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.
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.
In A Journey Called Hope, author Rick Rouse shares the stories of immigrants from around the world to America — their successes, hopes, challenges, and dreams. He explores how we can share our planet with the understanding that it is a matter of human dignity for all people to have a safe place to call home. In sharing these inspiring stories and hope-filled futures, Rouse assures us the United States is still a nation of promise made richer by its diversity.
Abundant Lives: A Progressive Christian Ethic of Flourishing invites sociologically informed engagement in human well-being based on Jesus’ command to love God, our neighbors, ourselves, and our enemies.
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.
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?
Another Permian-Triassic Extinction??
Only an Economic, Social, Political, Philosophical, and Religious Mind-Change Can Save Us. How could the most clever and brilliant primate ever to evolve on Planet Earth be bringing this extinction dilemma upon itself?
by Robert P. Jones
Native American racism, then goes even deeper to the historic Christian documents that have infected not only Christian teachings but also have been fundamental principles embedded in laws, policies, decisions, and cultures ever since to the present. His research and documentation are extensive, unnerving, and compelling reading.
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?
by Judith Lewis Herman, MD
Herman says every survivor she interviewed or worked with has wished above all for the following: Acknowledgment and vindication, apology and amends. Those 4 things are what justice looks like for the people directly affected.
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.
Whispering Ethics nudges us to the spiritual high ground in the hope we will do the right thing as we seek to listen to the music of God's goodness and love as they sing in our awareness and conscience.
by Sarah Augustine
ince the Doctrine of Discovery undergirded everything about colonialism, its consequences are ongoing.
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.
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.
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.
A Cosmic Celebration for Kids of All Ages
In this full-color, beautifully illustrated paperback book, Matthew Fox introduces ideas from "Creation Spirituality" to kids of all ages.
"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).
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
You get no racism, no sexism, no homophobia, no classism…no negative stuff at all from Progressive Christians. You get positive people doing positive things.
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.