Who celebrates our trans service members on Memorial Day?
Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on May, 29 2025There are parades all across the country on Memorial Day commemorating our U.S. service members who died while in the military. But not all service members are honored for their acts of service, bravery, and patriotism.
Christianity 2.0: Come Join Us
Column by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox on May, 22 2025Carl Jung makes the point when talking about his four “personality types” that a healthy person goes out of his or her way to make up for the weaker dimensions of their type. Thus an introvert practices some extrovert dimensions, or an intuitive person schools himself or herself in some missing sense of structure and form.
The Politics of Happiness: The Least Christian Countries are the Most Christian – Part II
Column by Rev. Roger Wolsey on May, 15 2025Addressing my fellow citizens of the United States: Let’s consider how our founding fathers understood happiness and the purpose and role of the federal government. And as we do, also consider how well the societies of the top 11 happiest nations correlate with the happiness understood by those founding fathers.
Dumpster Fire Ethics: A Progressive Christian Morality of Flourishing
Column by Dr. Amanda Udis-Kessler on May, 8 2025When those in political power celebrate ignorance, cherish cruelty, and delight in harming those outside their circle of moral care, what are open-hearted Jesus followers to do? When a society built on a social contract is ruled by antisocial people, how are those claimed by the Rabbi of Nazareth to respond?
Lost Sandwiches: The Spirituality of Place
Column by Rev. Jim Burklo on May, 1 2025Jesus told his followers that they were citizens of the kingdom of heaven. But where was this kingdom? Here, there, inside of them, or all of the above? He challenged them to expand their definition of “home” to include the whole human family, the whole world, the whole cosmos.
The Medicine of Both/And
Column by Rev. Lauren Van Ham on April, 24 2025Living heaven on Earth means leaving the ways of Empire and embracing the wisdom of Creation, the ways of Kin-dom.
Scarier than Fiction
Column by Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines on April, 17 2025Esther is one of only two books in the Bible to be named after a woman (the other is Ruth). It is also one of only two books in the Bible not to explicitly mention God (the other is the erotic poetry in the Song of Songs). Spending a bit of time with Esther helps us to confront unjust leaders, even today.
Easter 2025: Tears, Goosebumps, Smiles And the Presence of the Universe
Column by Dr. Carl Krieg on April, 10 2025It’s always the same old story. Location and time don’t matter. The greedy, rich, and powerful always take what they can from the rest of us, be they kings, khans, industrialists, or tech bros by the name of Henry, Genghis, Stalin, Hitler, Trump, Vance, or Musk.
Authoritarianism and Progressive Christianity
Column by Brian McLaren on April, 3 2025Many Americans still don’t believe we are in the process of an authoritarian coup. But the more I understand about authoritarianism, the clearer that reality becomes.
How Suffering Love Reveals the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53
Column by Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz on March, 27 2025Suffering love is the pinnacle value of Christianity. It is rooted in the suffering of Jesus on the cross–a reality we can never fully fathom: the aching loneliness, the wrenching pain, the sense of total abandonment. Suffering goes to the core of our human situation.
When Bad Things Happen, Is God Accountable? Rethinking Providence for a Healthier Faith
Column by Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin on March, 20 2025There’s an old saying that gets thrown around when tragedy strikes: “God has a plan.” I don’t know about you, but when I look at the history of the world and even the current political situation in the U.S., I don’t buy it. Maybe it’s well-meaning, maybe it’s just a knee-jerk response to pain, but let’s be honest—it’s a theological train wreck.
The Hostility Between Us
Column by Rev. Brandan Robertson on March, 13 2025Over the past decade, our polarization—political, racial, religious—has grown exponentially. Vanderbilt University conducts surveys on American polarization, and in 2024, they released a study showing that both the right and the left continue to increasingly identify as “strongly” left or “strongly” right. Roughly 28% on both sides now identify as either “strongly” or “far” right or left.
The Politics of Happiness: The Least Christian Countries are the Most Christian – Part 1
Column by Rev. Roger Wolsey on March, 6 2025Addressing my fellow citizens of the United States: Let’s consider how our founding fathers understood happiness and the purpose and role of the federal government. And as we do, also consider how well the societies of the top 11 happiest nations correlate with the happiness understood by those founding fathers.
Illegitimi non carborundum!
Column by Rev. David M. Felten on February, 27 2025As the actions of the Trump administration continue to generate waves of fear, uncertainty, and disbelief… it’s precisely in these kinds of moments when our every action becomes critical. History shows that over and over again, the most transformative changes come from those who are willing, as Robin Meyers implored last week, to stand up and say, “Excuse me?!” — especially when it feels like the world is pushing back.
Excuse Me?
Column by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers on February, 20 2025What is essential for civilization, and in particular for democracy, is not just slipping away. It is imploding. The plutocratic autocracy has arrived in the form of billionaires who eliminate programs that feed poor children while stuffing their pockets with billions in government subsidies.
The Big Hole in the Nicene Creed
Column by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox on February, 13 2025The “Nicene Creed” has been a foundation for Christian unity for a long time. But the occasion raises some serious questions as well. Does the Creed represent the marriage of empire and religion, Constantine and Christianity, that created a detour from the authentic teachings of Jesus for 1600 subsequent years?
Embodying MLK’s Dream Today
Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on February, 6 2025King would remind us that we cannot heal the world without healing ourselves. In light of King’s teachings, healing ourselves is the greatest task and the most difficult work we must do. This work must be done in relation to our justice work in the world.
The Emergent Bible
Column by Rev. Jim Burklo on January, 30 2025it should be no surprise that the library of 66 books known to us as the Bible does not conform to current distinctions between fact and fable. What opens to us between its covers is a window into eras long past and into the depths of our own souls in the present. A strong hint of the Bible’s nature is the uncertainty of the identities of its many authors.
Surviving the Terrifying Future
Column by Rev. Deshna Charron Shine on January, 23 2025Sometimes, it feels like the whole world is burning, flooding, warring, and dying. Personally, these times are very ungrounding and fear-provoking.
Getting Over the Grand Narrative
Column by Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines on January, 16 2025I love a good story, and the Exodus story is one of the best in the Bible! …What a story! It’s filled with drama, violence, intrigue, unlikely heroes, and unexpected twists. It’s fun to read, even though many of us know it well.
Give Us a King!
Column by Dr. Carl Krieg on January, 9 2025Mythology is a way to tell the truth, and the Hebrew writings are a string of pearls, one myth after the other, one truth after the other, and the truths tell a grim story about who we are as human beings.
The Rise of Hate in Post-election America
Column by Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Frantz on January, 2 2025As the reality of this “hate language” settles in, imagine if you are a person of color in this country. My spouse is Hispanic, from Panama. Both she and her younger sister, who lives with us, say they no longer feel safe here.
Liturgy in a Living Tradition
Column by Brian McLaren on December, 26 2024In a living religious tradition, participants have, not simply permission, but more: a moral responsibility to adapt and innovate in an attempt to improve the truth, goodness, and beauty of the version of the tradition they received from their ancestors.
Such a Strange Way to Save The World
Column by Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin on December, 19 2024When it comes to “saving the world,” I am much more interested in the life and teachings of Jesus than I am in any divinely ordered sacrificial actions that humanity has overly burdened the stories with. Even in the stories themselves, we see signs of the importance of his life and teachings.
Now Is The Time To Be Prophets
Column by Rev. Brandan Robertson on December, 12 2024Biblically, there’s no indication that prophets necessarily have supernatural powers. Occasionally, prophets hear the voice of God and communicate it to their people, but more often, prophets are simply those who perceive the actions of their communities and deduce the likely consequences.