As Election Day approaches I can tell you that when politicians talk, I listen. I listen to hear if they are concerned for all people, or only some people. I listen to hear if they have any plans for lowering the mountains and raising the valleys of disparity.
Silence in the face of evil: learning from an obscure schoolteacher who urged Karl Barth and other theologians to stand in solidarity with the Jews in Nazi Germany
If I thought Nazi-era Germany was an aberration I could probably move on; but in Donald Trump’s America, who can think that? The Church of Jesus Christ is confronted by an anti-Gospel once again. The German Church never acknowledged her complicity with the National Socialists, and the white churches of America are equally resistant to truth.
Teaching and learning dissent: the witness of the minority
Learning dissent is never easy. One person’s prophet is another’s anti-Christ. One person’s conscience is another’s bigotry. Sometimes dissent can get you damned. Sometimes (like now?) silence can too.
Christianity still has a Kavanaugh problem
For a megachurch pastor, who for millions of Evangelicals represents their religious and political thinking, to go on television and declare that Brett Kavanagh’s ascent to the Supreme Court is a defeat of evil not only smears the story of millions of women and men who have been sexually abused but makes Christianity about a power grab instead of the sacrificial way of Jesus.
Continuing to cast God as male does a disservice to us all – women and men, sons and daughters
With one breath the Church is teaching my daughter that she is created in the image of God and in the next is telling her repeatedly that God is a man. “Daughter, you’re created in the image of God. Just not quite as fully in God’s image as your brothers.”
Christian parents, it’s time to stop ‘investing’ in your children
As both a dad and a youth pastor (who moonlights as a therapist), I encourage you to stop “investing” in your children. It’s killing them, and as your general health care practitioner can attest, it’s not doing your blood pressure any favors either.
A memo from 1968 to today’s Christian parents: Teach your children well
One of the greatest blind spots of white privilege is the ability not to talk with your children about critical issues of the day, to “protect” them from reality. Black parents, Hispanic parents, poor parents, immigrant parents don’t have this privilege.
An unchanging truth: Romance between church and state always tarnishes the Bride of Christ
Jesus Christ is above party and nation. Confessing Christ is a political statement. If Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not. This means speaking truth to power, regardless of the stance taken by our favorite cable news outlet (or that of our Facebook friends).
Amid unspeakable atrocities against the Rohingya, Myanmar’s Christian leaders – mostly ethnic minorities themselves – know the precariousness of freedom
Central Seminary’s partnership with Myanmar Institute of Theology calls us to be mindful of what our colleagues wrestle with all the while. As most of the Christian leaders are ethnic minorities themselves, they know the precariousness of existence and freedom. They understand the wounded Body of Christ in ways hard for us to fathom.
Without an ark: The people in the Noah story weren’t ready for earth’s devastation. Neither are we.
Twenty-first century humanity is eating, drinking, marrying and unmarrying, driving, flying, breathing and buying while planet earth decomposes before our very eyes. The fate that befell Noah’s generation seems headed right at us. This time, however, there’s no ark. It is a planetary crisis from which no one can escape.
Entitlement: one more reason Brett Kavanaugh is unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court
Good lawyers can grow up in a society that offers preference to rich white men, but the privileged have to recognize their privilege as a gift to be shared. President Trump needs to find a nominee who can imagine what life is like for those who know that no matter how smart they are or how hard they work they will never go to Yale.
Who is your Messiah: the one who welcomes all to the table or the one who excludes?
Do we want the suffering servant Messiah of the Gospels? Or do we prefer the vengeful, conquering general of Revelation 19? The Messianic image we are drawn to reveals a great deal about what is in our hearts.