Opinion
7 Things Your Church Can Learn During This Global Pandemic
Often perceived as the most resistant to change, churches have been putting into place new skills and practices as they respond to ‘shelter in place’ guidelines. After the COVID-19 crisis passes, here are 7 lessons we can take away.
Being a Good Interfaith Neighbor During the Age of COVID-19
Neighboring is one of the basic tenants of the Abrahamic faiths. Each of our holy texts – Christian, Jewish and Muslim – speak of being good neighbors. Isn’t it a shame it takes a pandemic to get to know our neighbors?
Who Needs Theologians During Global Coronavirus Crisis?
Is there a place for theological studies during this global pandemic? Now more than ever, we need pastoral theologians who can help us reflect upon and wrestle with all the existential questions that arise.
Most Americans Unaware of ‘Deplorable’ Doctrine of Discovery
It’s called the Doctrine of Discovery, and it dates back to 1452. You may not have heard about it, but it’s a deplorable creed, which was used to oppress people, including Native Americans in the US.
Hopeful Images
Since the COVID-19 pandemic sent us all home, Faculty and staff at Campbell University Divinity School have been posting "Words of Encouragement" to our students and others twice a week. For this week, I thought it would be appropriate to share some of the students'...
Manifest Destiny Fuels Misguided Protests to Reopen Economy
Protestors are demanding state legislators reopen the economy. It’s textbook Manifest Destiny. A belief they have a divine right for others to submit to their demands. Faith in God is about serving, not privilege and entitlement.
A Kind Nun’s Compassion Led to Imam’s Interfaith Journey
The compassion of a Christian nun showed me the importance of kindness across faiths. Without interfaith relationships and dialogue, we cannot as a society hope to attain justice, peace and the common good of all.
What’s Causing Racial Disparity Among COVID-19 Deaths?
Preliminary numbers reveal African Americans are suffering a disproportionate amount of coronavirus deaths compared to other racial groups. What’s the cause of this disparity? There may be three reasons.
Amid Global Pandemic, Religious Pluralism Flourishes
During this strange and often bleak time of global pandemic, watching religion flourish in all its beautiful array of diverse expressions has been one of the bright spots as people of faith respond with social solidarity.
How One Baptist Church Going Solar Affected Their Community
After their first year of using solar panels, a Virginia Baptist church achieved a 43% reduction in annual energy costs, encouraging other nearby community groups to begin discussions on how solar energy can benefit them.
Remembering the Life of Sir John Houghton (1931-2020)
Keenly interested in the dialogue between science and faith, Sir John Houghton, the world-famous climate scientist, committed evangelical Christian and Baptist lay preacher, died on April 15, 2020.
How Interfaith Partnerships Can Enrich Your Own Life
Interfaith partnership is a two-way street. Not only can you empower others in a common cause by being a good ally, they can open your eyes and heart to truths of their own beliefs and practices you might otherwise miss.
4 Ways Your Church Can Begin to Care for God’s Creation
Christians must reflect on how to be more caring to God’s creation. So how can churches gather without causing further damage to God’s world? Here are four ways your church should seriously consider.
Pandemic Grief | Providing Help When the World is Crumbling
Being the church when the world is crumbling requires providing help taking care of bodies – and hearts. The church has the responsibility to claim these concerns as our own when the world is crumbling.
Why Interfaith Cooperation Matters During Coronavirus Crisis
Christians and churches cannot meet all the needs caused by the coronavirus pandemic on our own. We must join with those who practice other religious ways, or no religion at all, as we collectively face this global disaster.
COVID-19 Linked to Our ‘Dreadful’ Treatment of Environment
Because of COVID-19, climate change is largely off the agenda, even in nations previously showing some progress, but there is a growing recognition that the pandemic itself is a result of our dreadful treatment of the environment.
Quelling Your Noisy Heart During the Coronavirus Storm
Until you deal with the noise and darker emotions in your inner self, you will be less able to care for others affected by the coronavirus. You have an ethical responsibility not to wound others with unexamined, untended emotions.
Pandemic pondering
If the global COVID-19 pandemic hasn't accomplished anything else, it has given us something new to think about, often ad infinitum. Out of the overflow, I share a few miscellaneous ponderings in case anyone's bored enough to read them and commiserate: The news cycle...
A Personal Reflection on the Oklahoma City Bombing
After the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, media launched unrelenting coverage against the Muslim community, even after white Christian nationalists were ID’d as the culprits.
Pandemic Grief | Identifying Priorities When the World is Crumbling
Being the church when the world is crumbling requires identifying priorities. The church must identify priorities in order to adapt amid a crisis, whether that crisis be internal to the church system or in the community.
Make it shareable, please
By John D. Pierce We seek to be relevant, insightful, honest and hopeful with each issue of Nurturing Faith Journal. Some find reading it informative and inspiring enough they want to share it with others. So we made subscriptions — including gift subscriptions — as...
Do You Need to Don Face Masks in Coronavirus Pandemic?
To don a mask or not to don a mask. First, the government claims they’re ineffective. Then, we’re told to wear them. So, did the government lie? What is going on here?
Will You Do What it Takes to Survive Coronavirus Exile?
We are in a coronavirus exile. Will we set aside our claims to privilege and instead identify with those who are suffering? Solidarity with the suffering always is the first step toward liberation, redemption and renewal.
When Church Members Prefer Denying Reality to Seeking Truth
Truth is an important and frequently mentioned subject in the Scriptures, yet religious people often seem most easily manipulated by those denying reality. As religious leaders, we need to help congregants become seekers of truth.
A Different Easter to Celebrate During Coronavirus War
Gone were the new outfits, the in-person Easter egg hunts, the gatherings for worship. We watched the worship service on computers, iPhones and iPads. It was a different Easter, but we were good soldiers in the coronavirus war.
4 Lessons When Domestic Terrorism Struck the Heartland
Twenty-five years ago, America awoke to the reality of domestic terrorism when 168 people were killed after a bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. These four lessons are worth reflection.
Remember the victims; recommit to peace
By John D. Pierce Sunday, April 19, marks the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City — that contained a childcare facility. The blast killed 168, including 19 children. Hundreds more were injured. That morning, local...
Inherited Stubborn Hope Will Pull You Through This Crisis
All of us are experiencing, and will continue to experience, grief from the lives lost and the hopes and dreams dashed because of the spread of COVID-19. But stubborn hope will pull us through when we least expect it.
Pandemic Grief | Speaking Comfort When the World is Crumbling
When the world is crumbling, everything is harder than it should be. Routines become more complicated; chores more stressful. The church has the awesome responsibility of proclaiming comfort, but not just any comfort.
‘Truth and Hope’
The prophetic tradition of truth-telling anchored in hope is exactly what we need in this particularly perilous time in which fear and uncertainly seek to rule our days. Walter Brueggemann’s timely new book hits the mark.