I still believe folks should encourage us to dream God-sized dreams for our lives, except of course when “God-sized” is simply code for “upper middle class sized,” as I’m not entirely sure it is the divine who has bountifully blessed…
Fighting for the four freedoms
It is has been called the best State of the Union address of all time. That was President Roosevelt’s speech seventy-five years ago, on January 6, 1941. It is the one popularly known as the Four Freedoms address.
Unprofessional Christianity, part 2: Dying
The stories of Zaevion Dobson, Freddie Grey, Tamir Rice, and the birth of Jesus decenter everything we think we know about the meaning of life and Christmas. This season has nothing to do with where you go after you die,…
Clothes for the new year
Yesterday I had the privilege of preaching at St. Luke’s United Church of Christ in Independence, Mo., less than a 15-minute walk from the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. St. Luke’s was founded in 1878 as the German Evangelical…
Watch night history
“Watch Night” services began in 1733 with the Moravian communities in what is now the Czech Republic. By 1740 John Wesley and his Methodist movement within Anglicanism had adopted the tradition, with New Year’s Eve services ending after midnight, marked…
A Christmas to remember
Earlier this week, Amy and I spent a very memorable day back in South Carolina. Over the course of those 24 hours, we experienced joy and celebration; uncertainty and apprehension; followed by relief and profound gratitude. It was the kind…
The war at home: Four ways good faith can help defeat ISIS
What is frightening about the recent mass killings in San Bernardino, Calif., is how easily seemingly ordinary individuals can wreak havoc on the lives of so many innocent people. Our vulnerability to mass murder has been revealed many times in…
Is politics trumping concern for the planet?
“Politics is generally a mediocre to horrible platform for change.” That was a statement left by an anonymous person on my previous blog article. I am not sure what all the writer was suggesting, but how else can important changes…
Can Hobby Lobby buy the Bible?
In just the past six years, the evangelical owners of Hobby Lobby have amassed one of the world’s largest private collections of biblical antiquities. Why? Please consider disabling it for our site, or supporting our work in one of these…