Latest Articles
The verbs of Lent's second Sunday
Jesus didn’t speak the pleasant, sit-at-the-library-table verb study me.
Instead Jesus said, “follow me.”
A Political Theology of Climate Change, by Michael S. Northcott
Many Americans dismiss climate change reports as fear mongering. Michael Northcott sees the use of apocalyptic imagery differently.
Supreme Court to hear case of a headscarf that cost a Muslim teen a job
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Carbon and compost: Gardening in a time of climate change
There is too much carbon in the atmosphere. What if one of the most compelling responses is to restore the carbon in the ground beneath our feet?
The Son of Man must be killed by humans
In my lectionary columns and posts for the first two weeks in Lent, I am suggesting the Lenten theme of covenant. God’s plan of salvation is founded on a faithful relationship extended over time and space.
Over the past 20-plus years in my own faith journey, the Bible’s anthropology has taken primacy for me over its theology, providing a crucial reason for the importance of covenant to salvation. René Girard’s work proposes that what has “saved” us as a species—thus far—are the false gods of our own unconscious creation.
The builders
This month, we at Old South, the congregation I serve, are celebrating the 225th anniversary of the gathering of Congregationalists in Hallowell, Maine. As we contend with another very snowy Maine winter, and the piles of snow that have just about completely covered the primary entry door of our sanctuary building (when we are able to have worship this winter, we are meeting in the parish house across the street), it’s almost overwhelming to think about the difficulties of starting a church in the midst of winter in Maine.
At a recent Sunday worship service, someone quipped, “If there’s one time of year when you really need God, this is it.”
Who’s Afraid of Relativism? by James K. A. Smith
James K. A. Smith suggests that the work of Richard Rorty can be a source of renewal—even though it makes many conservative Christians shrink in horror.
Hubs, salt, and grace
This was a presentation I gave on communications on the 21st century at the Milwaukee Presbytery for their Discovery Days event.
Lone leaders
What goes on in the mind of a leader who tires of building consensus and just strives to get things done?
Shut up and learn
Under Ruben Duran's leadership, the ELCA has started an array of worshiping communities in homes and bars and on the streets and in train stations.
We don’t need sameness to connect
I have never had the privilege of a faith community catered to my cultural background.
Although born to a Taiwanese family, I was exposed to a Western education (at age 10); far too young to relate to local Taiwanese children. And yet with my dark hair and yellow skin, love for barbecued squid on a stick, and fluency in two Chinese languages, I was certainly a foreigner to American ways.
Walmart employees will soon be slightly less poor
Some small good news for American low-wage workers: Walmart is increasing its wages at the low end. By April, no Walmart employee will make less than $9 an hour; a year from now it’ll be $10. The retailer is also moving to improve its scheduling practices, a source of worker complaints.
Walmart’s decision is a voluntary one, made for business reasons.
Other people saying things
"The American public sphere is exactly the wrong place to try to hold a conversation on the aut...
Why you should stop assuming Jesus is with you
Instead of spending so much time following the presence of Jesus today, who might send us in the mix of Samaritans, or masses of poor and hungry people, why not just assume that wherever we are, Jesus is with us?
In the face of unrelenting snow, New England churches soldier on
c. 2015 Religion News Service...
Utah highest, Vermont lowest on newest church attendance poll
c. 2014 Salt Lake Tribune
(RNS) More Utahns go to church every week—51 percent—than any other state, according to a new Gallup poll....