The COLOR of Equality: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial 59 years ago and told a crowd of 250,000 people, “I have a dream…. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!” It was a message heard in homes across... Read more
Here Are 3 Reasons Why It’s an Emphatic ‘No’ First, partisan politics is not an appropriate subject for church services. Second, pastors who preach politics from the pulpit are short-changing their congregations. Third, preaching politics from the pulpit can have dangerous consequences. Before we delve into these reasons, let’s take a step back and look at where faith and politics stand in the United States. Evangelicals’ Love Affair with Conservative Politics America’s white evangelical churches have become immersed... Read more
In a word, yes — but there is a problem. Different people seem to have different ideas about what “liberal,” “liberal Christian” and “liberal Christianity” mean. Christ may be the greatest liberal in the history of Christianity, and I strongly believe we should follow his example. Yet, he doesn’t fit some modern definitions. What Are the Roots of “Liberal Christianity”? Liberal Christianity, aka “Liberal Theology” and “Christian Modernism,” interprets Christian teachings in light of “modern knowledge, science and ethics,”... Read more
Should we condemn Halloween as a Celtic pagan holiday with ties to modern-day witches and devil worshippers? Embrace it as a harmless secular celebration where children dress up and eat candy? Or ignore it altogether? What should Christians do? Let’s take a look at some options. We Should Condemn Halloween! A blog on Christian Today quotes Ben Godwin, pastor of Goodsprings Full Gospel Church, as emphatically saying that Christians “must resist what is popular in today’s society and condemn the... Read more
Caring for and otherwise helping other people are essential parts of Christian faith. Christ spent his entire ministry helping people physically, mentally and spiritually and using parables, such as the story of the Good Samaritan, to teach us how to live. He reached out with love and healed people who were blind, deaf, mute or paralyzed; cured a woman who suffered from a bleeding disorder and a man with a withered hand; and performed numerous exorcisms. (I’m no biblical... Read more
Why can’t the media get coverage of religion right? There are no easy answers, but neither religious leaders nor journalists are satisfied with current coverage. That’s one of the major findings of the largest-ever study on media coverage of faith and religion, The Global Faith and Media Study. It was conducted in August and September. To read the study, click here. The Faith and Media Initiative commissioned the study, and HarrisX, a market research and consulting company, surveyed more... Read more
Christ is quite clear about loving our neighbors. He tells us that we cannot love God if we don’t love our neighbors. Think about it for a moment. Jesus commands us to go outside our comfort zones to love our neighbors, whether they are someone we know or total strangers. My comfort zone is that of a straight, white cradle Christian, and the Lord is telling me I must love the family down the street, as well as gays... Read more
Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia devastate patients and their families. I know about the devastation from personal experience. My dad suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for several years before he died of pneumonia at age 80. Mother had some form of dementia for a year or so before she succumbed to cancer at age 87. We never learned the reason for mom’s dementia, but followed her doctor’s advice and focused on symptoms, which were very similar to my dad’s.... Read more
Queen Elizabeth (courtesy of Pixaby) Two stories dominated America’s headlines today. On one side of the Atlantic, Queen Elizabeth died at age 96. She managed to serve her nation, the British Commonwealth and the Church of England with dignity and grace for 70 years. Most of her subjects genuinely mourn her death, and it saddens me as well. On my side of the Atlantic, the American side, Donald Trump’s treachery continues to unfold in the aftermath... Read more
Christ is an inclusive Savior. During his earthly ministry, he sought out prostitutes, tax collectors, thieves and other people despised by first century religious leaders and ordinary people. He even uses the example of a Samaritan when someone asks, “Who is my neighbor?” In Luke 10:25-37, he tells the story of a traveler who is beaten and left for dead on a road. The traveler is presumably Jewish, given the fact that Christ’s audience was Jewish. A priest and a... Read more
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