Opinion

Distinguishing Right Jesus and Wrong Jesus is hard, especially when a weaponized Christ is used – right and left of center – to intimidate or exclude each other.

The words “justice” and “social justice” have long drawn the ire of segments of American Christianity, particularly white evangelical leaders. They have consistently said that it is unbiblical, un-Christian, and yes, un-American. Baptist News Global reported on May 18 that…

Grief is simultaneously a raw, hurt-filled terrain of the heart, and, as the calendar pages flip, its occasional infliction of breath-sucking pain becomes the only tangible connection you have to the one you’ve lost. This is neither good nor bad, as my spiritual director would say. It just is.

iPhone or Incarnation? It’s hard to engage both.
Consider doing something radical: put down your smartphone and be truly present with another human being.

I hope more Christians will see that the boxes in which they have confined God are way too small to inspire an expansive and gracious vision that would motivate and empower them to love others the way God “so loves the world.”

The lack of roots in the places we inhabit, and the lack of care for the places that nourish and sustain our lives, are issues of discipleship. The systemic results of environmental distress and collapse come to bear on the bodies of poor people and people of color in the United States. This is called environmental racism, and it, too, is an issue of discipleship.

My experience of being ousted changed me, as I’m sure this experience is changing you. Being cast out can help us see more clearly the wounded people of this world who know daily abuse and ostracism. We can see vividly that any religious, political or social power that oppresses, denigrates or enslaves people is not of God.

It is possible — even essential — to take a stand against things that are morally wrong without taking sides between Republicans and Democrats. We are currently hamstrung by the myth that to work against things like racism and sexism and mistreatment of refugees is to take sides on politics. There are some things to which there are not two sides.

Happiness is more in our heads than our circumstances. We know people who have what we want who are unhappy. We know people who have been through the worst that life can give who are happy.

“Kyrios Christos!” (literally, “Lord Christ” or Christ is Lord!)  The 81 percent of Evangelical Christians in America who voted for and still support Donald Trump are desperately in need of a reminder that “Kyrios Christos” is Christianity 101. It is the first central…