Progressive Christian Blogs

Dealing with an anger towards the “church”… Joy is not something handed to you; joy is something you have to fight for on a daily basis. It’s waking up every single day with a purpose, a vision, and a mission to defeat and fight against the forces of nature that want to come and take [Read More...]

A lot of people have been talking and writing about the departure of Millennials from the ranks of the churched. I think people would be surprised to know how many pastors and priests have either left already or are thinking about leaving. I meet them in my travels constantly. Take Clarke, for example. Here’s what [Read More...]

Amazon is listing ‘Presence and Process’ as the #1 new release in Quaker Christianity.   https://www.amazon.com/Presence-Process-Transformative-Inclusive-Community/dp/1594980411/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1500957579&sr=8-6&keywords=presence+and+process

Ecumenism is a lot easier with people who vote the same you do.

Matthew David Morris (a.k.a. Matt Morris) didn’t have a typical childhood. From playing arena shows with his dad alongside Kenny Rogers to starring on the Mickey Mouse Club with the likes of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, Matthew David entered the public spotlight when his peers were coloring with finger paints in a [Read More...]

This is a guest post by Jonathan Sauder. God Breaks Mirrors We live in a world where narcissists can pontificate about their stunningly humble temperaments. But my own habits of closed-loop mirroring are perhaps a bit more devious. I am someone who “cannot bear being loved by someone whom [I] think believes that [I] do [Read More...]

As one of my friends says to church starters and pastors, “The church you pastor isn’t a time capsule—it may look different now from when you started. It may have gone in a direction you didn’t expect, and that’s probably a good thing.”

Today I read 1 Chronicles 2, which is nothing more than a list of names and names and names: fathers and wives and concubines and sons and daughters, one Egyptian slave, clans and kin and houses. Some might choose to roll over dead before reading such a thing; others might get to sleep long before [Read More...]

'Blade Runner' takes on new meaning in the age of Black Lives Matter. How race, whiteness, and privilege color our perception of what it means to be human.

The Appearance of Hope (An Advent Poem) Not long after John appeared in the wilderness with sweet locusts on his breath Not long after the expectant crowds churned muddy waves of confession into the Jordan Not long after he baptized Jesus in the cold river on a day overcast with love and thunder Not long [Read More...]

Trigger Warning: Discussion of rape and sexual violence. Sally Hemings was not a mistress. She was a young, enslaved  girl who was raped by the man that owned her. Hagar was not a second wife. She was also a young, enslaved girl who was raped by the man that owned her. Rape is any non-consensual [Read More...]

I see the curves of my breast and they please. I see the round of my rump and it entices. I see the button of my belly & giggle at its cuteness. I rub the bulging bump that sustains my daughter it is tight but lovely. My legs are thick pillars supporting the whole of [Read More...]

When he withdrew from the Paris Agreement on June 1, President Donald Trump managed to alienate a number of America’s closest allies.  While the recent G-7 summit yielded mixed reactions among European leaders, this withdrawal resulted in leaders of Europe and the rest of the world choosing to bypass the U.S. government on climate change [Read More...]

Living and Leading Change for Good: Meet the Disruptors The Forum for Theological Exploration series, Living and Leading Change for Good,invites you to meet the disruptors – theological explorers and visionary architects inspired by their Christian faith and fueled by courage.  These leaders are actively addressing civil and human rights issues and the anxiety about the rising tide [Read More...]

Religious liberty is threatened. Many seeking to protect it are harming it. President Donald Trump is making faith into pop-religion meriting a reality show. He is secularizing the sacred. Sadly, spiritual leaders are helping him to do it. On Thursday, the president signed an executive order to weaken the Johnson Amendment. Passed in 1954, the [Read More...]

I’m writing an article on Mary Daly for the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion, and keep thinking of all the things I want to write about that aren’t appropriate for academic publications like that. The personal, quirky, maybe even mystical things … Like how I found an old copy of Beyond God the Father [Read More...]

Before I begin, if you’re an atheist coming here looking for a fight, I’m the wrong guy. Yes, I’m a Christian (okay, the Religious Right would take issue with that claim, but whatever), but I have the utmost respect for my atheist friends and colleagues– especially the fruitful dialogue we have, and the many areas [Read More...]

'When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder/If I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened/Or full of argument. I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.' Mary Gordon, 'When Death Comes'

“Stop letting awful parents put these labels on young children! It is going to destroy their lives!”  We hear some version of this every day. What these people don’t realize is that it is not the parent who is doing anything, it is the child driving the vast majority of these conversations. Gender identity and [Read More...]

An Eastern Orthodox, an evangelical, and a progressive Christian walk into a blog post.

It seems to me that when it comes to controversial topics like gun control, we tend to believe the other side is good at feeling their way through the issue but not so good at thinking their way through it. Meanwhile, we think we’re masters at dispassionate analysis, which is why we’re able to see things [Read More...]

Does Jesus have a checklist of requirements that must be met before making himself present? And should we exclude certain people from partaking?

I hope not. The great missionary theologian Lesslie Newbigen asked this question in 1987. For him, and many others the secular West had become, whatever its Christian inheritance, a realm that had lost touch with a full experience of God’s grace. It needed conversion. This theme has been repeated by any number of non-Western theologians. [Read More...]

A sad truth for today: I have maybe the best, most timely and important post of my blogging tenure… and I can’t publish it. It’s not my story to tell. It’s a word from a good friend of mine, a (well-decorated) military chaplain recently returned from a deployment in the Middle East. I asked this [Read More...]

Texts for this Sermon: Genesis 16:1-16; Genesis 21:1-21. On occasion I get asked: “Why are you a Christian?” And to be truthful, it would probably benefit me at the University if I weren’t identified as a Christian. Indeed, I’ve had students tell me that they’ve been attacked for their faith in classroom settings. Christianity for [Read More...]

  “Love your enemies & pray for those who terrorize you.” -Matthew 5:44   There is only one way to cure Blue Supremacy. Weapons will not work. No one is going to outgun them. Politics will not work. Politicians will always support them. Protests will not work. Shutting such actions down are easy for them. [Read More...]

Last night, a family friend, my almost-twelve year old daughter, and I were sitting around the table after dinner, talking. My friend and I had purchased lottery tickets a few days before, and we’d yet to see if we’d won anything. We started day dreaming about what we’d do with our winnings.   It’s such [Read More...]

People started a text message with the word "Trump," and then kept choosing only from the 3 words offered next. You won't believe what they came up with.

President Donald Trump has been trashed the American news media throughout his campaign for the U.S. presidency last year and during his now six month tenure as president. So, he rarely grants interviews with journalists or holds press conferences. But last Tuesday evening, he summoned three editors with the The New York Times–a newspaper he [Read More...]

Maybe for a minute America was the light held atop the state of liberty, graciously welcoming the tired and huddled masses of the world. Maybe for just a minute we were the land of the free and the home of the brave that help stomp out the horrors that lead up to and occurred during [Read More...]

When birds are raised in captivity and accidentally get out of their cage, they usually don’t fare well. Their wings are not strong, their flight is weak and turbulent. They lack ability to obtain food and don’t quite understand the call of the wild. Likely, if they don’t find their way back into the comforts [Read More...]

The Adventurous Lectionary – August 6, 2017 – The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost Bruce G. Epperly Genesis 32:22-31 Psalm 17:1-7, 15 Romans 9:1-5 Matthew 13:14-21 What does it mean to be blessed? In what ways do you need God’s blessing? In what ways do you need the blessing of an elder – a mother, father, [Read More...]

I’ve been to pools with black people before There were five maybe six not twenty And all of them teenagers pushing and running where are the parents Several white men sit in chairs avoiding eye contact I’m not racist I didn’t say you were I’ve got small children So do I There is nothing wrong [Read More...]

Dear Pastor Peterson, We were thrilled when we read on Wednesday that you had come to accept and affirm same-sex relationships. There are scant few leaders in the evangelical world who would break bread with our rag-tag community of outcasts. We knew your wisdom and the respect it has garnered would go a long way [Read More...]

On Wednesday, Religion News Service published an interview with Eugene Peterson, the author of the bestselling Bible translation “The Message”, in which Peterson clearly and plainly said that he would perform a gay wedding and allowed openly LGBT+ people to serve and lead in the churches he has pastored. This statement from Peterson was hailed [Read More...]

“This must be God’s will” is a phrase often used to cover all manner of sins. Misuse of the will-of-God-card notwithstanding, seeking divine guidance has always been an essential aspect of discipleship. My paradigm for how to discern God’s will isn’t comprised of three easy steps or a scripted process. I have no principles or guidelines to offer [Read More...]

As a recovering Type-A overachiever, I used to be a To Do list lover. I kept lists on paper, electronic devices, the refrigerator, the back of every receipt in my wallet. I compiled master To Do lists of my to-do lists until the list was longer than Rapunzel’s hair and just as unmanageable. Can you [Read More...]

Conservatives are wringing their hands about the "ominous" increase in violence from the left. But they have been very silent or dismissive of the violence incited by Trump and carried out by his supporters over the last couple years.

Is there an epidemic of deadbeat dads in America's inner cities? If so, what's behind it?

I had the opportunity to attend an advance screening of the new movie Detroit yesterday night. For someone like me, born after the 60s, events like the riots in Detroit, and the Algiers motel... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

In 2018, the nation will commemorate the fiftieth year anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. While many in the nation will come together and celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King, the anniversary will also give rhetoric scholars an opportunity to study anew the rhetoric of one of America’s finest orators. [Read More...]

This is one to listen to if you really want to get the meaning – and also a bonus joke from Stuart  which made everyone crack up during what was otherwise a serious sermon! Click below. Last week I was talking with a friend about the practice of keeping a diary –and I said that, to [Read More...]

All the sounds of the earth are like music. All the sounds of the earth are like music. The breeze is so busy it don't miss a tree ...

To be created in the image of the triune God is to exist as a conversation. God, as trinity, exists as three “persons” in an eternal conversation with one another: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, listening and responding, giving and receiving with one another.

When seeking a spiritual director, people sometimes say they want one who will “call them on their bad behavior.” What they mean is they have destructive habits or believe that they are deceiving themselves and want someone to challenge them around those issues. Spiritual directors rarely do anything of that nature. At least most of [Read More...]

Every year, without fail, we sang the chorus Jacob’s Ladder at church camp. Sung by a hundred Long Island high schoolers, it was interminable. (It never sounded like this. Wow!) We certainly had no idea this was a Negro Spiritual with a history that stretched back 150 years or so. So we sang it. We [Read More...]

Larry Hurtado has posted to his blog the review he read of my book, A Man Attested by God, at the Society of Biblical Literature meeting in November. A number of people have asked for my response. What follows is not my response from the session, but a newly written response for my blog. Appreciation I want to [Read More...]

  [I wrote this poem on a Friday afternoon, laying in my tent looking up at the trees through the screen door to the Smoky Mountains surrounding the campsite. I wrote it as I listened to my children playing with Legos beside me, as I remembered that through our ancestors, we learn how we belong [Read More...]

In that moment I felt we stepped onto a small piece of ground that was shared, where each of us moved over to make room for the other and where we understood each other in ways that surprised both of us. And where I was jarred by, well, his humanity. His personhood. Read the full article [Read More...]

The RavenCast interview series challenge “us vs. them” thinking with new perspectives on the issues that divide us. Hear from knowledgeable guests and join live with your questions and comments. Can’t join live? Watch or listen to the recordings at your convenience. In this episode, the Rev. Adam Ericksen mixes things up with a sermon he preached [Read More...]

Two years ago this week, seventeen people were arrested on the first “Moral Monday,” sparking a summer of protests in which tens of thousands came to register their objection to immoral policies backed by dark money and extremist legislators. More than 1,000 people were arrested in the largest civil disobedience campaign since the 1960s sit-in [Read More...]

Turning Your World Upside Down A pearl you spot in the window of a jewelry store. A box of money you unexpectedly find while digging around in the garden of a house you are renting. A packet of yeast... {This is a content summary only. Click on the blog title above to continue reading this post, share your comments and browse the other areas of my blog.}

  14 brave souls gather to grieve a band of brothers daring to admit and touch the essential pain we each carry wounded warriors coming to council to lick our wounds in the private lair of men we smudge each other with sage to purify and set our resolve followed by a whiffing of sweet [Read More...]

Who is welcomed at your table?

Did you know that churches haven’t always had indoor plumbing? (Yes, of course you knew this.) In fact, it wasn’t until the 1880s that church building (and regular buildings and homes) started to get toilets installed on a mass scale. And if you have ever been part of a congregation where the color of the [Read More...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I want to commend to you a book that I have long known and loved. Warning: it is a darkly cynical use of the biblical tale of David and Solomon and will contain ideas you have perhaps never entertained in your religious life, but the ideas are surely worthy of some consideration, especially in the [Read More...]

Charlie Gard's parents have decided to give up the fight. I ache for them in every cell in my body.

When my husband and I were signing the documents to adopt our three children from foster care, we didn’t realize we were becoming Medicaid parents. As wards of the state of Texas, our children’s health care was provided by the state until our adoption was finalized 6-8 months later. Only after their names had been [Read More...]

There many things - large and small - that Christians can do to fight the xenophobia that threatens our country. One simple thing to do is have lunch!

The canaries in the churches have given their warning, and those savvy enough to pay attention to such things are evacuating the premises.

I am thirty-three years old. I am holding my baby. I have come to worship. I am so anxious I can hardly breathe. Photo by Alex Hockett on Unsplash It feels like my heart is going to burst out of my chest.  It feels like a constant struggle not to run away.  It feels like my journey from [Read More...]The post The Prodigal Mom appeared first on Unfundamentalist Parenting.

When I co-taught a course on Luther’s theology last summer, we had a lively discussion regarding to what extent–Luther, the great Protestant reformer, affirmed the doctrine of predestination. That is, did Luther subscribe to the notion that God “predestines” (elects), from eternity past, those who will be saved–simply as a consequence of God’s own will [Read More...]

I’ve spent a bit of time following the story of Charlie Gard this summer. First as covered by American news outlets and then, while on vacation, as covered by reporters in the United Kingdom. As you might remember, Charlie Gard is the child of two parents seeking permission to travel to the United States in [Read More...]

“I don’t have all the time in the world, but I have all night.”             James Dickey, “The Cancer Match” I have learned that there is a kindness in announcing limits. To a dear friend who would love a sympathetic ear for four hours straight if she could get it, whose childhood was stolen by [Read More...]