What? The birth of Jesus as told in the gospels is not the same story as the “Christmas story” in holiday celebrations? No, and this book explains why. They exist in two different worldviews. The gospels thrive in the creation worldview, but the Christmas story was born in empire’s worldview.

The Medieval church understood that pride is the granddaddy of all the other sins. How can this be?

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

  Question & Answer   Q: By Joyce “I’m curious where the idea came from that if a person commits suicide that person does not go to heaven. I don’t recall anything in the Bible saying that.” A: …

How can I be honest and share what I believe with the people I grew up with? Don’t think they will speak to me again. And some are my family members. How do I share my new beliefs when discussions come up?

An exercise in self-love.

The story should be approached more carefully in order to capture its spirit, its “message,” and less doctrinally. Though we have come to celebrate this gem as a—perhaps the–Christmas story, I’d urge us progressives to put aside the story’s Christian provenance while still admiring its central, its deeply humane affirmation. And we should above all appreciate the profoundly secular arena in which it plays out.

Today: the Feast of St. Nicholas, the ancient precursor to the modern Santa Claus, will pass without much ado. Some will try to encourage us to resurrect St. Nicholas to save us all from Santa’s powers for we have gone astray. To those well meaning souls who would rid Christmas of its flagrant consumerism, I can only offer up a feeble, “Baa Humbug!”

In support of progressive Christianity, it is important, in the church and in our Christian faith, that we present the Bible, God, and Jesus in ways that are believable.

It’s fair to say that two points of view concerning the life and death of Jesus developed early within Christianity. One was carried by the Christian West and is still prominent in the West today. The other was carried by the Christian East and may not be as well known to a lot of Western Christians.

I fully support regular church attendance but not to worship. I go to give thanks to my ancient ancestors who strove so hard against violence and kept humanity progressing. I’ve written a sample service for updating Christianity to today’s reality.

My friend, Aria Nostic (self-proclaimed agnostic, if not atheistic) asked me how I pray to God, if God is not a personal god. “We know there is no supernatural god in heaven intervening in nature and human affairs.”

Holidays have always been challenging as families from divergent views try to gather around one table and reconnect. Now, in our deeply polarized political environment in which most of us only expose ourselves to media that confirms our biases, even people with DNA and history in common find one another to be so profoundly “other” that they can barely tolerate one another.

Although I’m now trying to be a Christian, I would like to be able to do something to bring myself closer to our Lord, other than sitting still while trying to keep invasive thoughts from disturbing my prayer session.

During this precious Holiday Season for all religions and all people everything seems so much better when a candle is burning. It represents to me that God is Coming to help ascend into our higher nature, a nature that we all possess virtue of God creating us in his or her image.

The Christmas message therefore, is not for the Wall Street billionaires and department store owners. It’s not for powerful politicians or military leaders. Rather, Christmas is for the working poor, the disenfranchised, the homeless, and the teenage single mom who chose to keep her baby and is struggling to finish school so she can support her child.

How does one who values Jesus’s teachings and the ritual of the Eucharist continue attending church when one does not truly believe the Nicene Creed? I feel dishonest speaking those words.

I Pray Anyway. Devotions for the Ambivalent by Joyce Wilson-Sanford is comprised of 365 daily reflections and 12 monthly personal stories. It tells of the author’s return to a prayer/devotions practice as she shares her own very naked, very funny, very touching prayers and reflections.