Let the Church die, here’s why
Essay by Rev. Aurelia Dávila Pratt on September, 12 2019My assessment is that Christianity and its Church can either join the flow of justice or flail against its changing tides. This flow is happening with or without you. Spirit is moving, creating a path of love, equality, and peacemaking in its wake. If you are of the mind to jump in to this divine current, then I have several points of advice for you.
Wild Courtship-Primal Speech
Essay by Rev. Matthew Syrdal on September, 5 2019All nature was designed for revelation. At least that’s what indigenous peoples, the Israelites, our church Fathers, and the Celts believed. Jesus himself, like Moses and the prophets Elijah and John the Baptizer, strode deep into the heart of the world, fasting for a vision—revelation.
Rugged Individuality and the Hermeneutic of Love
Essay by Rev. Mark Sandlin on August, 29 2019It seems to me that people who have a well developed and healthy spirituality will resist the concept of tribalism. While it is true that tribalism was once an evolutionary necessity for survival, I have to believe that in modern times we should recognize that it is actually quite ridiculous as it is so rooted rooted in the illusion that some people are more valuable than others.
Two Bible Stories for our Endangered Times
Essay by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox on August, 22 2019“What are a Bible Story or Stories that are especially pressing for today’s world?” Clearly there are many but I have chosen one from the Hebrew Bible and one from the Christian Bible.
Jesus: A Mutation of Consciousness – Part 1
Essay by Joran Slane Oppelt on August, 15 2019We know enough about politics to know when an idea’s time has come. We know enough about the principles that move and motivate people. They are the same today as they were 2,000 years ago. They are those universal principles found in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: fear, safety, community, belonging, status, esteem and actualization (another word for “becoming” or, possibly, “salvation”).
And Like the Sun, Our Generosity Continues
Essay by Lauren Van Ham on August, 8 2019It has become so easy now to feel anxious, worried or irritable by the state of things, by the frantic commotion modeled all around us, focusing on just about everything except what’s actually important.
Lions, and Tigers, and Progressives – Oh My!
Essay by Rev. Roger Wolsey on August, 1 2019I recently experienced something that is the stuff of many people’s nightmares.
White Fragility Is Real My Friends
Essay by Rev. Deshna Ubeda on July, 25 2019This was a very challenging article to write and I am going to be super vulnerable with you all, so bear with me … and I invite you to join me in a brave conversation.
I recently heard this quote on the radio: “There’s only one thing more powerful than white fear and that’s white guilt.” That statement left me questioning for days. “Could that be true,” I wondered? What does my white fear look like? What does my white guilt look like?
Being True To Christ But Rejecting Christianity
Essay by EbonyJanice Moore on July, 18 2019A shift in my geographical location was the catalyst for a life-altering shift in my theological truth system. I was in Kenya, East Africa for 10 weeks in the summer of 2013 on a missions/educational trip when I began to ask myself about the introduction of Christianity to African people, most specifically black people in America as a result of slavery. This was the first time I had ever asked myself why do I believe what I say I believe.
All The World A Thin Place
Essay by Rev. Brandan Robertson on July, 11 2019The Celtic tradition has a concept called “thin spaces”, geographical locations where the veil between heaven and earth, the world we live in and the realm of the Divine, seems to be remarkably thin.
Growing Up in a White Male God’s World
Essay by Christena Cleveland on July, 4 2019But once I turned my attention to the problem of God’s maleness, I realized that I didn’t just hate white Christ, I also hated male Christ. A god who is exclusively white and male, or even predominantly white and male, is never going to be safe for people of color and/or women. Indeed, white male god is intersectional; we must be liberated from both its whiteness and maleness.
Living Christs of Touch
Essay by Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. on June, 27 2019If your life were ending and you were given the chance to write a few words to encapsulate its essence, what would you say? The story wouldn’t have to be historical, or literally true, but it would need to offer an authentic window into your soul and the heart of your heart.
Looking, Leaning, and Leading Forward
Essay by Brian McLaren on June, 20 2019In two previous columns: How I Got Here and What Am I Now?, I shared a bit about my own backstory and where I am now as a progressive Christian. In this third column, I’d like to share a bit about what I see and hope for progressive Christianity looking forward.
The Concepts of the Virgin Birth and Physical Resurrection
Essay by Rev. Irene Monroe on June, 13 2019Both the virgin birth and physical resurrection are the pillars of the Christian faith, and many Christians struggle with both concepts.
The Future Church: Over to You
Essay by Rev. Gretta Vosper on June, 6 2019Armed with fifteen years of exposure to critical contemporary Christian scholarship, the congregation’s leaders, rather than fire me, embraced the opportunity to explore what church beyond belief might look like. It has been a bumpy ride at times; there is no doubt about that. Still, the work was important, and we have proven that a church built on the values of liberal Christianity neither undermines nor requires belief in a supernatural, interventionist, theistic god called God.
Joshua and “The Longest Day”
Essay by Rev. David M. Felten on May, 30 2019If people today know anything about the book of Joshua, it’s likely to be just one story: “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho.” But Joshua asking God to “stop the sun in the sky” is probably a close second – and has clearly had a more dramatic influence on world history (and not in a good way).
The Moral Imperative of Climate Activism
Essay by Jennifer Berit Listug and Skylar Wilson on May, 23 2019There are countless other examples in the Bible that point to the human – earth relationship as a symbiotic mother and child.
What Am I Now?
Essay by Brian McLaren on May, 16 2019In my previous piece, I shared a bit about my past. This piece turns to the present. I’ve just begun work on two books, the second of which is tentatively entitled, Do I Stay Christian? As I sketch out the shape and trajectory of the book, I’m thinking more deeply about why I still identify as Christian and what I think Christian can and in fact must come to mean in the decades ahead.
The Wild Christ
Essay by Rev. Matthew Syrdal on May, 9 2019The wild calls. That which we associate with the wild are those ‘spontaneities’ found in ever form of existence in the natural world, that which is uncontrolled by human dominance. Wild is that feral autonomy of the more-than-human world with an agency and feathered intelligence of its own. The wild flares forth in the numinous powers of the psyche, mirroring the wild and raw powers of the universe. The wild is pure nature, that which is completely uncontrolled by human consciousness or dominance.
Time for a New American Dream
Essay by Rev. Mark Sandlin on May, 2 2019Now that we can just barely view the pomp and circumstance of Easter in our rearview mirrors, I’d like to talk a little about Easter. Not that Easter; not the Easter egg hunts, Easter hats, and shouts of “He is risen” kind of Easter; I want to talk about the whole of the Easter story, which reminds me that the American dream is a dream built on the back of a system of domination.
Shadow Work
Essay by Toni Reynolds on April, 25 2019Over the last few weeks I’ve had several ideas for articles. One of them felt so full of energy that I stayed awake until 3am writing. I’ …
Review of: Science and Spiritual Practices by Rupert Sheldrake
Essay by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox on April, 18 2019Science and Spirituality need each other. This has always been the case—from Aristotle (who concludes his classic work on Physics with positing an Unmoved Mover) to Aquinas (who fought the fundamentalists of his day about the value of bringing science, namely Aristotle, and the scientific method of his day, namely scholasticism, into the world of faith).
How I Got Here
Essay by Brian McLaren on April, 11 2019Suddenly, I saw in a new light the violence of the modern era, from colonialism to Stalinism to Naziism to nuclear war to the environmental crisis. Smart people, armed with excessive and un-self-critical confidence derived from their absolutized ideologies, could commit unspeakable atrocities without having second thoughts.
Love, America and The Middle Way
Essay by Joran Slane Oppelt on April, 4 2019A teenager in a red “Make America Great Again” hat, face-to-face with a drumming Native American elder on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial…
For all the coverage and commentary we now have of the Lincoln Memorial encounter, there are many moments we’re not shown. We will never see what was moving in the hearts of those two men as they faced one another, waiting for the other to back down, watching their expressions melt and change while feeling the heat and pressure of the mob at their back.
Super Natural Sacraments of Spring
Essay by Lauren Van Ham on March, 28 2019The progressive Christian practice, I believe, is founded on my (our) willingness to listen for and co-create the new story. And let me be clear about this word, “new.” I don’t mean the next bright and shiny object that allows me to toss the frayed one into the landfill. I mean “new,” as in emerging, fertile, and arriving with a willingness to acknowledge what has been before now.