Voices from the Mainline, Progressive and Emerging Church
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 6th, 2012
By Cynthia Bolbach, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) One question I’m asked almost more than any other is, “So, where do you see hope in the PC(USA)?” A comprehensive answer would take up more than the word limits of this column. But two things stand out. First, all across the denomination persons are realizing [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 2nd, 2012
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 [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 2nd, 2012
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 [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 2nd, 2012
“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 [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 27th, 2012
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 [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 27th, 2012
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 [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 26th, 2012
If we are living faithful lives, seeking to serve others and love them as Christ loved us, it’s no secret to anyone.
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 18th, 2012
(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 [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 16th, 2012
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 [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jan 13th, 2012
“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 [...]
