Date: February 7, 2020
A Parable: The Pastor Who Can Do Anything He Wants
I’m called by God to the ministry, I’m called by the people to this pulpit, and I can do anything I want. Called by God. And successful. Believe me, I’m […]
Category: Blog Posts
Date: February 4, 2020
If You Don’t Like What You’re Harvesting, Pay Attention to the Soil
Culture is like soil. Life on the entire planet depends on healthy soil to create and sustain the necessary matrix for life. Similarly, good life in any human community requires […]
Date: January 28, 2020
We Need More Kitchen Table Conversations about Politics and Religion
I have previously written on why moderate and progressive religious communities need to talk more about politics. Here, I want to expand on the topic with which I opened that […]
Date: January 21, 2020
Why Oklahoma’s “Year of the Bible” Bill is Both Inappropriate and Wrong
It is good to know from whence your food and your legislation come. I’ve written previously about Project Blitz, which is now known as “Freedom for All.” Project Blitz/Freedom for […]
Date: January 15, 2020
Christmas Is Over, Herod (Thinks He) Won
+ Editor’s Note: The following is a fictional narrative, relating Matthew chapter 2 from Herod’s point of view. Did those Persian astrologer no-good liars think they got away with something? […]
Date: January 8, 2020
Lessons from the Christianity Today Dust-Up
The current danger, for religious people, is that we baptize political and partisan stances with “God’s” holy waters. However, those stances are not thereby cleansed; to the contrary, holy waters used for partisan purposes lose their sacramental power, and God becomes god or simply irrelevant.
If individuals and community of faith cannot do, say, or imagine differently from the options represented by today’s political positions, then we are dangerous if taken seriously, for the sword of the spirit and the sword of the state are wielded again as one.
Date: December 17, 2019
Musing about Impeachment in Advent
Rather than essaying a sustained opinion-piece today, I’m going to muse about impeachment in the “light” of Advent—or, maybe, the darkness of Advent. I’m not going to weigh in directly […]
Date: December 10, 2019
Which Democracy, Which Spirituality?
Not long ago, I thought “democracy” carried a near-sacred aura in American public life. No longer. There is a book I’ve not read yet, but the title is so spot-on […]
Date: December 3, 2019
The Spiritual and Ethical Limits of National Sovereignty When the Planet is Burning
A few months ago, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro took refuge in a concept that may prove to be a dinosaur sooner rather than later: national sovereignty. When the leaders of […]
Date: November 26, 2019
Fred Rogers, Best of the Protestant Mainline
Fred Rogers, known to generations of children and their parents, as Mister Rogers, was a Presbyterian minister. His show, begun in 1968, embodied much of old mainline Protestantism at its […]