Here are three high-value tasks for church leaders to undertake in summer — in and around your highest priority: taking a vacation! Get your data systems in order You need a tracking system to …
read moreJust when I had concluded that Jeb Bush was the likely Republican nominee for president in 2016, he said something that dumbfounded me: “I hope I’m not going to get castigated for saying this by my priest back home, but I don’t get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope. And I’d like to see what [the pope] says as it relates to climate change and how that connects to these broader, deeper issues before I pass judgment. But I think religion ought to be about making us better as people and less about things that end up getting in the political realm. ” (New York Times, June 17, 2015)
read moreOn the subject of GMOs Pope Francis states; “It is difficult to give an overall judgment on the development of genetically modified organisms (GMO), plant or animal, for medical purposes or in agriculture, since they can be …
read moreBorn and raised on the North Side of St. Louis Missouri, Prince Ea has a sound unlike most artists. Possessing a great song writing ability and stage presence, he combines both creative and thought-provoking songs that neatly tie-in humor, wit, passion, and hard hitting punch-lines.
read moreThe three major western religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, teach that time is linear but goes on for eternity. Many eastern religions tend to view time in repeating circular patterns. Both are guilty of undermining the message of environmental scientists who are telling us that we are simply running out of time. We have no reason to be certain that we will have an infinite number of chances to try again or that God will enter history and take us all away from a dying planet. The savior we are looking for is staring back at us from the bathroom mirror.
read more“Rising Appalachia’s “Closer to the Edge” is a creative sculpted song-line that speaks to the universal need and desire to stand up, step in, and jump off…digging deep into the corner cracks of our social fabrics. It is a creative interpretation of modern times and their imminent impact and decay. We have a deep longing to join forces to create, and co-shape this upward movement towards solidarity. It is one part apocalyptic and two parts unity…looking at global warming, the abuse of media, the inability to WORK on the problems at hand, and America’s fractured ability to RISE up as a unified and diverse people. What are our edges, and how close are we to that tipping point?” …
read moreThis unique film festival is designed to combine cutting edge films and interactive workshops to guide you from inspiration to action in Three “streams” – Spirit, Society and Self.
read moreSAMSARA is a Sanskrit word that means “the ever turning wheel of life” and is the point of departure for the filmmakers as they search for the elusive current of interconnection that runs through our lives. Filmed over a period of almost five years in twenty-five countries, SAMSARA transports us to sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites, and natural wonders. By dispensing with dialogue and descriptive text, SAMSARA subverts our expectations of a traditional documentary, instead encouraging our own inner interpretations inspired by images and music that infuses the ancient with the modern.
read moreI grew up long before computers showed us how they could handle millions of requests all at once. So in college I began to have serious questions whenever our preacher asked everyone to bow their heads and say a silent prayer to God. And our preachers back in the 50’s and 60’s did that a lot. How could God hear all those prayers being offered up at the same time? There were several hundred at our church and many more throughout Tupelo who were in church from 11 until noon on Sunday, plus in our state and country and around the world. Lots of prayers were being offered up all at once, so how did God sort them all out.
read moreSince 9/11 Americans have largely accepted the idea that national security requires a trade-off between government power and freedom. However, recent revelations about the extent of government surveillance have raised serious questions about overreach, abuse of power, and the limits of democracy. How should people of faith respond to these revelations? Amid wide-spread public apathy over drone warfare, surveillance, and open-ended wars on “terror,” how can faith leaders provide stronger moral leadership? Do our faith traditions have anything distinctive to say in relation to alleged government overreach, whether by the NSA or the CIA? And how do we assess the ethics of those who expose secret government operations in the name of preventing abuse?
read moreMillions of children in the Northeast quadrant of the United States will have to miss their annual spook-fest and candy shake-down on October 31 this year. Something far more terrifying than any Halloween slasher film rose up from the tropics and swooped onto the mainland in the last few days of October. Like a fell creature from JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth, the “Frankenstorm” named Sandy, spinning counter-clockwise (the Devil’s own widdershins), spread its Nazgûl wings from North Carolina to the Great Lakes. What began as a late-season Hurricane (strange enough) was sucked into an early Arctic cold front, and created a weather system never before experienced in recorded human time.
read moreAll across the world, people are transforming the food system. As we gain more insight into the industrial food complex, people are turning away from industrial agriculture toward sustainable and local alternatives. Why is this an issue that matters to progressive Christians? There are many reasons.
read moreGMOs can be toxic, and they can cause food allergies. There has been relatively little testing done on humans and yet these products are reaching our store shelves and in the USA, foods containing GMO ingredients are not labeled as they are in Europe and even in China. In our country, where democracy is demonstrably for sale, giant food corporations have so much influence on our government that we continue to subsidize the foods that make us fat, diabetic and give us heart disease but we do not subsidize the production of the foods that would make us more healthy. We have given research grants to create these “frankenfoods” and then protected manufacturers from legal liability for the problems they create.
read moreBy taking a fraction of what we’re already spending and buying US-made goods, we’ll create a economic tidal wave. Watch the vid and share it. Boom, your helping make jobs. millionjobsproject. us
read moreMore timely and necessary than ever in the wake of recent calamities like Hurricane Katrina and the Republican war against the environment, The Lost Gospel of the Earth is legendary activist Tom Hayden’s eco-spiritual call for revamping traditional religious doctrine to reflect a greater environmental consciousness, which he believes is the only way to save the planet from catastrophe.
read moreThe firearms industry generates roughly $32 billion in revenue every year, $10 billion more than the Ford Motor Company — and employs 98,000 people, five times more than Google Inc.
read moreThese are Study and Discussion Questions that can be used with SOULJOURN, By Jim Burklo Find the book here Have you ever had an out-of-ego experience? How can religion and spirituality help to get you out of …
read moreA human rights agency has raised concerns about the advent of “killer robots”, capable of selecting and killing targets autonomously. “Lethal armed robots that could target and kill without any human intervention should never be built,” said …
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