The parable good Samaritan helped his “neighbor.”
Jesus meant help everyone, especially those less fortunate than you.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the evangelical church saved me in every way a person can be saved. They introduced me to Jesus. They became the family my childhood family could not be. They loved and affirmed me. They educated me. They gave me a vocation. And they gave me exceptional opportunities of service. Although I left the evangelical church years ago for a more progressive expression of faith, I’ve always appreciated the gifts they gave me.

How should people honor Martin Luther King on this year’s observance of his holiday on January 17th? It depends.

As of this writing there is no clear assurance of the passage of two Voting Right Acts both stalled in that profoundly and structurally undemocratic institution, the U.S. Senate.

These Sundays are Seasons of Creation Sundays, so, each different aspect of creation is the focus of each Church Service.  This Humanity Sunday gives the church a golden opportunity to celebrate the mysterious wonder and the beauty of humanity.

Woven into the fabric of the disturbing news that continually bombards us are those moments of humanity, mostly unreported, that tell us who we really are.

With childlike wonder and anticipation, I too will be dreaming this holiday, less of a White Christmas than a multi-colored, trans-religious, trans-disciplinary, trans-“everything” world, one complete with an iconic (conic?) tree, party hat, and in a literary sense, megaphone.

A friend of mine, who grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation, told me that his people’s practice is to not speak the name of the dead for a year. Only after twelve months of their name remaining unsaid are the rituals for gathering loved ones and telling stories undertaken.

You can now access the teachings and vision from the unprecedented weekend retreat with Andrew Harvey and over twenty visionaries who are changing the world:

With an ecospiritual lens on biblical narratives and a fresh look at a community larger than our own species, Church of the Wild uncovers the wild roots of faith and helps us deepen our commitment to a suffering earth by falling in love with it–and calling it church.

KCIW radio host Lee Tuley interviews Robert O’Sullivan about the life and works of William Blake.

I used to think that the end of the world would come in a blaze of glory. I used to think that when the world ended there would be plenty of warning. I used to think that if you paid enough attention to what was going on around you, you would be able to tell when the world was going to end.

There is no inescapable reason why human beings need become divided and protective. There is another way, a way that is based on recognizing that the world we have created for ourself is limited in scope and accuracy. We must not hide in our cocoon and be threatened by all else.

In the shadow of COP26 we are meditating on the powerful role that Deep Ecumenism can and must play in the future of the planet.  To get the most out of individual humans and our diverse communities, we must include the spiritual dimension.  That is where the fire of excitement and passion, sacrifice and visions, is lit and stays lit.

The news and social media are full of the wonderful contributions of people of color, gays and trans.  Why do you think so many individuals still hold prejudiced views about people who are different from them? 

“We all strive for purpose and understanding, to hear and to be heard, to see and to be seen, to leave this world a better place than we found it.”  – Jon Linton

With all the news today of doom and gloom for our world, do you think religion can save humanity?

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Thousands of children died there of disease and other causes, with many never returned to their families.

Many of us wrestle with fear, despair, insecurity, and loneliness in this time of sustained global crisis. I worry for the future of the human family and life itself. But these times are also an invitation.