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.
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.
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.
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.
(Moving from “Ought” to “How To”)
So what about loving our enemies? What do we normally feel, what do others who have modeled destructive behavior and attitudes expect us to feel and what can we possibly feel? Why should we choose not to feel what virtually everyone expects us to feel?
Who could have imagined only a few years ago that there would be controversy in the United States of America about the importance of democracy?
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.
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.
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.
The polarization we see in society is also reflected in the Church.
on AI, religion, and
What I am saying is that if we are not looking at the whole reality of being human, the good the bad and the embarrassing, then we simply will not have the wisdom to know how to make use of, them in, or regulate AI.
It is now possible to answer the question of why Christians should engage in politics. The answer is simple: God is calling on them to do so with the whisper thoughts that float through their awareness
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.
There are a few words I have had “allergies” to over the years. Words like discipline, obedience, and accountability. Some have a more intense allergic reaction than others, such as difficulty breathing, maybe getting itchy or nauseous. Of course I jest, yet they are words that have produced some measure of tension in my body because of previous life experiences.
If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. + Matthew 18:15-16
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.
The rise of Christian nationalism is a worldwide problem. In the United States, it begins with the idea that God chose America, that we as a nation are especially blessed.
Today, the NAACP has an LGBTQIA Committee Chairperson, Demar Roberts from S. C., who works to protect and advance the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
The context for this article is the proposed new curriculum for the instruction of students on African American history. Outrage over the proposal is mounting every day.
New discoveries leading to new products are coming at a rapid rate of speed. This new approach to processing and integrating data is becoming interwoven into all aspects of life.
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.
Global warming is the latest proof that we have crossed a boundary into a truly apocalyptic age, for we now live in a period when anthropogenic change is overpowering nature and life itself.
By Frank Bergon
FIRST IN 2008 and again in 2022, Supreme Court justices assured us that their close textual reading of the Second Amendment revealed its original meaning: Americans have nearly an unlimited right to carry any kind of gun anywhere they please. The Second Amendment has been debated endlessly.
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.
It’s no secret that the United Methodist Church is fracturing, primarily over LGBTQ issues. Thousands of UMC churches have already disaffiliated from the denomination.