Throughout history, humans have believed that deceased loved ones, ancestors, spirit guides, angels, and other helpful spiritual beings operate in our lives and are genuinely interested in our welfare. Notwithstanding the advent of scientific materialism, such beliefs are also alive and well today.
read moreWe’re sorry that the world is such a terrible place. We’re sorry that the earth herself is groaning under the weight of our filth. We’re sorry that billionaires rule the world. We’re sorry that my consumption enslaves others in poverty. We’re sorry that justice is so difficult to come by for the poor. We’re sorry, I’m sorry, You’re sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. What do you want from us?
read moreWatch this video as the United Church of Christ’s quarterly medical debt forgiveness campaign continued in St Louis over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Twelve St. Louis and Missouri Mid-South Conference congregations and the Deaconess Foundation joined forces to come up with over $100,000 in donations.
read moreThe words apocalypse and eschaton have been resurrected from the dustbin of theological jargon, and they both refer to what happens at the end of time. More specifically, they point to the end of life as we know it, and today that prophecy comes in two forms.
read moreBeginning January 16, 2020, join co-hosts Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza and Rev. Anna Golladay as they explore conversations fueled by analysis and activism, all in pursuit of getting our collective hands dirty to achieve social liberation.
read moreIn an article I posted to Facebook shortly after reading, that tells us the oceans are heating up at a rate equal to five Hiroshima bombs being dropped into them every second. No. I did not want to learn that this week, but I did.
read moreSermon Video with Rev. Caleb J. Lines is senior minister at University Christian Church in San Diego, California.
read moreIt will be a much sadder day for food-insecure people in America when and if the Trumpublicans succeed in decimating the SNAP (food stamp) and school lunch programs with a $4.2 billion annual cut.
read moreDr. Rev. Yvette Flunder, singing and preaching at Canadian Memorial about Numbers 11:24-30, and the radically inclusive love of Jesus.
read moreThe current Keynesian economic system is on its last legs. The consolidation of wealth of the industrial revolution brought on the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the resulting war manufacturing of WWII created the middle class.
read moreOur 2020 updated version of the 8 Points of progressive Christianity
read moreIt is wonderful to find insights and practices like these getting into print. These essays voice for me just the sorts of issues our new and more selective faith(s) should be guiding us toward, climate above all.
read moreLeah Schade and Margaret Bullitt-Jonas gather twenty-one faith leaders, scientists, community organizers, theologians, and grassroots climate activists to offer wisdom for fellow pilgrims grappling with the weight of climate change.
read moreKaitlin Curtice is a Native American Christian author and speaker. As an enrolled member of the Potawatomi Citizen Band and someone who has grown up in the Christian faith, Kaitlin writes on the intersection of Indigenous spirituality, faith in everyday life, and the church.
read moreParaphrasing St. Oscar Romero, “If a church is not publicly opposed to war, to murder, to political assassination, of what use is that church?” While we may hope that churches will avoid wading into partisan politics, we cannot be tricked into believing that ethics is the same thing as politics. As the USA inches closer to war with Iran and ignores even the executive order of Ronald Regan forbidding political assassination, the prophetic church must now do the one thing for which we exist: speak truth to power.
read moreWe must cultivate peace in our own hearts first, allowing the Peace of Christ to root there. This is our work as we pray for peace in the whole earth.
read moreThough most western religious traditions seem to promise some kind of afterlife, what if, as Martin Hägglund articulately argued, our limited mortal life is all there is? Our days, being limited in number, become more valuable, and our work becomes more meaningful. Without eternity, preserving the earth becomes more imperative. Though many spiritual teachers give assurances they cannot support with evidence, this sermon deals with morality in a matter-of-fact manner.
read moreLGBTQ inclusion in the policy and practices of UMC has been a long contentious and exhausting battle- both nationally and globally. The proposed schism to be voted on in May at General Conference in Minneapolis will divide the nation’s third-largest denomination worldwide.
read more