The topic the Black Church dares not speak of honestly
Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on July, 29 2021I was recently asked: “What should be the mandate for today’s Black Churches? ” I believe one of the mandates for today’s Black Churches is to address its ongoing struggle with the spectrum of human sexuality.
If God is Love…
Column by Rev. Jim Burklo on July, 22 2021One of the many ways to read the Bible is to view it as God’s autobiography.
When Religion Goes Rogue
Column by Rev. Gretta Vosper on July, 15 2021In Canada, it wasn’t just the Roman Catholic Church involved. Both the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church also participated in the residential schools program which, for decades, forcibly removed Indigenous children from their families for the purpose of educating them into the dominant white, Christian culture of the country.
The Mother Religion
Column by Rev. Lauren Van Ham on July, 8 2021In Her 4.5 billion years of being a planet, Earth has known great drama illustrated in superfluous gestures of creativity and supreme acts of destruction. If we used only this as our backdrop for religion what would our religion consist of?
Paul: Friend or Foe?
Column by Rev. Roger Wolsey on July, 1 2021I think that that the apostle Paul has gotten an undeserved bum rap by many progressives and that it is good, right, and well for Christian pastors to preach from the letters of the apostle Paul.
Beautifully Entangled
Column by Rev. Mark Sandlin on June, 24 2021Could it be, as some psychologists suggest, that ‘pure’ altruism doesn’t exist? According to them, when we help strangers, there is always some benefit to us personally, even if we’re not aware of it. This could include gaining respect from others, helping us feel good about ourselves, or for some Christians it could increase our chances of getting into heaven.
Special Edition: Bishop John Shelby Spong
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 17 2021My perspective is that I am a Christian, who believes I must examine political and economic decisions in the light of those values. The basis upon which I make political and economic judgments is that I believe every person, rich and poor, Anglo-Saxon and African, Hispanic and Asian, male and female, gay and straight must to be treated with the dignity of being a child of God.
Progressive Christians and Palestine
Column by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers on June, 10 2021Over three weeks before the first rocket was fired from Gaza, and war erupted yet again between Israel and Palestine, something happened that was hardly mentioned in the press, but explains so much of the terror and humiliation that Palestinians face every day from Israel.
Welcome to Virtual Reality
Column by Rev. Brandan Robertson on June, 3 2021In this moment of history everything has changed. Over the course of a few months, most of us went from living hybrid virtual lives to almost completely virtual lives. Church services moved online for both megachurches and churches of twelve, giving equal access to the masses to churches, regardless of their size.
How To Save Our Species and Hopefully the Planet as We Know It
Column by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox on May, 27 2021Might the global coronavirus emergency we are living through prove to be a kind of shamanistic initiation that is meant to wake us up as a species? Is facing climate change and extinction another such initiation? What are the most essential shifts in consciousness that our species must undergo if we are to survive?
Big Change
Column by Dr. Carl Krieg on May, 20 2021In his Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in 1945 that the Western world was on the precipice of a new era, an era without religion. God, as the “answer” to unsolvable questions, was continually being put out of a job as science continually extended the boundaries of human knowledge.
Divine Mother Letting Go
Column by Rev. Deshna Charron Shine on May, 13 2021I think about Mother Mary and her pride alongside her anguish as her son became more and more himself. A self that threatened the powers that be. A self that would hang for being who he was. What must she have felt when he told her, I must go out into the world and share these teachings. I must share with the world this great love I have experienced.
The Measure of a “Genuine” Progressive Christian
Column by Rev. David M. Felten on May, 6 2021So, what’s the measure of a “genuine” progressive Christian? For some, it’s proficiency in some obscure spiritual discipline. For others, it’s engagement in the work of social justice. Whatever we are, the media seems to believe the 2020s may provide a leg-up for those who are advocates and practitioners of a post-modern, post-evangelical, post-liberal, post-Christian approach to Jesus following.
Science, Reductionism, and Faith
Column by Brian McLaren on April, 29 2021Like many, I grew up in a two-tier universe. The lower natural tier was physical, temporal, and ever-changing. The higher supernatural tier was spiritual, eternal, and changeless. God, the Holy Spirit, and human souls or spirits were in the higher tier. Human bodies, all nonhuman creatures, and all matter and energy were in the lower tier.
Habits Can Help or Hurt…
Column by Toni Reynolds on April, 22 2021While I am not personally optimistic about the idea of opening things up with the speed I see in my local community, it is happening. Without much help I find myself questioning if I will be more like the Osprey or the wasp.
Easter People
Column by Rev. Fran Pratt on April, 15 2021This past Lent I practiced lying fallow. I avoided news and social media. I wrote all my Lenten liturgies ahead of time. I gave myself permission to do the bare minimum of work (I’m a pastor and parent, so this part was flexible). I imagined myself as a field, unplanted in a year of Jubilee.
We Must Call Out Hate
Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on April, 8 2021Entertaining Long’s sexual addiction as a believable explanation for the killings diverts attention from his acts of intentional xenophobia and racialized misogyny. The fetishization of Asian American and Pacific Island women has constantly made their lives expendable to sex traffickers and men’s violent fantasies.
Otherdoxy: A Questionable of Faith
Column by Rev. Jim Burklo on April, 1 2021There are many questions that mainstream science can’t answer, at least at the moment. Ethical and moral questions, such as: who should get the Covid vaccine first? And how can such a prioritization be made understandable and acceptable to the public? Science provides data upon which such judgments can be made, but ultimately we can’t trust science itself to sort them out.
We are Wonder-FULL
Column by Rev. Lauren Van Ham on March, 25 2021Why, in all of this relatedness, do we feel so disconnected? Depleted? Empty? Because we mistakenly turn that which is divinely relational, into something inhumanely transactional. And, to make this sin livable, we turn our heads and forget our neoteny. Children don’t allow this sort of behavior. We are born into relatedness and unity.
If Not God, Then What?
Column by Rev. Gretta Vosper on March, 18 2021Using the word “god” to conjure an all-powerful deity with biblically-proportioned prejudices and condemnations is dramatically different from using the word “god” to call us to a “no matter what” sort of love. I talk about this a lot. About ditching archaic language. About reading more than just the Bible or not reading the Bible at all.
The Soul of Progressive Christianity
Column by Rev. Roger Wolsey on March, 11 2021Lent is a time where we’re invited to engage in deepened soul-searching. I’ve been feeling called to search the soul of progressive Christianity.
The Bible is Political
Column by Rev. Mark Sandlin on March, 4 2021The Bible has a political agenda. Even with all the different writers who contributed to different books, there is a clear biblical bias against the powerful using their places of authority to step on those who are already suffering. That’s political.
Saving God From Religion
Column by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers on February, 25 2021Let’s be clear, this is an audacious idea. Writing a book about God is an audacious project. In fact, claiming to know anything about God is more than audacious—it is intellectual blasphemy. So, to begin, let me be clear. I have no idea what I am talking about.
We are the Spacemakers
Column by Rev. Aurelia Dávila Pratt on February, 18 2021Because I choose to remain within the church, I have to ask myself regularly “why do I believe what I believe?” and also “why do I stick around?” Why do I choose to stay put when the church has caused so much harm?
What is Patriarchy, anyway?
Column by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox on February, 11 2021There is – and ought to be – plenty of criticism of Patriarchy at this time in history. But for that very reason there needs to be a critical understanding of what it is – and is not.