By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee Oftentimes Christians deal with contemporary moral issues in the abstract. They are “against abortion” or “for peace” or “against divorce” in the abstract. They attempt to reason directly from what they understand to be…
Things a Christian can learn during Ramadan
Ramadan begins on June 28th. Ramadan is the month when people who follow Islam fast from the time the sun comes up until it goes down. They do this for 30 days. Sometimes my Muslim friends laugh at me because…
Finding the right word
By Bruce Day I am struggling to find a word. As I have become moderately advanced in years, this has become a more frequent occurrence for me. However, the word for which I search is not one that I have…
SCOTUS got this one wrong
With all due respect to my blogging colleague, Jonathan Waits and his blog post, the US Supreme Court got the decision wrong about the town of Greece, NY and their ceremonial prayers. How prayers are handled in government sponsored settings…
Closing the gap
By Eileen Campbell-Reed In recent weeks two prominent progressive Baptist churches moved to call well-known Baptist pastors. Notably in both calls the pastors are women. Riverside Church in New York City is set to call Amy Butler and Watts Street…
Baptismal mishaps
By Naomi King Walker Some faith traditions embrace infant baptism. These are memorable occasions for everyone except the child, who is too young to remember anything, and only later knows of the event’s significance through photos, stories and certificates. For…
SCOTUS got this one right
The Supreme Court ruled Monday in a tight decision (5-4) that the town of Greece, NY did not violate the Establishment Clause in choosing to open their legislative sessions with prayer in spite of the fact that the prayers were overwhelmingly offered…
Ceremonial prayer
By Bill Leonard “Ceremonial prayer” — that’s what Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy called the rite that the high court approved by a 5-4 vote in the case of Town of Greece v. Galloway, a ruling that allowed the town…
The glass ceiling for women in ministry only slightly cracked
I recently returned from the Exponential church planting conference in Orlando where I spent time thinking about women in ministry; especially women in church planting. I sat in on all three workshop sessions led or co-led by a woman in…