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Early in my ministry, when the United Methodist Church’s arguments about the place of homosexuals among the clergy were a decade old, I recall there was a young queer person […]
As the new calendar year dawns, pundits and journalists often review the top stories of the previous year or predict which will be the big stories of the new year. […]
Historian David Hollinger argues that liberal, ecumenical, old-mainline Christianity in the U.S. prepared a sizeable part of the population to shift toward more tolerant and accepting attitudes. He credits moderate-to-liberal […]
Once again, a human-made object takes a picture of the earth from near the moon. Once again, everyone who sees the picture is reminded of how rare the earth is. […]
A Prayer by the Oklahoma Governor, 2022, speaking in front of the state Capitol, “Father, we just claim Oklahoma for you. Every square inch, we claim it for you in […]
Deception is hardly new. The serpent lied to Eve. Cain lied to God. Laban and Jacob deceived each other so badly they had to set up a cairn as a […]
(Note: after writing this blog, I discovered there is a substantial, serious literature from conservative voices claiming that “woke” and “awake” represent very different religious values and social mandates. It […]
From 1977 to 1981, I was a seminary student. From 1993 until the present, I’ve been an educator in graduate theological seminaries. Every level of education has been changed, most […]
As I near retirement from my full-time work (January 31), I’ve been reflecting on what has changed—and not—over the 41 years of my post-seminary ministries in congregations and graduate education. […]
From its earliest days, the Jesus movement, and then Christianity, were comprised of different, conflicting streams. Jesus lived and died in occupied Roman Palestine. But Jews who believed Jesus was […]