Now Is the Time
Column by Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin on February, 29 2024“The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” If you did not know already, it will not surprise you to know that quote is from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Like LGBTQ+ couples was W. E. B. Dubois a romantic at heart?
Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on February, 22 2024This Valentine’s Day, I pay homage to W. E. B. Du Bois’s 1924 novel “Dark Princess” because it highlights the least talked about subject then and now: Black love.
It’s Time For Us To Be Kind
Column by Rev. Brandan Robertson on February, 15 2024This is an excerpt from my book Dry Bones and Holy Wars released by Orbis Books in 2021.
Zombie Apocalypse and A Call to Authentic Christianity
Column by Rev. Roger Wolsey on February, 8 2024A prominent theme of U.S. American pop culture over the past decade has been fascination with a “zombie apocalypse.”
Now’s the Time to Defend Science Against Fundamentalism
Column by Rev. David M. Felten on February, 1 2024What better time than February 12th and Charles Darwin’s birthday (by rights, one of the most important days on your Liturgical Calendar) to turn our thoughts once again to the critical role Progressive Christians have as a defense against those who think subverting science somehow promotes their religion.
Vignettes of Christmas 2023
Column by Dr. Carl Krieg on January, 25 2024The situation is complicated. Churches are not supposed to endorse candidates. Indeed, many churches have members who support Trump. Some members place more faith in Trump than they do in Jesus. Yes, literally.
An Eye For An Eye?
Column by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers on January, 18 2024If progressive Christians pride themselves on radical truth-telling, then our time has come, and it will be dangerous. .. what will happen to those of us who have long-held unpopular and unorthodox religious beliefs?
Letting Go (Death) is Hard but Practice Makes it (a Little) Easier
Column by Rev. Deshna Charron Shine on January, 11 2024When I think about my parents dying, emotions are quick to the surface, tears arise, and my heart squeezes. Death is one thing we all experience, and yet, it is the scariest, most traumatic thing we face as humans.
The Edge the Mystics Bring to Religion and Spirituality
Column by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox on January, 4 2024It is no secret that institutional religion in the West finds itself in decline. There are as many people identifying as “Nones” …
Talking With One Another
Column by Dr. Carl Krieg on December, 21 2023The church must create places for dialog and it must do so before it is too late. This winter and next spring the various churches must organize discussions about who we are as the body politic and how we want to live.
You and I and AI
Column by Rev. Jim Burklo on December, 14 2023Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents both dangers and benefits and when viewed from a progressive Christian perspective, it prompts ethical and moral considerations.
How do you rise in the morning from the dark sea of sleep?
Column by Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D. on December, 7 2023I find that the perseverating mind commences before the fifth breath is even drawn. With a bullet train of thoughts underway, the nervous system is stimulated and sometimes already pumping your body with cortisol.
In-Tensions: The fraught work of world peace
Column by Rev. Gretta Vosper on November, 30 2023Ever since the first mind countenanced an unknown source of benevolence, religion has held us together as powerfully as it has driven us apart.
The Imperative of a Two-State Solution: A Path To Peace for Israel/ Palestine
Column by Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz on November, 23 2023What deeply concerns me about Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza is “what’s it all going to look like/ feel like on the other side”–when the violence has stopped?
Irreversible Transformation: Choose Your Adventure
Column by Rev. Lauren Van Ham on November, 16 2023We who get to be alive right now are living in the sixth great age of extinctions. We passed planetary overshoot a while ago and the ecological and societal effects are irreversible. This is the doom some speak of.
My Easter/Christmas Scripture Conundrum
Column by Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin on November, 9 2023In the majority of Christian churches every Easter and frequently around Christmas, we hear scripture reading proclaiming, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them, light has shined,” and I have to say, it really bothers me.
Reclaiming the Bible
Column by Rev. Brandan Robertson on November, 2 2023It is essential for progressive Christians to remember that the Bible emerged from the voices of an oppressed and marginalized people, intended to empower and uplift those facing adversity.
Holy Lands and Sacred Cows
Column by Rev. Roger Wolsey on October, 26 2023I write this essay at the start of the most recent round of intense violence in a location on the planet that many Christians refer to as “The Holy Land.” At least during this week, that land is anything but holy. I visited Israel and the Palestinian-controlled reservations within it in November 1995.
Sympathy for the Hymnocrite: Time to Change our Tune
Column by Rev. David M. Felten on October, 19 2023Granted, some denominations have published “supplements” with more modern music, but way too many have also bent to internal denominational pressure and included a plethora of hopelessly counter-productive praise choruses.
Where do progressive faith leaders go from here?
Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on October, 12 2023While many political operatives are trying to inch away from Trump, his everlasting white Evangelical base- churchgoers and voters- loves him, comprising approximately 60 percent of the Republican presidential primary electorate.
No Wonder People Hate Religion
Column by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers on October, 5 2023I have spent my life working on the inside of organized religion, even though my love/hate relationship with most God-talkers makes me an outsider.
Sacred Reborn
Column by Rev. Deshna Charron Shine on September, 28 2023The experience of the sacred is not an easy thing to define. It is outside of human terms and metaphors. It lives beyond the binaries and outside of boxes. There is no scientific definition of the experience of the sacred.
The “G” word and the “F” Word in High Places: Signs of Our Times
Column by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox on September, 21 2023Along with climate change and the move from religion to spirituality, another sign of our times is the rise of the G word and the F word alive and well in high places. I am speaking of course of Greed and Fascism.
The Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, and Dialectical Mystery
Column by Dr. Carl Krieg on September, 14 2023The transition from a Medieval to an Enlightenment way of thinking does not come easily. When I was a kid in the Norwegian American Lutheran Church, a bigger-than-life portrait of Jesus praying in Gethsemane was stationed over the altar, a Sunday reminder that his all-important death, soon to come, was our salvation. Jesus loved us, this we knew because the Bible told us so. And the Bible did not lie.
Jesus in Eden
Column by Rev. Jim Burklo on September, 7 2023The Bible is a mirror. In it, we see the structure of our psyches. We see the scaffolding of our spirituality. What makes the Bible holy is not that it is the “word of God”, but rather that so many of its passages offer such breathtakingly vivid reflections of the journeys of our souls.