By Shane Claiborne
02/02/12
This morning, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Barack Obama named Dorothy Day as a “great reformer in American history.” Who woulda thunk it? I think President Hoover called her a threat to national security. Here’s the exact quote from the President’s speech: We can’t leave our values at the door. If we leave our values [...]
More »By Guest Contributor
02/02/12
By John C. Holbert Lectionary Reflections for Epiphany 5 - Isaiah 40:21-31 We Christians have just concluded our yearly celebration of the birth of Jesus and, as always, have used the opening verses of Is 40 to inaugurate the feast. “Comfort, comfort, my people,” cries the unnamed prophet of the exile to a people lost [...]
More »By Jim Burklo
02/01/12
“Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.” (Jesus, Sermon on the Mount, Luke 12: 48) That’s how it is in the kingdom of heaven, that realm of living imagination that inspires us to create it on [...]
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01/27/12
By John C. Holbert Lectionary Reflections on Deuteronomy 18: 15-20 Epiphany 4: Sunday, January 29, 2012 Many Bible passages are quite fascinating in multiple ways, but today’s Hebrew Bible pericope is especially interesting for several reasons, reasons that I hope will become apparent in this article. And it is peculiar at first blush just what [...]
More »By Roger Wolsey
01/27/12
So there’s this fundamentalist, ultra-Calvinist , hyper-macho leader of a mega-church in Seattle named Mark Driscoll. He’s known for reaching out to young males by appealing to their latent misygony and homophobia; i.e., to build them up by putting others down. Disturbing as that is, that’s not why I’m writing today. I write because I [...]
More »By Alyce McKenzie
01/26/12
If we are living faithful lives, seeking to serve others and love them as Christ loved us, it’s no secret to anyone.
More »By Jim Burklo
01/18/12
(This “musing” appears in The Interfaith Observer online magazine this month.) My wife and I drive out of the city. On the way, we share stories with each other. We laugh about how complicated and intertwined the tales of our lives have become with each other, and with and among the people we know. We [...]
More »By Carl Gregg
01/16/12
Bruce Metzger, in his seminal work The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance, writes that, Shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968, a group of ministers seriously proposed that King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” be added to the New Testament. All will appreciate that this letter, written [...]
More »By Bruce Epperly
01/13/12
“Life is infinitely stranger than anything the mind can invent,” so says Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. These days, the words of politicians are infinitely stranger than anything the mind can invent. Kansas Speaker of the House Mike O’Neal, noted for his recent description of Michelle Obama as “Mrs. YoMama,” is now [...]
More »By Roger Wolsey
01/13/12
[Note: This blog was written on April 3, 2011, the anniversary of the night before MLK's assassination.] On this night in 1968, MLK delivered his last speech. He was shot and killed the next day. These are words that haunt, inspire, challenge, and motivate me. I see signs of this kind of radical Christianity, this [...]
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