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Jesus and Lucifer on Social Justice

Thinking about Beck’s advice, I asked myself, WWJD, “What Would Jesus Do?” and immediately wondered WWLD, or “What Would Lucifer Do?”…what does the Lucifer Effect tell us about Christianity and social justice?

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The Sexual Believer

The Sexual Believer is intended for adults who have grown up with traditional religious teaching about sexual morality.

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The Sword of the Lord

My core motivation for researching and writing the book was to understand the roots of fundamentalism — and how my own life fit into that story.

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The Origins of the New Testament, Part XX: Seeing the Crucifixion as Related Liturgically to the Passover

The overwhelming probability is that the familiar details of the cross are not the result of historic memory at all, but are rather liturgical interpretations of who it was who died on the cross and what his death meant. A quick analysis of the details from this narrative reveals that they were drawn not from the memory of eye witnesses, but from the scriptures of the Jewish people, primarily from Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. So even the central story of the final events in Jesus’ life now looks more like the work of an interpretative imagination than it does the work of a historian.

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A Joyful Path Children’s Curriculum, Year Two!

We have begun our Year Two Project! With over 300 groups using A Joyful Path, Year One, with only positive results, we’ve had a lot of inquiries lately as to when the second year of A Joyful Path, is coming out. We are pleased to announce that, thanks to a recent, generous donation, we are now ready to begin A Joyful Path, Year Two! We are committed to continuing the high level of scholarship, creativity, and quality found in A Joyful Path, Year One, so we are not expecting to have Year Two ready until Spring of 2013.

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Why A Progressive Christian Education Program for Children?

Many parents, who don’t find the religion they learned as children very useful in their adult lives, still find themselves coming back to church with their children, hoping to give them a sense of community, ritual, and …

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Reclaiming the Victory: Easter Sunday 2011

Jesus is seriously dead.  None of the rest of it makes any sense otherwise.

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1978 Ecumenical Study Document on Abortion

a set of statements on abortion compiled in 1978 from various denomination authorities

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Easter Reflections

Easter Reflections for Christians, and for people who are not Christian as well, by Cara Hochalter. May speak to people who are “spiritual but not religious” who, like all of us, seek the fresh winds of the spirit and new births in love.

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Courage, Freedom and the Spring Holidays

Constituencies of two distinct religious traditions joined in and by their pasts have been engaged this week in observances honoring their shared mythology.

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Living Resurrection

I must admit that resurrection, then and now, remains a mystery – it can’t be defined in terms of literal flesh and bones or explained away as metaphor; nor is it helpful to speak of the pre-resurrection and post-resurrection Jesus.  Jesus is a whole person reality, resurrection as rebirth and healing power characterized his teaching, healing, and hospitality

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Top Ten Reasons ‘Burn a Qur’an Day’ is Anti-Biblical

The Dove World Outreach Center, a non-denominational church in Gainesville, Florida, announced in July that it would host a Qur’an burning event on its church property in observance of the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks “to warn Americans about the dangers of Islam.”

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Eternal Life

I have been asked many times, Well, do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus and of eternal life for believers? Yes or no?
My answer is: “Well, it’s both ‘yes’ and ‘no’!”

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To Hell with Hell

Is there a Hell after this life? Does God send non-believers to burn for all eternity in Hell?

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What Happens to Us When We Die

Heaven is a symbolic expression of two complementary yearnings: the longing for perfection in this world, and union with the divine.  We are drawn by the promise of perfection. On an interior level this is felt as the promise of perfect love, happiness, and the ideal relationship. The idea of hell is essentially a symbolic yearning for a moral order in which the good are rewarded and the bad are punished.

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Heaven Within

I see no conclusive evidence for an afterlife. Having said that, I find enormous meaning and power in the metaphor of heaven and feel very motivated by the many ways we can manifest heaven both in this life and beyond our life.

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Union Yes! 5th Sunday in Lent, Year A

Sea Raven details how the Gosepl of Jesus relates to the current debate over worker’s rights.

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The Secret Code: Revealed to Infants: 4th Sunday in Lent

The secret is, God’s covenantal justice is distributive.  No being in the great matrix of the universe is left out.  Matthew’s Jesus didn’t get it either.

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