A recent article from the RNS describes the efforts in Oregon to craft the bill that would legalize gay marriage in such away as to allow conscience protections for business owners. The conscience protections being debated would allow private business…
Odd behavior: Nonviolence, loving enemies and the Sermon on the Mount
By Jerrod Hugenot The Revised Common Lectionary is visiting parts of the Sermon on the Mount as it guides worshippers through this year. Here’s a thought on one section of this major teaching in Matthew’s Gospel: The teaching of “do…
Risk list
I live in a hospitality house. Living in a hospitality house has become a more frequent choice for Christians lately, sort of in the way that kale has experienced a resurgence over the past few years: having people think you…
Sor Juana and the sounds of silence
By Bill Leonard In a 1691 Respuesta (response) to the church’s critique of her writings, Sor Juana de la Cruz (1648?-1695), Mexican nun, playwright, poet and theologian, recalled that St. Paul, when “caught up into paradise,” learned secrets that he…
Baptists and Catholics together–Twitter edition
What do Baptists and Catholics have in common? That sounds like the set-up for a joke of some sort–or at least for a very brief response, given the anti-Catholicism that has marked much of the Baptist tradition (even when we…
Diplomacy, spying, and drones: The Obama Doctrine?
David Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee In a little-discussed section of his sixth State of the Union address, President Barack Obama offered important clues to what might be called an “Obama Doctrine” for the foreign and military policy that he…
As interfaith dialogue grows, what’s the case for an open Christology?
By Colin Harris Increased participation in interfaith dialogue in recent years has brought new levels of friendship and understanding across lines often marked by fear and hostility. Fellowship leads to friendship, hostility gives way to hospitality, respect replaces suspicion and…
Atrocious saints
“A democratic autocrat. An urbane savage. An atrocious saint.” That’s how biographer James Patton described Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States of America. In seeking to write the first scholarly biography of the native Tennessean, Parton felt like…
The case of the declining congregation
By Bill Wilson It is becoming a consistent scenario in our work with conflicted churches — Anxious congregations overreact to symptomatic issues and cause great harm to people and ministry. In its simplest form, it looks something like this: a…