Questioning Capital Punishment with Sr. Helen Prejean is a five session DVD study featuring one of the world’s leading authorities and outspoken critics of state-sponsored execution.

As long as everyday Christians avoid the marketplace of ideas, extremist Christians will seem the prevailing voice of Christianity and/or the church. As Bishop Spong has said, religion is like a public pool: all the noise comes from the shallow end.

The one thing I never imagined was that fascism could come to the United States. Unfortunately, the myth of American exceptionalism has been totally discredited. Fascism came close to coming to our shores during the last four years. Let’s hope that we as a society can take the steps necessary to see that such a threat never happens again.

America is horrified and embarrassed but not many of us are shocked. The failed insurrection that took place on Wednesday, January 6th, was planned, orchestrated, inspired, and incited by our president who recently lost re-election and who has been desperate to hold onto power even if he had to destroy democracy to do so.

Even as young people eschew religion, some are forming unexpected bonds with sisters of faith through a shared commitment to social justice.

I was really inspired by Rep. Alexia Ocasio-Cortez’s response to the insults of Rep. Ted Yoho, but I was equally disappointed by Yoho’s pseudo-apology. What makes a good apology?

A womanist church has great power to transform church and society, primarily because womanist theology centers the experiences of Black women while working for the survival and wholeness of all people and all creation.

In “Christmas: Myth, Magic and Legend”, John Queripel digs in and behind the stories to find their essential truth while disregarding the literalisms which get in the way of most people’s search. Deep and profound truths behind the stories come to life and a whole new and more transformative meaning begins to reveal itself.

And will those feet in modern time,
Walk upon earth’s fair mountains green?

Julian of Norwich lived through the dreadful bubonic plague that killed close to 50% of Europeans. Being an anchoress, she ‘sheltered in place’ and developed a deep wisdom that she shared in her book, Showings, which was the first book in English by a woman. A theologian way ahead of her time, Julian develops a feminist understanding of God as mother at the heart of nature’s goodness. Fox shares her teachings in this powerful and timely and inspiring book.

Joy Lau’s “Get Out The Vote” music video in collaboration with John Del Cueto, the gospel choir director at Middle Collegiate Church in NYC, using his original music “Hatred We’re Gonna Tear Your Kingdom Down” (adapted from the spiritual “Satan We’re Gonna Tear Your Kingdom Down”) with her animation.

Jesus asked a lot of questions. Ask questions like, was Jesus a Christian?  If you read through the Bible thoroughly and the Gospels a few times, what do you notice really mattered to Jesus? How did he live his life? What was his view of money? His relationship to power and privilege?

Be part of the change our country needs by voting to protect the rights of all.

I used to think that the addition of ‘another member of the church’ was a cop-out, and that we really should forgive everyone without counting. Yet in another place Jesus specifically tells his disciples to kick the dirt off their feet as protest to those who will not accept them. This doesn’t sound like forgiveness.

Was he contradicting himself? Some would say ‘yes.’ I have even done so myself. But my own cultural circumstances in 2020 have made me revisit this and come out with a different conclusion.

It can help us as we go through a crisis if we have someone who shares our journey and walks with us. It is valuable to have others who radiate hope so that we feel hope. It will be of great benefit to us if we feel the empathy of others; and know of their willingness to listen and to try and understand.

In our society, where automation and technology threaten to put more and more of us at the end of the line, it might prove helpful to turn to Jesus’ parable in our striving to determine anew the meaning of labor and reward.

170 Danish scholars from 5 universities came together to consider how the world needs to change post covid-19. They make five crucial suggestions:

By identifying ourselves and our churches explicitly as “progressive”, we have lifted our perspective on the faith to a much higher level of public awareness.  Our efforts have legitimized our understanding of Christianity, making it much more accessible to the growing number of Christians who yearn for an alternative way to understand and walk the way of Jesus.