Diversion, Dictatorship and the Concentration of Wealth

Column by Dr. Carl Krieg on August, 4 2022

It has been shown that wealth actually changes the structure of a person’s brain, destroying a sense of empathy for others while at the same time creating a sense of entitlement.

The Bible is Political

Column by Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin on March, 4 2021

The 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.

America’s Greedy and America’s Gullible: Ezekiel Speaks

Column by Dr. Carl Krieg on February, 4 2021

From Ezekiel to Jesus to the voices of the gospels, the proclamation is clear: civilization will not, indeed cannot, survive if wealth and power, and therefore food and shelter, are in the possession of but a few. Equally so, democracy will not and cannot survive if the bullies are allowed free reign.

Where Do We Go from Here, Redux

Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on December, 31 2020

The year 2020 has been a stressful one. With George Floyd’s death as an inflection point about race and racism in America, an unprecedented presidential election, and social unrest during an ongoing pandemic with a rising death toll, something is deeply broken in America’s body politic. 

“Confronting Politicus Distractus”

Column by Rev. David M. Felten on September, 24 2020

Recently, a half-dozen young people in our small town organized a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration. The march was seen by some as an intrusion of threatening other-worldly politics into our predominantly (99.8%) white town and riled up a lot of emotional responses on social media.

Can Imagination Save Us?

Column by Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft on August, 27 2020

I’m thinking a lot about this moment.  Under 70 days until the most important Presidential Election arguably of all time, close to six months into an unprecedented global pandemic, increasing racial uprisings, increasing inequalities, anxieties, looming questions, delayed and potent grief. 

What Should We Be Learning in the Time of COVID-19?

Column by Brian McLaren on April, 16 2020

In the new normal that we can create together, we can lean into a truth that we are all learning in our bones thanks to this crisis: we are all connected, participants in local, regional, and global societies, living in an ecosystem that requires us to seek the common good with one another and with all our fellow creatures.

COVID-19 And The World Community

Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on March, 26 2020

In a responsible response to the coronavirus outbreak, also known as COVID-19, church and worship services across the globe are canceled. Traditional Bible study has gone online. Sermons are watched on Zoom, and old videos of singing church choirs have popped up in my inbox. Our global engagement with one another right now is social distancing while staying connected, revealing our acts of spiritual communion. 

Holding Space for Spiritual Transformation 

Column by Skylar Wilson on February, 6 2020

“New personality types are created during social and spiritual crises of religious, political, or economic origin.” ~Otto Rank

One hundred years ago, as the world was shaking …

Just War?

Column by Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin on January, 16 2020

You simply can’t fully follow Jesus if you aren’t willing to be political and stick out  your own neck, challenging the hypocritical power structures and leaders on behalf of the oppressed.”