This piece was originally published at Unity in Christ Magazine on April 24, 2012. The Good Samaritan story recorded in Luke 10:25-37 could have been titled The Illegal Samaritan story, too. It just depends on who’s telling the tale. Jesus told it first, and so he naturally, or better supernaturally, put a redemptive spin on it. The Samaritan in this story should have never crossed the road to tend to the Jewish man (the story implies that the robbed and... Read more

This piece was originally published at The Oregonian on April 22, 2012. By Paul Louis Metzger and Kyogen Carlson As an Evangelical Christian theologian and Zen Buddhist priest, we ask religious leaders and politicians to weigh carefully their rhetorically charged claims this most political of seasons. Rhetoric is for arguments, not hood ornaments or bumper stickers. Instead of crashing into one another through rhetoric, rhetoric as defined as the art of persuasion is key to our navigating intersections of life... Read more

Mormons, Buddhists and adherents of other religions are not “-isms.” They’re not even “-ists.” They’re people. So, for all their differences from us Evangelical Christians, they’re still so much like you and me. Moreover, as with us, their humanity shapes their approach to their faith traditions, just as their faith traditions shape them as humans. While I find it refreshing and right to hold passionately to ultimate truth claims in a society where relativism is so prevalent, Christians must guard... Read more

My pastor, Tory Campbell, has alluded to “A Tale of Two Cities” in recent weeks on Sunday mornings at Irvington Covenant Church. You may have read Charles Dickens’ classic tale of sacrificial love by that same title set against the backdrop of two cities—Paris and London—during the French Revolution. Pastor Campbell has not been talking about Paris and London during the French Revolution, but about the need for a revolution of love that would move the church to engage the... Read more

I know you’re not supposed to discuss religion and politics over meals, but we did so anyway today. A humanitarian relief worker sat down with this theological friend and discussed faith and politics, pragmatism, convenience and ethics, and Uganda and North Korea. Over our lunch at our conveniently located restaurant, we discussed inconvenient truths that bear on the church, Portland, and Washington. Here is one of the inconvenient questions I raised: Is Portland’s and Oregon’s deeply troubling history  on racial... Read more

I was reminded of John Lennon’s tune, “Imagine,” as I read TIME Magazine’s recent cover article on the theme of “Rethinking Heaven.” The title of the piece is “Heaven Can’t Wait”. In Lennon’s song, “Imagine,” Lennon sang of the world being a much better place if we could move beyond belief in heaven and hell, and if people would only live for today. Would the world be a better place if there were no heaven? Lennon’s song claims that belief... Read more

Maybe you have seen the movie Anger Management that stars Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson. Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) is a businessman wrongly sentenced in court to an anger-management program. His instructor, Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson), uses controversial and unorthodox tactics to help him. In watching the movie, I was often thinking the therapist was in greater need of therapy than anyone else! We are all in need of anger management training at various points in our lives. However,... Read more

This post was updated on April 2, 2014. In an article discussing Swiss philosopher Alain de Botton’s book, Religion For Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion, Kimberly Winston asks: “Stripped of its supernatural elements, does religion have anything to offer atheists? What can nonbelievers borrow from the organizations, practices and rituals of believers – without borrowing a belief in God?” (see here). Beyond what atheists and other “nonbelievers” might strip away from and also borrow from religion, I am... Read more

I often feel a bit like Boromir in The Lord of the Rings: give me the ring of power and I will use it to bring about good. How foolish. The good will succumb to power, when power is our chief means to accomplish good. In the end, the end goal will justify any means, any use of power. The Dark Lord forged this ring of power in secret in the fires of Mount Doom. His own identity was bound... Read more

While preserving our humanity through lunch in a Cuban restaurant near downtown Portland, a friend and I discussed America’s foreign policy concerning North Korea. My friend alerted me to an article that discusses Robert Gates’ concern over the increasing militarization of U. S. foreign policy. Gates is the former Secretary of Defense, who served the Bush and Obama administrations. My friend was concerned that the problem Gates highlighted related directly to the U. S. decision to give North Korea humanitarian... Read more