool, but in a torrent of stories of women all around the world and the challenges they face on a regular, often daily, basis. I set my own concerns aside and wrote for them, my own difficulties of little consequence in the face of what it is other women do every single day. In the light of their strength, our own can be renewed.
I am writing this because I have an uncommon employment history that has provided me with a very unique skill-set and perspective when it comes to making difficult and challenging hospital, hospice or nursing facility visits.
It is stories like this one that reminds me that a living Jesus — Jesus the optimistic contrarian — still walks among us in many guises; to tell and retell those human tales of how to truly live, with hope for this world.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, this year, at least 32 transgender Black and LatinX sisters have been fatally shot or killed.
One must always act with a sense of humility and respect for the views of others which may be different. Our hope is that, over time, in the words of Martin Luther King “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” If Dr. King is correct, the sensations of love and goodness from God will win out in the long run.
Following one person or one belief system and closing out all others is easy for humans to do.