Although this book is very much about Schaeffer’s own journey to freedom, there’s enough of the good theologian and good biblical scholar in him to delight those of us who can never get enough of that kind of thing. He does a lot with the figure of Jesus as the only lens through which to grasp what God might be like, if God existed (the key God-marker in Jesus, according to Schaeffer: “non-judgmental co-suffering empathy”). He notes that Jesus violated every religious taboo of his time and place: touching dead people, touching lepers, touching women and letting women touch him.
read moreDear Rev. Rodriguez, I hope this finds you well. Some friends made me aware of your statement on the reelection of President Obama. I read it through multiple times, and each time I tried to put my metaphorical finger …
read more“You have to understand, one of our primary aspirations is to grow the economy, is to create jobs… We’re not demand-side Keynesians. So we don’t subscribe to that economic doctrine. And we think if you keep raising …
read moreReligion and a Non-White American Future The U.S. Census Bureau, never one to rush to judgment, has now made it official: fewer than 50% of the babies born in the United States during the year ending in …
read moreDear NPR, As an early riser I am a fairly faithful Morning Edition listener. I am also an ordained minister who has been engaged in one way or another with the great “Bible & homosexuality” controversy for far longer …
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This coming weekend will be marked by a 25th anniversary gathering and celebration for the important scholarly enterprise known as the Jesus Seminar. A good time to ask what difference it makes when the Jesus of history turns out to be considerably more interesting than the myth-encrusted Christ created by the church over the centuries. Or does it make any difference at all?
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Bill Coffin said, Liberal Christianity, or what we today call progressive Christianity and what some call “seminar room Christianity” has until now had a really unhelpful taint of elitism around it. We need to change that. So let’s just agree to get the conversation started. Let’s begin to grow in faith. Find strength in one another. See the world more clearly. And in and through all this, liberate ourselves and liberate one another for the sake of social transformation. If we ourselves can become the first fruits of the change we seek, then change itself-real change-cannot be far behind.
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