Quite often when I talk about following Jesus into preemptive love or proactive agape, people will argue that nonviolence doesn’t work. But it does. Even in World War 2 – the one example brought up most often in discussions like this – the Nazi’s admitted after the war that they were totally unprepared for how to respond to nonviolent resistance. “B.H. Liddell-Hart, widely acknowledged as the foremost military writer of our times, discovered in his interrogation of Nazi generals after… Read more
April 23, 2019
Things That Make For Peace
April 23, 2019 By Keith Giles
4 Comments
The church bombings on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka were directly in retaliation for the Mosque shooting in New Zealand last month. Where does it end? This Us vs Them mentality starts out as simple tribalism, but very quickly escalates into violence, war and eventual annihilation. You disrespect me and I will disrespect you. You beat up one of my tribe, I attack three of yours. You kill one of mine, I kill five of yours. You kill ten… Read more
April 20, 2019
Is Christ Risen?
April 20, 2019 By Keith Giles
2 Comments
We, the Church, are the Body of Christ. We are the physical representation of Jesus in the world today. As the Body of Jesus, we seem to be much more comfortable in the dark of the tomb, wrapped in our own shroud, meditating on this death of our Lord, with the stone rolled shut across the door. We ignore that what we are called to do – as the living Body of Jesus – is to go out and proclaim,… Read more
April 19, 2019
Did Jesus Say That?
April 19, 2019 By Keith Giles
0 Comments
I’ve started to notice that the wisdom of Jesus is a bigger part of our collective intelligence than I ever realized before. I often hear people who are not followers of Jesus quote Him in their conversations with one another. This made me wonder just how many of the phrases we commonly use are actually attributed to the words of Jesus. Here’s what I found: Going the extra mile – Mt 5:40-42 The truth will set you free –… Read more
April 18, 2019
Love Beyond Labels
April 18, 2019 By Keith Giles
23 Comments
You can’t really love the Homeless until you love Debbie or Steve [who happen to be homeless]. You can’t really say you love the LGBTQ community until you love Scott or Hannah or Jasmine [who happen to be Gay, Trans and Lesbian]. You can’t really love Muslims until you love Usha, or Ibrahim [who are Muslims]. You can’t really love any group of people as long as you only see them as an anonymous collective that sits behind a label…. Read more
April 17, 2019
Our Interactive Good Friday Service
April 17, 2019 By Keith Giles
2 Comments
For the last few years, our family would host an interactive and meditative Good Friday experience in our home. We’d spend the day setting up different stations around our house and invite our neighbors, our friends, our house church family and pretty much anyone who wanted to join us to participate. In the evening, just as the sun was going down, people would enter the house quietly and visit the various stations spread throughout our home in any order they… Read more
April 16, 2019
Dear Church: Time Is Running Out
April 16, 2019 By Keith Giles
17 Comments
The signs are obvious. There’s not much time left for us to correct our course before it’s too late. Young people are leaving the faith in record numbers Political divisions have created a fractured and broken church community Evangelical churches are growing older and less relevant Most young people say that politics in the pulpit is driving them away from church And they’re not coming back. So, that’s why I’ve decided to do something. First, I’m teaching a 3 week… Read more
April 12, 2019
Everyone Is Someone’s Heretic
April 12, 2019 By Keith Giles
6 Comments
It started in September of 2017. Three authors who did not agree on everything theologically came together to agree on one thing: We can love and respect people even if we disagree. Since then, the three of us – that’s me, Jamal Jivanjee and Matthew Distefano – have recorded almost 50 episodes of the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast which have been downloaded over 100,00 times [to date]. We’ve had some amazing conversations with people like avowed atheist Bart Ehrman,… Read more
April 10, 2019
Bible Psychosis Syndrome: Know The Symptoms
April 10, 2019 By Keith Giles
113 Comments
Do you suffer from BPS [Bible Psychosis Syndrome]? It’s more common than you might realize. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to diagnose the symptoms: *Do you find yourself easily confused by statements in the Bible that suggest that the Bible isn’t your authority? *Do you often use the phrase “But you wouldn’t know that if it wasn’t in the Bible!”, especially in response to statements from the Bible that point to Christ [but not to the Bible]?… Read more
April 9, 2019
Worthless? Remembering My Friend Robert Higgins
April 9, 2019 By Keith Giles
1 Comment
NOTE: This post was originally written April 30, 2010. Last week I had lunch with my friend, Robert Higgins. Every Friday he and I spend an hour together and share lunch in his room at Fountain Care. Robert is 78 years old. He has bone cancer. He is on Hospice Care now. When I first met him he was homeless. The manager of the motel in Santa Ana where we’ve been serving introduced me to Robert. When Pete, the manager,… Read more
get the latest from
Keith Giles
Sign up for our newsletter
POPULAR AT PATHEOS Progressive Christian
Browse Our Archives
TRENDING AT PATHEOS Progressive Christian
