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51-75 of 994 « ‹ Page 3 of 40 › »
  • It is Time for Compassionate Nuanced Conversations, Part 1

    Column by Rev. Deshna Charron Shine on August, 26 2021

    In reality, the world around us is an infinite rainbow of nuance, complexity, and brilliance! Unlike other animals and living creatures, people are as unique as there are infinite shades of colors in this world. More so, even. We come with these spirits full of experiences and lessons, we come with unique fingerprints, DNA, personalities, likes and dislikes, smells and textures, skin tones, sexualities, body types, talents, and ideas.

    My husband of 38 years is a quiet fundamentalist. Everyday he listens to podcasts by J. Vernon Magee and Alastair Begg, two Bible literalists. He …

    Answered by Brian McLaren
  • Progressive Christianity and the Preferential Option for the Young

    Column by Brian McLaren on August, 19 2021

    If you believe, as I do, that the world needs a vital alternative to regressive and right-wing Christianity, then you should join me in raising the alarm — and calling for radical action among forward-leaning Christians.

    What have we learned and can apply today from the Nag Hammadi Scriptures?

    Answered by Toni Reynolds
  • Don’t Pay Them No Mind

    Column by Toni Reynolds on August, 12 2021

    It’s been an interesting experiment to consider my attention as a form of currency. Though I’m not exactly thrilled with the capitalist framework, I’ve benefited from considering my focus as a resource, and my general headspace as a bank of its own. How I “spend” from it matters not just for myself, but also for the people around me.

    How can mainstream churches be more inclusive of  …

    Answered by Rev. Matthew Syrdal
  • When Beliefs Kill Cultures

    Column by Rev. Matthew Syrdal on August, 5 2021

    Beliefs are a funny thing to try to pin down. If we are honest, they are slippery and largely unconscious. When enough of them get mixed together in a large enough group they build up force like a gathering storm. It makes you wonder, are any beliefs actually rational?

    If Jesus did not die on a cross to cover our sin, then what was the purpose of him dying? What was the purpose of his life? …

    Answered by Rev. Irene Monroe
  • The topic the Black Church dares not speak of honestly

    Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on July, 29 2021

    I 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.

     

    For me, Bishop Spong’s words resonate with truth when he illustrates the nexus between God and evolution, in a way that I believe Pierre Teilhard de Chardin …

    Answered by Rev. Jim Burklo
  • If God is Love…

    Column by Rev. Jim Burklo on July, 22 2021

    One of the many ways to read the Bible is to view it as God’s autobiography.

    In your recent Question & Answer dated March 25, 2021, you mentioned being an atheist. This term has too many diverse meanings. I don’t believe in the Greek God …

    Answered by Rev. Gretta Vosper
  • When Religion Goes Rogue

    Column by Rev. Gretta Vosper on July, 15 2021

    In 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.

    Why are there many books written that Progressive Christianity is a dangerous belief? I was checking Kindle books and I have come across that there are books written …

    Answered by Rev. Lauren Van Ham
  • The Mother Religion

    Column by Rev. Lauren Van Ham on July, 8 2021

    In 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? 

    Is the Church ever going to address the antisemitism in our liturgy? The Jew hating is both blatant and subtle in the scriptures we read from Mark, Matthew, …

    Answered by Rev. Roger Wolsey
  • Paul: Friend or Foe?

    Column by Rev. Roger Wolsey on July, 1 2021

    I 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.

    My oldest child has recently come out as transgender. Not surprisingly, many Christian friends are now pointing to the bible saying that she is a sinner and that …

    Answered by Rev. Mark Sandlin
  • Beautifully Entangled

    Column by Rev. Mark Sandlin on June, 24 2021

    Could 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.

    Why follow Jesus and worship him if you don’t believe all of scripture?

    Answered by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers
  • Special Edition: Bishop John Shelby Spong

    Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 17 2021

    My 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. 

    I was pondering this past week about the right wing fundamentalists and their real fear of anything that smacks of socialism. For me, the word socialism means that …

    Answered by Bishop John Shelby Spong
  • Progressive Christians and Palestine

    Column by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers on June, 10 2021

    Over 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.

    The news and social media are full of the wonderful contributions of people of color, gays and trans.  Why do you think so many individuals still hold prejudiced …

    Answered by Rev. Brandan Robertson
  • Welcome to Virtual Reality

    Column by Rev. Brandan Robertson on June, 3 2021

    In 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.

    With all the news today of doom and gloom for our world, do you think religion can save humanity?

    Answered by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
  • How To Save Our Species and Hopefully the Planet as We Know It

    Column by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox on May, 27 2021

    Might 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? 

    What is your opinion of St Paul?

    Answered by Dr. Carl Krieg
  • Big Change

    Column by Dr. Carl Krieg on May, 20 2021

    In 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.

    How does one begin the journey of personal transformation?

    Answered by Rev. Deshna Charron Shine
  • Divine Mother Letting Go

    Column by Rev. Deshna Charron Shine on May, 13 2021

    I 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. 

    What is it about the Temple Mount?  It seems to always be the flashpoint of conflict in Jerusalem.

    Answered by Rev. David M. Felten
  • The Measure of a “Genuine” Progressive Christian

    Column by Rev. David M. Felten on May, 6 2021

    So, 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.

    Do you think that the Church has adequately explored and explained the spiritual aspects of evolution? What does it mean spiritually that we evolved from apes?

    Answered by Brian McLaren
  • Science, Reductionism, and Faith

    Column by Brian McLaren on April, 29 2021

    Like 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.

     

    I am a “seeker.” I know what that means, but when people ask, “What is a seeker?” I can never find an accurate or concise way to …

    Answered by Toni Reynolds
  • Habits Can Help or Hurt…

    Column by Toni Reynolds on April, 22 2021

    While 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.

    God, as viewed in the Old Testament is a God who demands that we please him. He was a God of Punishment, and reward. Those who pleased him …

    Answered by Rev. Fran Pratt
  • Easter People

    Column by Rev. Fran Pratt on April, 15 2021

    This 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.

    I wonder if fiddling around on the periphery on the issues of gay and lesbian rights can ever yield what the Church lacks: a compelling vision which, if …

    Answered by Rev. Irene Monroe
  • We Must Call Out Hate

    Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on April, 8 2021

    Entertaining 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.

    How can we stop the hate and bring the far right & left together to find the middle we can walk together and work for the USA’s …

    Answered by Rev. Jim Burklo
  • Otherdoxy: A Questionable of Faith

    Column by Rev. Jim Burklo on April, 1 2021

    There 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. 

    If there are many ways to the truth (salvation), can we preach that Krishna (or any other God) as one of the ways to attain salvation? Or, can …

    Answered by Rev. Lauren Van Ham
  • We are Wonder-FULL

    Column by Rev. Lauren Van Ham on March, 25 2021

    Why, 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. 

    I am an Anglican, but having accepted the concept of a non-theistic God, I feel uncomfortable attending church with all its outdated forms of worship. To leave …

    Answered by Rev. Gretta Vosper
  • If Not God, Then What?

    Column by Rev. Gretta Vosper on March, 18 2021

    Using 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.

    Am I the only one out here who makes sure my people understand the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper/Communion service has its roots in the Passover story and …

    Answered by Rev. Roger Wolsey
  • The Soul of Progressive Christianity

    Column by Rev. Roger Wolsey on March, 11 2021

    Lent 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.

    * In general, what is the Progressive Christian understanding of the word “grace”?

    * Specifically, what is the grace referred to in the 5th point of Progressive Christianity, which says that …

    Answered by Rev. Mark Sandlin
51-75 of 994 « ‹ Page 3 of 40 › »

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