Turning the Tables and Righteous Anger

Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on February, 14 2019

I have chosen Matthew 21: 12-17 text about Jesus turning over the tables of the money changers” because I notice America is angry. And, with this anger I’ve noticed we have lost the ability and desire to “ agree to disagree,” to talk across our differences; thus, consequently, civil discourse has devolved. For so many, this story of Jesus turning the tables of the money changers becomes a non-apology for getting angry, for posting biting commentaries, and for online rants on divisive political issues, theological controversies and discussions on some polarizing social and cultural issues.

When we close our hearts to refugees

Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on March, 1 2018

While Trump’s comment will now make it more difficult for immigrants from “shithole” countries to enter the U.S., the challenge, however, will be particularly arduous for its LGBTQ asylum seekers. These people flee their countries to avoid criminalization, torture, violence, public persecution, political scapegoating and moral cleansing.

The Sources of Political Gridlock and Anger

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 3 2016

It has been a very unconventional political primary season. In the last three weeks two public debates sank to what seem to me to be new lows in presidential …

Re-Creating Easter V: How did Easter Dawn? What was the Context?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 22 2015

We are told, but only in Luke’s gospel, that when Cleopas and his traveling companion returned from Emmaus to Jerusalem to share their experience of the risen Christ …

Carrying My Understanding of Christianity to France

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 31 2014

In two lectures in Paris, France, this summer and through various other media, I sought to place into the religious conversation of that nation a new way of looking …

On Spending the Day with Amos, i.e. Professor James H. Cone

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 22 2014

So much of Christianity is a delusion, built as it is around power images and institutional claims to possess either an infallible Pope or an inerrant Bible. The Christian …

A Meditation on the State of America on its 237th Birthday

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 11 2013

The United States celebrated its 237th birthday this past week. It seems, therefore, a fitting time for some moments of national reflection. In today’s column I seek to …

My Mentors, Part 5 – Richard Henry Baker

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 27 2013

He may have had fewer obvious gifts than any person I ever watched in a position of significant power and authority. He was not an impressive personality. One would …

China Revisited, Part I

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 9 2010

I first went to China in 1984.  In that year we could only visit Hong Kong and the New Territories.  The Cultural Revolution, led by the “gang of four” and …