Opinion

The struggle is to welcome life as it is now, which is certainly different than you thought it would be or should be. The struggle is to see injury and illness and despair as a semicolon and not a period.

The analogy between “inerrancy” as the foundation of biblical authority and judicial “originalism” as a basis for constitutional jurisprudence is noteworthy. Of more import is the sheer cynicism lying behind proponents of both inerrancy and originalism.

John McCain was no saint, but he pointed us to the better angels of our nature and many of us loved him for it. He treated enemies like friends. And in a messy and divided world like ours, that may be as good as it gets.

President Trump’s dinner with “evangelical” ministers is a reminder that American Christians have every right to support the politicians and policies that their consciences may dictate. But none of us can claim to have it both ways – dictating moral constraints to the masses while excusing them in governmental officials for political purposes.

Judge Kavanaugh, contrary to your disparagement of “the wall” of separation between church and state, this concept is certainly not “bad history,” nor is it useless in modern debates. This metaphor worked for Roger Williams and President Jefferson – and still works today. The wall does not keep people of faith from the public square but separates institutional control.

If we preach on Sunday that being children of God is enough, yet ignore dangerous policies that tell persons of color — including children and their immigrant families — that they are not enough, we are complicit in this racism

I’m not sure any of us really become so God-like and divested of ego that we don’t get offended. So the question is: What are we going to do about it?

It is a divine calling from God to care for those who have reached this unbearable place in their lives. The church cannot offer some magical spiritual cure. The church can offer the kind of ministry of care and compassion that points to the resilience of the human spirit and to the abiding presence of God’s spirit in every unendurable, overpowering circumstance.

Here is a question that needs to percolate: would coffee be a better symbol for communion? Grape juice is dull. Wine puts you to sleep. Coffee refreshes, revives and stimulates. The Lord’s Table could be a coffee table.

The main characters’ struggle to balance cultural differences and their love for each other hit close to home for my husband, Paul, and me. I felt the mother’s heart, just like I felt my mom and dad’s hearts when I told them I wanted to marry Paul, a poor, Caucasian missionary kid.

While the Church’s core message will never change, the methodologies for practicing our faith will be in a constant state of change for the rest of our life. The changes we will go through in our near future will make our squabbles over matters such as new technology or screens in the sanctuary look laughable.

Ongoing revelations regarding sexual abuse in the Christian Church mean that we’d all better prepare our hearts – spiritually, individually and communally – with the courage of conscience to live and act in a Church and a country that is losing its bearings.