Opinion
When Political Corruption Clouds Our View, Find the Silver Lining
The dark cloud of the politics of moneyed power and religious sanction have united in an unholy alliance to transform our collective consciousness into a tolerance of the dominance of our lesser angels. But there’s a silver lining.
How Your Church Can Include, Welcome Disabled People – Part 2
How can your church foster a more welcoming environment toward disabled people? Friendship has the potential to enable greater participatory inclusion of disabled people within Baptist church communities.
How Your Church Can Include, Welcome Disabled People – Part 1
Welcoming and including disabled people in your church building requires more than adding wheelchair ramps and removing a few pews. It involves the actions and attitudes of your members toward disabled people.
The Key to Making Time to Nurture Your Kids’ Spiritual Lives
All our families lead busy lives. It’s hard to find the time to nurture our children’s spiritual lives. But discipleship at home isn’t about doing more; it’s about inviting Christ into what you are already doing.
What You Can Learn from John Ruskin’s ‘Scandal of Grace’
John Ruskin was an influential British writer and social thinker in the last half of the 19th century. His most important literary work highlighted what has been called “the scandal of grace,” drawing praise from Gandhi to Tolstoy.
Look Back | 4 Truths Support Gender Equality in Bible
Fundamentalists used the subordination of women as a litmus test for loyalty, using the same logic as their ancestors who used Scripture to justify slavery. However, you can champion gender equality and be faithful to Scripture.
Finding Freedom in the Fence and Love in the Limits
By: Ginger Hughes “Move back guys…a car is coming!” I hollered from my perch on the front steps. The kids were outside playing in the front yard, and they’d ventured out closer to the road, past our fence, to look at something incredible…a special rock, an...
Christians’ Healing Response Can Help Close Middle East Wounds
In an area of the world in deep need of healing, the assassination of Qasem Soleimani reopened the festering wounds of victimhood. Christians must embrace Christ as wounded healer to find a source of healing for societies around us.
More Seminary Grads Plan to Enter Bivocational Ministry
One third of all seminary graduates in 2017 were planning to enter bivocational ministry. The news offers hope to thousands of smaller churches who struggle to find seminary-trained leadership to serve their churches.
Reducing Mental Health Stigma in Your Church Workplace
Opening up about mental health issues at work, including churches, is often difficult to do. It requires disclosure and vulnerability. Achieving an open environment in your church workspace may be possible, but it might take time.
When Will Churches Extend the Welcome Mat for All? – Part 2
If churches are serious about really welcoming, really including, they will have to find a way to communicate a welcome that reaches out to “others” who have learned long ago they are not welcome.
When Will Churches Extend the Welcome Mat for All? – Part 1
Diversity and inclusion built strength and resilience in the early church, threatening political and social powers. Today, the church is increasingly known for accepting some and rejecting others. It’s not what we’re called to be.
Long Journey Ahead to Overcome Poverty of Segregation
Rather than a day of victory, we should see Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an encouraging landmark on the continuing road to justice in our nation. We still live in a segregated society. Our journey to wholeness is far from over.
Worth remembering
“Almost always, the creative, dedicated minority has made the world better.” Martin Luther King Jr.
How the Long Arc of Moral Universe Bends Toward Justice
He wasn’t the first to say it, but Martin Luther King popularized the phrase that “the arc of the moral universe … bends toward justice.” For justice to prevail, people who hope for justice must become and be advocates for it.
‘Just Mercy’
Based on the true story of a Harvard law graduate defending a death row inmate condemned for a murder he didn’t commit, ‘Just Mercy’ is a must-see film for everyone concerned about faith and justice.
Look Back | The Parts of King’s Dream Our Nation Ignores
The US has made Martin Luther King Jr. a national icon by sanitizing his legacy and by erasing from its memory his importance as a prophetic voice. Elements of his legacy have been either conveniently or deliberately forgotten.
Christianity at a Crossroads: Is Another Schism Inevitable?
Unable to find common ground on LGBTQ ordination and the church’s response to same-sex marriage, the United Methodist Church is expected to split. The split might be revealing a larger division emerging within Christianity.
Redeeming the Systems That Make Equality for All Unreachable
Martin Luther King Jr. saw the movement he led as a call to redeem the systems and structures that created and sustained the evil and hatred that kept America from accessing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people.
Dream On: Never Abandon Hope for a Different Reality
Martin Luther King Jr. challenged us with his dream. While some seek to distort that dream, King envisioned a dream that was available even when our backs are against the wall. Go forward with courage to bring that dream to reality.
Celebrating Black Lives Matter on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Martin Luther King Jr. was able to succeed thanks to the assistance of others. Today, as we seek equality for all, groups like Black Lives Matter play an important role. Multiple approaches are often needed to achieve the same goals.
Seeds of Hope: How Millennials Can Unite to Transform Culture
If protesters and dissidents, many of them millennials, can surpass single-issue politics to embrace a broader vision of social and cultural transformation, they may provide the seeds of hope for a new decade. It’s a big “if.”
Decades Later, Why is Martin Luther King’s Dream Still a Dream?
We applaud Martin Luther King Jr.’s cause now, but that wasn’t always the case. His home was bombed, he was bullied by strangers and hounded by the FBI. And today the US still remains geographically and socially segregated.
How Do I Love Numbers? Let Me Count the Ways
Human societies have a long and complicated relationship with numbers. We like to count things and then assign significance to the totals and the way we can divvy them up. But sometimes a number is just a number.
Shepherd Your ‘Little Church’ as Thermostat to Alter Society
As Martin Luther King Day nears, we need a new generation of radically Christian and socially subversive parents who will lead their families faithfully and unabashedly, eager to be thermostats who will transform society.
Your Church Must Learn to Swim in Today’s Religious Currents
Fewer U.S. adults identify as Christian while those who claim no religious affiliation are increasing. It’s time for churches to learn to swim in the reality of today’s religious currents. Here are 4 ways to stay afloat.
A production that is not our own
By John D. Pierce Not everyone is a morning person. And I’ve not always been one. Now, however, it is my favorite time of the day — especially when in a natural setting. Even when not, I try each day to look up from my computer and gaze out the front windows at the...
‘The Two Popes’
Much of ‘The Two Popes’ on Netflix consists of Pope Benedict XVI and pope-to-be Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio talking to each other. Neither one is portrayed as stick figures or cartoonish figures. They come across as real people.
Digital Manipulation: Sleight of Hand, Sleight of Mind – Part 2
While malevolent actors still manipulate photos and videos to divert us from the truth through sleight of hand and sleight of mind, it is possible to stay centered even in a time of moral casuistry and capriciousness.
Look Back | The Lord’s Prayer: Praying for the Kingdom
The Lord’s Prayer asks that God’s kingdom would come, as God’s will is done on earth as it is done in heaven. If God is to reign on earth as in heaven, we cannot separate the spiritual and the social.