Opinion
‘Dogma’ at 25: Found by God in an R-Rated Movie
“Dogma” didn’t cure my lack of faith overnight, but it placed me back on track to a deeper spiritual relationship with God.
‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Offers a Diagnosis, but Few Treatment Options for Our Current Situation
This week, Hulu released the first three episodes of the final season of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” A note of warning while watching: As in previous seasons, you may need to click “Info” on your remote control to confirm that you aren’t watching the news.
Why I Am Attending Seminary
This path is calling me into quieter introspection and study, which is what I need as a highly empathetic person and a bridge builder in this pain-shattered world.
Don’t Read this Essay. It is Overflowing With Banned Words
Ideological purity trumps academic rigor. If we wish to preserve our own lives, we must participate in the subversive act of old-speak.
Belief Behind the Book: The Creative Alchemy Cycle
Belief Behind the Book is a feature that gives readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the beliefs—or what I call “the WHY”—behind books written by progressive spiritual leaders.
From the Archives | Palm Sunday: Jesus Doesn’t Fit Our Mold
Editor's Note: This spring, Good Faith Media created a new website to reflect our commitment to easily accessible and visually appealing content. To ensure the new format runs smoothly, we moved decades of Ethics Daily and Good Faith Media articles to an archived...
Taking Personal Responsibility for Climate Action
When governments fail to act, individuals, communities, and people of faith must take responsibility.
Hallowed Be All Human Beings
Last week, my friend and former colleague, the Reverend Dr. Michael Bledsoe, texted me: “I am stuck praying ‘hallowed be thy name on earth as in heaven.’ I can’t move past it. I’m so grateful for your hallowing of all people and your prophetic voice.”
10 Ways to Care for the Emotional Health of Your Congregation During a Pastor Transition
A pastor’s departure marks the end of one chapter but also the beginning of another. How a church navigates this transition will shape its emotional and spiritual health for years to come.
‘White Too Long’ Among Books Banned from Naval Academy
White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity by Robert P. Jones was among the list of books recently banned from the U.S. Naval Academy by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Bearing Witness: Trading Missions and Evangelism for Friendship and Curiosity
New people I meet are intrigued and almost invariably ask the same question — “Why this place?” Embedded within the question isn’t just curiosity about why I love Barlova. It is mainly about how I discovered Tartu, Estonia, this remote town in such a far-flung spot on the planet.
Fifth Sunday in Lent | The Church is in Our Hands
Psalm 126 (NIV) A song of ascents When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord...
Trump’s Economy: Good News for Oligarchs, Bad News for Everyone Else
When politicians and oligarchs tell you it will get worse before it gets better, remember who will bear the burden: the working poor. While they enjoy economic security, the rest are left to tread water in the deep waves of a financial collapse.
Dan Meyer’s “Kneeling” and the Beauty of the Muck
Dan Meyer recently released his first solo project, “Kneeling,” under the independent dark music record label The Flenser. This album has a massive sound, stripped-back songwriting, and complimentary lo-fi production that give it all kinds of rough edges and charms.
Lighting Candles While Signing the Checks and Bombs that Fall on Gaza
This Sunday, my candle will also be a confession: I have not done enough to resist this evil undergirding both sides of U.S. politics. My tax dollars and my false hope of “not as bad” have funded those deaths.
Donald Trump Is A Sodomite Presiding Over a Nation of Sodomites
Donald Trump is a sodomite. So are Elon Musk and Stephen Miller. Together, they engage in this abomination before the eyes of the Lord. Are you also guilty of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? Are you sure?
Triple-A Church
Churches that once thought of themselves as major league need to see that the future of the church may be small, local, and fun.
‘Christian Nations’ Don’t Arrest Guests For Speaking Their Mind
These incidents and the Trump administration’s justification for them highlight at least two crucial questions, one legal and another political. For people who follow Jesus, those questions and their answers are merely incidental.
“The Real Conversation Jesus Wants Us to Have” : A Blueprint for Repairing Humanity
In a time when public discourse is increasingly divisive and personal growth often feels superficial, this book stands apart. It’s deeply personal, courageously vulnerable and refreshingly honest.
Benevolent Theft: Aid as Empire
The logic of aid depends on the perpetuation of need. This is not a partnership; it is a supply chain of dependency. And the greatest sleight of hand is convincing the world that this cycle is moral.
Fourth Sunday of Lent | A Song of Glad Deliverance
Psalm 32 “Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered…” We all live under the shadow of our culpability, masked by our denial of the true state of things. We live in an illusion about what we’ve done. Maturity is the process by which we shed...
Moving My Ass Horizontally Across The South: A Tribute to Civil Rights Activist Rev. Kenneth Dean
I’m sitting in my new house in the greater Nashville area, asking myself, “If a mentor is a ‘wise and trusted counselor,’ and you found Kenneth Dean to be your wise and trusted counselor, why haven’t you followed his advice? In fact, you just moved 1/120th of a degree...
Stopping the American Purge
Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk planned to meet friends at an Iftar dinner to break their Ramadan fast. Ozturk never made it. As she walked on the sidewalk in Somerville, Massachusetts, the Tufts University Ph.D. candidate was taken into custody by six masked plainclothes officers.
Film Reflection | ‘Black Bag’
The characters in “Black Bag” are as amoral as any you will find. These officers in the British Intelligence Agency lie, cheat and sleep around, all while attempting a façade of respectability.
Food Tells Our Stories and Gives Us Hope
It’s good for me to step away and detach when possible—hoping with every fiber of my being that something good is left in the world. I’m here to remind you to find and string those moments together. For me, this most often occurs around a lacquered bar top, a well-worn dining room table, or any place where good food and equally good conversation are served.
Belief Behind the Book | “Dismantled” by Lynn Horan
Belief Behind the Book gives readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the beliefs—or what I call “the WHY”—behind books written by progressive spiritual leaders.
New Attacks on SNAP Use the Same Old Playbook
The demonization of SNAP recipients is nothing new, and complaints about eligible benefit purchases are only one element of the generations-long strategy to weaken or eliminate the program. Also, the attacks have been bipartisan.
“Should We Ask Him?” : The Shared Language of Dumb Guy Action Films
One of my favorite elements of my language history is the vocabulary of movie quotes my dad and I share. Now that we live in different states, this is even more meaningful. It reminds me that we both value the time and space we have shared.
From the Archives | Prathia Hall: A Barrier-Breaking Woman Preacher
As a young woman in the civil rights movement, she spoke, preached and prayed with such power that Martin Luther King Jr. once remarked, “Prathia Hall is one of the platform speakers I would prefer not to follow.”
Honoring Women’s History Month by Confronting Sexual Abuse in Faith Communities
Churches have long been places of guidance and hope. However, for many women, these same spaces have also been marked by silence, fear and violence due to sexual abuse and assault.