sacrament
The frightening side of baptism
Peter Leithart argues that the sacrament’s violence is surprisingly good news.
What's in your bottle?
Wine is a good gift from God. Coca-Cola is not. (But is it really that simple?)
Peyote and the racialized war on drugs
A summer of racial unrest throughout the country has led to calls in the presidential campaign to “restore law and order.” It’s the same line used by Richard Nixon in 1968 to appeal to white nationalist fears of black criminality after the “long hot summer of 1967.” Racialized wars on drugs emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—directed against Chinese people for opium use, African Americans in the South for charges of cocaine use, and Mexicans and Mexican Americans surrounding allegations of marijuana use.
Then there is peyote, a sacred medicine and religious adjunct in Native American worship.
The impossible possible
We had not one but two baptisms the other day. What absorbed me most was the way the little kids edged toward the event like wasps to a picnic.
by Brian Doyle
Who is communion for? The debate over the open table
Offering the elements to the unbaptized can be seen as a development and not a revolution, but it is a significant change. Is it a good one?
What's confirmation for? A rite needing revision
Perhaps instead of asking confirmands to confirm the vows made at their baptisms, members should confirm the vows they made to these teens at their baptisms—confirming the validity of those vows and the congregation’s love and commitment to them, no matter what the teens may believe at the moment or where life may take them. The candidates would be asked to receive the love of the congregation and a recommitment of what the congregation offered them at their baptisms. Even if the teens leave the church, as many will, those commitments would be like a light kept in the window until they are ready to return home.