****YOU HAVE REACHED THIS WEBSITE IN ERROR
-THIS WEBSITE IS NO LONGER ACTIVE****
PLEASE OPEN A NEW WINDOW
AND GO TO OUR NEW WEBSITE AT

WWW.PROGRESSIVECHRISTIANITY.ORG 
THANK YOU!

Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. Birthday celebrations lend themselves to the telling of stories. So, we begin with a parable by the radical theologian Peter Rollins. So, sit back and try to imagine that you live not at the beginning of the 21st century but at the middle of the 21st century; say about 2050. The world has changed quite a bit.

Samaritan’s Purse is providing clean, safe water for 100,000 people in two refugee camps in South Sudan. Not only are we meeting vast physical needs, we’re also proclaiming Jesus Christ as the Living Water, who alone can meet people’s spiritual needs.

“P2P Challenging Extremism” is a new State Department-sponsored program that enlists American college students to combat online extremism.

the CVE agenda adopts a particular approach to religion in which the latter is understood to “cause” political outcomes, both good and bad.

From a rich lode of speeches, articles in eBulletins, and numerous publications, Fred Plumer has mined those that define the Progressive Christianity movement as it evolves to meet new challenges in a rapidly changing world.

Xavier Rudd and The United Nations perform @ LEAF Spring 2015. Since the very beginning, Xavier Rudd’s ability to connect with people has been his most powerful gift. The more he has toured the world, the more hearts he has touched and the more of the world he has put back into his music.

2 Unite All Vols. 1 & 2 is a double album for Gaza relief with 30 tracks of peace and unity donated by a diverse group of world famous musicians. These include Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), Stewart Copeland (The Police), Thomas Bergersen (2 Billion Youtube hits), Sasha Cooke (Grammy Opera Winner), Gary Nicholson (Grammy Country Music Winner), Beth Nielsen Chapman, Rick Allen (Def Leppard), Fox Lima (Enigma MMX Social Song), Joanne Shenandoah (famed Native American singer) and more. The aim of the movement behind the music is to unite people separated by conflict and prejudice through the healing power of music.

This is the message sent out to the world by a well-known spiritual leader. “Life without God is like a non-sharpened pencil. It has no point.” If you are triggered, first start by noticing your trigger, and breathe. At least that’s what I had to do.

Seriously? Please tell me I did not just read that? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! My thoughts focused on how divisive the statement is. You just alienated atheists, secular humanists, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and God knows how many millions of others! (Pun intended!) I don’t know about you, but I am in no position to tell an atheist, or anyone else for that matter, their life is pointless. I feel confident that brilliant and compassionate atheists like Bill Gates, Simone de Beauvoir, Butterfly McQueen, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mark Twain, to name a few, would disagree as well. Not to mention, I see their atheist lives as anything BUT pointless!

When someone says, “I love you,” respond. Please. They need to hear it, they need to connect to that thread of life. We bear so much in life that is heart-wrenching. Let’s become a world bearing the weight of knowing just how lovable we are. Go find someone and be willing to speak out loud the times you have expressed yourself in challenging ways – it cleans your window. Then let them know you have seen when they have been broken, distant, selfish, unteachable, and they have never been unloved. It takes no special training, degrees, certifications or special knowledge for your heart to find that thread and share it because that thread of belonging is see-able in the light of being. So go be.

Following the way of Jesus asks of us to support and learn from people of other faith traditions. This may sound counter-intuitive at first. At its best, the Christian tradition asks us to listen for where the Divine is speaking, in whatever surprising places we may find it. We need others as a reminder of how much greater the Divine is than any one religious tradition’s ability to fully capture it.

“If I should have a daughter, instead of Mom, she’s gonna call me Point B … ” began spoken word poet Sarah Kay, in a talk that inspired two standing ovations at TED2011. She tells the story of her metamorphosis — from a wide-eyed teenager soaking in verse at New York’s Bowery Poetry Club to a teacher connecting kids with the power of self-expression through Project V.O.I.C.E. — and gives two breathtaking performances of “B” and “Hiroshima.”

Something really bothers me Lord
You said that we have to be like little children
But I’ve just come from my sister’s house
And my little nephew was there
And he was having a right tantrum

Project Peace on Earth’s first worldwide concert from Bethlehem Palestine on Christmas Day 2011 featured the Oneness video written by Peter Joseph and Steve Robertson. Produced by Peter Joseph. The 2013 (PPOE) World Forgiveness Concert for Bethlehem Christmas Day features this video. It is a message dedicated to empowering reality of all are one connected through the only true religion, that of being loving. The PPOE concert was broadcast worldwide to some 80 million homes through the graciousness of MelliTV. The concert features spiritually inspirational performances from Grammy Winners and Nominated Musicians: Contemporary/New Age, Legendary rock stars, Opera, Country, World Music Fusion and HipHop and insights about the importance of forgiveness from world-renown thought leaders.

This coming week we have the opportunity to enact our faith with those fleeing violence and seeking sanctuary in our country. Doing so is how we can actually make Holy Week holy.

Practice being a person of increase and thanksgiving. Our gratitude will lead us naturally to giving, we’re grateful so we give, and then we receive, and then we are grateful some more! What we will do for a life of meaning, peace, compassion and love will always be far more powerful than what we will do for money.

sadly in a world dominated by might, money, and power, some people look upon compassion, mercy, gentleness of spirit, inclusiveness and unconditional love as weakness. In a world blighted by terrorism, war and indescribable brutality demonstrated day by day, for example in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan; in a world where many have become indifferent, self righteous and just downright selfish; in a world where Bible passages are taken out of context to uphold racism, sexism, homophobia and unhealthy nationalism: these are the places in which compassion, mercy, gentleness of spirit, inclusiveness and unconditional love should work and speak.

Can we get inside this story,
Try to think as lepers thought?
Totally despised, rejected;
Life for them was worse than naught.

These parables of the lost and found are outrageous. None of us would get very fare in life if we lived by these teachings. It is better to put the welfare of the many above the needs of one. It is pointless to cry over spilt milk. Sometimes its better to cut your losses and move on. The best accountants learn quickly to write off losses that would be too time consuming and costly to recoup. Children need to learn that they can’t always get what they want; that there are consequences to their actions, that dues must be paid, that we need to ask for forgiveness and make amends for our crimes, that rules need to be followed, and laws cannot be broken. That doing the right thing will be rewarded. And yet along comes Jesus, spouting such foolishness that even we who are predisposed to agree with him, even we can sympathize with the self-righteous and wonder how anyone could be expected to live like this.

As we prepare for Easter, this Season of Lent offers us an opportunity to reflect again upon how we experience Yahweh God and how we live our lives of servant hood – not as doormats to be trampled under foot but as true servants of Yahweh God who proclaim by our lives that Jesus is our Way, our Truth and our Life.

Lent offers us the opportunity NOT to give up but to give more of ourselves in the service of others and in the causes of justice and peace. May this Season of Lent have real meaning for each one of us.