In Hebrew scriptures and repeated in New Testament teachings, G-d assumes all authority in the practice of vengeance. If, after thousands of years, we truly trusted this to G-d, how might we face this moment we have co-constructed? The wars, the biodiversity loss, the assault weapons, the changed climate.
I doubt anyone who reads Progressing Spirit believes there is a supernatural god called God who hands out parcels of land to this people or that. Yet many continue to use the word “god” to name something they believe in, which is not a supernatural being who hands out parcels of land to this people or that.
I 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.
I don’t know about you, but in recent times, I can hardly bear to watch the news. It’s simply too depressing. Gun violence continues to spin out of control with scant hope of any sensible resolution in sight.
I write this to you, my Progressive Christian siblings, on a Monday morning during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I had written an entirely different …
Although the intelligence indicated a Russian invasion was imminent, most of the people of the world, including Ukraine, continued on with life as usual. Then, in an instant, Russian tanks started rolling into a peaceful, non-threatening neighboring country, triggering the first such move of its kind in Europe since WW2.
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.
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.”
The laws by which the world operates have not changed since the dawn of time, but the way human beings explain and understand those laws has changed dramatically over …
After Easter we opened a new unit of columns designed to study exactly what the Bible says about Jesus’ resurrection. We noted that while resurrection is assumed in every …