Posts About Episcopal
Think Global, Act Local on Racism, Sexism
Someone who genuinely desires deeper insight and increased knowledge regarding the issues posed for religion in America by the “isms’ of sexism and racism must begin by thinking locally.
Speak from the Heart, Not for the Polls
I am a 75-year-old, white, male, a proud veteran of the Marine Corps., a retired Episcopal clergyman, and I speak as one who loves this country. Oh how I wish the congregation my wife and I attend had a minister like Dr. Wright.
A Degree of Separation
The wonders of the World Wide Web and of E-mail provide a marvelous technology for almost instant transfer of vast amounts of information. But they also constitute an additional powerful buffer, allowing us to be in touch and not touch.
Faith in the Public Arena
If religious and political leaders are willing and able to heed the ground rules Obama proposes, the climate of public debate may become considerably more healthy and fruitful.
An 'Unclarity' Best Ignored
Much of the muddled thought of Dr. Williams regarding English law and Islamic law seems to stem from his perspective in a declining established church within a more and more diverse society.
Casting for Votes, not Debate
Romney’s speech strikes me as a well crafted statement, designed to position his candidacy as a moderate conservative leader with integrity and character.
Torturing the Very Idea of America
Whether motivated by revulsion of the act of torture, pity for the victim, respect for human dignity, or charity for all, most human beings and most nations regard torture as a moral evil
Appreciate the Differences Too
There are differences which have enormous and far reaching influence on the way the message of the major faiths is understood and lived out
Absolute Truths
This trip with the Spirit of Christ has been too eventful, surprising and beyond my imagining to wrap in a statement of beliefs. That is not the way love works.
Warning Labels
Hitchens is in error if he believes the world will be a better place if the quest for God disappears – because it isn’t going to disappear or diminish. What is happening, and will continue, is that the search will take new paths and an increasing variety of forms.
The Nun, the Buddhist and the Columnist
Protestants have been tempted to treat Scripture as an idol. Catholics have been tempted to treat the institution of the Church as an idol.
Peering Into the World of the Dead
Between the living and the dead is a great gulf, a mystery to all.
First, Drop the Moral Pretensions
The Iraq War has not been, and is not now, a moral venture. Let's be done with moral pretension.
Patching Together the Quilt of Faith
The plain fact is that there is no authoritative source anywhere to which we can turn for normative definition of the tenets and traditions of Christianity.
Life is Tough
Fear propels us to accept fiction for fact, illusions for reality, to give ourselves over to idols of our own creation in the hope they will save us.
Law Must Uphold Rights, not Theology
I can understand why the Archbishop of Canterbury was shocked by the reactions to his lecture from the British Prime Minister and many commentators. Their remarks cause me to wonder if they read his statement in its entirety.
Pastoral and Political
For the Archbishop, this is perhaps as much a pastoral issue as a political one. This is a very difficult balance to hold on a public stage.
Forgiveness Can Transform the World
From a pastoral perspective, forgiveness can shine a light on our everyday interactions with family, friends, and coworkers.
We Focus On Our Divisions
We will be judged by the ways we find to express God's love to our fellow human beings, and creation as a whole.
Standing With, and Disagreeing With, Christopher Hitchens
Mr. Hitchens is wrong because of the innumerable exceptions to what he would have as a universal rule that religion is unhealthy for humanity.
Love is the Fuel for a World of Good
I would appeal to the universal tenets on love of God and love of neighbor. If any of our actions do not serve love and respect the life and dignity of humanity, these actions are not in accord with the foundational principles of religious traditions. In faith and hope we might look to the future together, knowing that the fuel for a world of good is love....
Without Doubt, We Don't Grow
Doubt is the fertilizer of faith. We don’t grow without it. I would never presume that Mother Teresa’s faith was sealed with certainty. These thoughts of hers make her in my mind all the more human, and all the more essential a religious figure – one in a never-ending relationship with God. Doubt is in and of itself dialogue in that relationship....
Parsley's View Dangerous, Divisive
Pastor Parsley unfortunately demonstrates a level of ignorance that is both dangerous and divisive in understanding the faithful and historic connection between the three great Abrahamic, monotheistic religions of the world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Acts More Important than Numbers
We need to remember the size of a church or a denomination does not determine its success or its ability to live well into the Gospel.
We Need a Lot of Christmas
Now more than ever we need Christmas -- a way to find hope in what seems to be the almost hopeless times of massive, overwhelming and disruptive change.
Christ Calls Us To Try
Jesus was acutely aware that the poor would always be with us but that did not mean that we should not engage in the hard work of ending poverty.
God With Us, Not Working Against Us
The belief that God is the causal agent in natural disasters and religious fanaticism is just plain bad theology.
Love is the Issue, Not Sex
The issue of human sexuality should be based on loving, healthy relationships and not on sexual mechanics.
War Requires Turn to Faith
War is the ultimate definition of human failure! Faith is not lost during war but rather what is lost is faith in human nature, reason, compassion, decision making, justice, and the rule of law. If we possesses faith in God through whatever our diverse religious traditions might be we are constantly reminded to rise to a higher level of being where we are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbors as ourselves. War calls people of faith to address their failure as a Holy creation and to repent or "turn around" behavior...
Church Can't Accept (or Justify) Either
My sense is that just as black men were given the vote before women, so racism will be expunged before sexism. The Christian Church will be an authentic community of God’s people when both have been confronted and exorcised.
Spitzer's Compulsive Behavior and Ours
My first observation about the Eliot Spitzer affair is that compulsive sexual activity is a human disease like compulsive gambling or compulsive drinking. It should be treated psychologically, but human beings seem to enjoy making moral judgments.
Church Must Change or Die
When knowledge collides with traditional faith change is inevitable. I welcome it and if the church cannot engage this intellectually driven change, then it probably should die.
Fervor Can Move Us or Manipulate Us
Billy Graham elicits fervor. So did Adolf Hitler. The issue is whether the fervor leads the candidate and the nation in the right direction.
Church Obsessed with Sex, not Morality
If a sexual relationship is life-giving, loving, committed and faithful, then it needs to be called good. If a sexual relationship is exploitative, dehumanizing of the partners, a violation of one’s word given to another, then it needs to be called evil.
Pandering to the Right
I found Governor Romney’s speech on religion to be little more than pandering to right-wing religious enthusiasts. It may help in the primary process with southern and mid-western evangelicals, but should he get the Republican nomination, it will not help him in the general election. He does not seem to embrace the fact that this nation has more than just religious voters. The fact that Governor Romney is a Mormon has constituted no problem for me. Indeed, I am suspicious of those for whom it is a problem. That arises, I suspect, out of the fact that America’s “Religious Vote”...
Showing his Politics, Not his Faith
Governor Romney was a more appealing candidate to me before he made the “Faith in America” speech.
Unconditional Forgiveness
Vengeance, revenge, the desire to get even – these are the responses of people who do not understand how fragile civilization is.
Different is Not Evil
It is time for us all to begin to recognize that there are varieties in the human family that are not evil because they are different.
Pious Rhetoric Wins Votes, Not Souls
Americans do not want either party pretending that their policies and God’s policies are identical.
Choice: A Healthy Trend Indeed!
Changing dominations shows that people are thinking about their beliefs. People are paying attention to what nourishes them spiritually and what leaves them dry, empty and uninspired.
The Cold Sin of Greed
My vote goes to greed: greed is the sin most prevalent and harmful in the world today. Greed goes to the heart of many social and societal issues. Greed keeps war, violence and destruction of lives, limbs and property a dominating experience in the lives of many citizens of this planet.
Archbishop's Comments Distorted
But the assertion that some commentators have made that the archbishop simply proposed a separate legal system for the followers of Islam, without reference to, and apart from, the great and ancient tradition of English common law, is, intentionally or unintentionally, a distortion of what he actually said.
Jewish Identity, Past and Future
The role of a free society is to allow maximum scope for the believers to define what the core belief might be.
Knowing the Moral Vision of a Candidate
We should explore and know the moral values and religious beliefs of presidential candidates wherever they are key to their broader public moral sense and the decisions that they will make if elected.
Christianity Brings Even More
I hope it is true. If it is true, it makes religious wars (past and present) all the more puzzling.
One House, Many Rooms
Those who do care are among those who most passionately want God’s message of abiding love made ever more available.
God Asks and Answers
It is by our questioning that our understandings become our own.
Simple Choice: Reconciliation or Retribution
The consequences of not forgiving are amply evident. Just look at Palestine and Israel, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, the Sunnis and Shias in Iraq, and Northern Ireland.
The Glories and Agonies of the Pulpit
Any pastor’s sermons can be an issue for the folks in the pews. But these sermons are now in the relentless news cycle. And there, blinded by the bright lights and passions of a presidential campaign, most observers will miss the real dynamics of the pastor-parishioner relationship.
We Need to Have Faith in our Faith
Governor Huckabee’s claim is breathtaking. I can say that because I have to confess that I’ve given in to the temptation of that kind of thinking.
The Value -- and Temptation -- of the List
The question itself—which is the worst of the sins?— is a temptation. It assumes a list, and it plays to our love of ranking and categories. But not so fast.
