How do you rise in the morning from the dark sea of sleep?
Column by Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. on December, 7 2023I find that the perseverating mind commences before the fifth breath is even drawn. With a bullet train of thoughts underway, the nervous system is stimulated and sometimes already pumping your body with cortisol.
In-Tensions: The fraught work of world peace
Column by Rev. Gretta Vosper on November, 30 2023Ever since the first mind countenanced an unknown source of benevolence, religion has held us together as powerfully as it has driven us apart.
The Imperative of a Two-State Solution: A Path To Peace for Israel/ Palestine
Column by Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz on November, 23 2023What deeply concerns me about Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza is “what’s it all going to look like/ feel like on the other side”–when the violence has stopped?
Irreversible Transformation: Choose Your Adventure
Column by Rev. Lauren Van Ham on November, 16 2023We who get to be alive right now are living in the sixth great age of extinctions. We passed planetary overshoot a while ago and the ecological and societal effects are irreversible. This is the doom some speak of.
My Easter/Christmas Scripture Conundrum
Column by Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin on November, 9 2023In the majority of Christian churches every Easter and frequently around Christmas, we hear scripture reading proclaiming, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them, light has shined,” and I have to say, it really bothers me.
Reclaiming the Bible
Column by Rev. Brandan Robertson on November, 2 2023It is essential for progressive Christians to remember that the Bible emerged from the voices of an oppressed and marginalized people, intended to empower and uplift those facing adversity.
Holy Lands and Sacred Cows
Column by Rev. Roger Wolsey on October, 26 2023I write this essay at the start of the most recent round of intense violence in a location on the planet that many Christians refer to as “The Holy Land.” At least during this week, that land is anything but holy. I visited Israel and the Palestinian-controlled reservations within it in November 1995.
Sympathy for the Hymnocrite: Time to Change our Tune
Column by Rev. David M. Felten on October, 19 2023Granted, some denominations have published “supplements” with more modern music, but way too many have also bent to internal denominational pressure and included a plethora of hopelessly counter-productive praise choruses.
Where do progressive faith leaders go from here?
Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on October, 12 2023While many political operatives are trying to inch away from Trump, his everlasting white Evangelical base- churchgoers and voters- loves him, comprising approximately 60 percent of the Republican presidential primary electorate.
No Wonder People Hate Religion
Column by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers on October, 5 2023I have spent my life working on the inside of organized religion, even though my love/hate relationship with most God-talkers makes me an outsider.
Sacred Reborn
Column by Rev. Deshna Charron Shine on September, 28 2023The experience of the sacred is not an easy thing to define. It is outside of human terms and metaphors. It lives beyond the binaries and outside of boxes. There is no scientific definition of the experience of the sacred.
The “G” word and the “F” Word in High Places: Signs of Our Times
Column by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox on September, 21 2023Along with climate change and the move from religion to spirituality, another sign of our times is the rise of the G word and the F word alive and well in high places. I am speaking of course of Greed and Fascism.
The Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, and Dialectical Mystery
Column by Dr. Carl Krieg on September, 14 2023The transition from a Medieval to an Enlightenment way of thinking does not come easily. When I was a kid in the Norwegian American Lutheran Church, a bigger-than-life portrait of Jesus praying in Gethsemane was stationed over the altar, a Sunday reminder that his all-important death, soon to come, was our salvation. Jesus loved us, this we knew because the Bible told us so. And the Bible did not lie.
Jesus in Eden
Column by Rev. Jim Burklo on September, 7 2023The Bible is a mirror. In it, we see the structure of our psyches. We see the scaffolding of our spirituality. What makes the Bible holy is not that it is the “word of God”, but rather that so many of its passages offer such breathtakingly vivid reflections of the journeys of our souls.
Liturgy for Life
Column by Rev. Gretta Vosper on August, 31 2023If you’re a mainline Christian, you likely experienced liturgy even if you are of a less liturgical tradition than the Episcopal or Presbyterian churches. And very possibly, even if you don’t know what it is, you’ve been steeped in it.
Toward an Ethics of Consequences
Column by Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz on August, 24 2023the term ethical grace emphasizes the importance of the choices we make in our lives every day to support the goodness of life on earth. Every day, we make choices that matter.
Three Practices for Staying In Love
Column by Rev. Lauren Van Ham on August, 17 2023When current events and self-perpetuating systems pin me in the extractive, enslaving, short-sighted story, there are 3 practices that help me to listen for divine guidance and to re-engage in the love story’s emerging plot.
All Hands on Deck
Column by Rev. Roger Wolsey on August, 10 2023Folks, this is serious stuff. In fact, managing human-aggravated global warming and climate change is the single most important moral matter of our generation.
Down with Christian Nationalism
Column by Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin on August, 3 2023I’d even go as far as to say the modern version of Dominionism, that’s now called Christian Nationalism, is nothing like the teachings of the man who said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Reclaiming Our Progressive Christian Tradition
Column by Rev. Brandan Robertson on July, 27 2023A majority of those who are now identifying as “Progressive Christians” are converts, so to speak, those fleeing other Christian traditions that had no real knowledge of Progressive Christianity.
Yes, The 10 Commandments ARE Un-American
Column by Rev. David M. Felten on July, 20 2023Hooray! Yet another Christian Nationalist effort to strangle American values has gone out with a whimper. This time, it was a Texas Senate Bill that, if passed, would have required the 10 Commandments to be displayed prominently in every classroom in the state.
The Real End Times – From Doom to Faith
Column by Rev. Michael Dowd on July, 13 2023Here we are, immersed in a swirl of biospheric breakdown and societal strife that isn’t going away; in fact, it’s getting worse. The darkness and distress cannot be passed off as the wrath of an angry God. Rather, we ourselves are at cause, and these are the real end times.
Why Call Ourselves Progressive?
Column by Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines on July, 6 2023There’s been a lot of conversation recently about whether we still need to use the term “progressive” as a qualifier for Christian. As a movement, we’ve been using the label for about 3 decades, and with so many cultural shifts, it’s only natural to raise the question of whether it still fits.
The Million Woman Walkout
Column by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers on June, 29 2023Just when you thought things could not get worse, the Southern Baptists have declared that not only can women not be pastors, or anyone in a “position of authority over men,” but that SBC churches already led by women should be purged from the denomination.
You can have PRIDE too!
Column by Rev. Deshna Charron Shine on June, 22 2023Systemic racism and oppression of marginalized folk’s experience is ingrained in all of us and in every system. Even if every person became anti-racist and radically inclusive, our systems would still be a huge barrier to the liberation and equality of all.