Backward or Forward with God: A Response to Glenn Beck’s “Recovering Honor”

Last updated on: August 30, 2010 at 3:30 pm By Guest Contributor

"Faithfulness to God today involves world loyalty and the willingness to sacrifice for the well-being of vulnerable persons and an equally vulnerable planet. Individual initiative, creativity, and freedom are important and essential to the good life, but they always exist in the context of caring for God by supporting the least of these and seeking to be God’s partners in healing the earth, economically, politically, and spiritually. The only gospel worth following is social, despite Beck’s revisionism: “let justice roll down like waters, righteousness like an everflowing stream.” (Amos 5:24)" Bruce Epperly on a different kind of Christian honor. Read more

Counting the Cost: Lectionary Reflections on Luke 14:25-33

Last updated on: August 30, 2010 at 9:17 am By Alyce McKenzie

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Says biblical scholar Earl Ellis, “Jesus’ purpose in telling these 2 parables is not to dissuade prospective disciples, but to awaken half hearted followers to the disastrous consequences of such a path”(195). They will be thrown out like worthless salt (Luke 14:18). Read more

Religion, Politics and the Public Square

Last updated on: August 30, 2010 at 3:30 am By Guest Contributor

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"I find good people of faith and conscience are reticent to speak up about controversial issues, whether in houses of worship or councils of government, because of the common misconception that expressing passionate views grounded in a religious or ethical belief system somehow violates the separation of religion and state." Presbyterian minister and Director of the Marin Interfaith Council Carol Hovis appeals to people of faith to stand with Muslim Americans at this critical moment for all religions. Read more

Ungrounding Ourselves into the Christ-Ethic

Last updated on: August 29, 2010 at 11:06 am By George Elerick

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For Lacan, public law such as “No Photos” or “Do not go on the grass” implicitly attracts the subject of that law to commit the very thing it prohibits (exactly in the way that if we tell the child not to eat the freshly baked cakes, we are simultaneously pointing out the method with which the child can ignore our demands). The point at which the attempts of prohibition by public law fail, like here, is precisely where superego emerges.... Read more

Is Morality Natural? Hitchens, God, and the Nature of Morality

Last updated on: August 28, 2010 at 8:06 pm By Benjamin Chicka

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Belief in God is not necessary for morality. But, I cannot disprove that an omniscient God created the universe in such a way that we would evolve oxytocin as the moral molecule. I have no way to test this so I must leave this in the "inconclusive" pile. Call it a matter of faith. Read more

Guest of Honor? Lectionary Reflections for Aug. 29

Last updated on: August 22, 2010 at 8:02 pm By Alyce McKenzie

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Who was the guest of honor in the banquet Jesus attended? Who is the guest of honor in the banquets we attend? Who is the guest of honor in the banquets we are to host, a foretaste of the messianic banquet? Who is the guest of honor at the messianic banquet in the kingdom of God yet to come? Read more

The Future Church: What does it mean to be an inclusive Church?

Last updated on: August 20, 2010 at 4:46 pm By George Elerick

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The condition of renewal means you cut your roots – Slavoj Zizek Once upon a time when we were peripatetic hunter-gatherers, all we knew was travel. Mobility was life. Life was mobility. We only took what we needed. We didn’t consume in excess. Then one day we discovered the art of farming and settling. This simple shift transformed the landscape of how we interacted with the world and one another. This simple shift from constantly moving to immobilisation, would force... Read more

Muslims, Ground Zero, Fear and Fairness

Last updated on: August 20, 2010 at 9:51 am By Guest Contributor

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"I sympathize with all those who are afraid of Muslim terrorists. I do not join them in that fear–statistically speaking, Americans are as likely to die in their bathtubs as they are to be killed by terrorists–but I am cursed by empathy, the writer’s ability to see how other people think, live, and love. If I were a New Yorker, perhaps I would also be upset by the news that Sufi Muslims want to build a spiritual center in lower Manhattan, not far from the site of the World Trade Center attacks. Maybe. But I doubt it." Guest blogger and Episcopal lay preacher Greg Garrett files a passionate response to the continuing debate over the proposed "Ground Zero Mosque." Read more

Eat, Pray, Love: An Invitation for Christians?

Last updated on: August 18, 2010 at 3:12 pm By Guest Contributor

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Does the film and book "Eat, Pray, Love" present an invitation to moderate and progressive Christians to take the spiritual journeys of people more seriously in preaching, program, and outreach? Guest blogger Bruce Epperly thinks so... Read more

How I Rediscovered Christianity Through Islam

Last updated on: August 17, 2010 at 11:15 am By Guest Contributor

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"The religious "other" is not the enemy; quite the contrary: it's through her that one's own religious identity and practice emerge more clearly." Theology Professor Philip Clayton explores the emerging "third way" of deepening one's own religious beliefs in a multi-faith world. Read more