Posts About Episcopal
We Need a New Etiquette for Prayer in Public
We've entered a moment in our cultural and national history where we need to have a conversation about the etiquette of religion in public.
Division Weakens the Body of Christ
Unity is at the core of what it means to be Christian. Liberals need conservatives to keep them rooted in the ancient teaching; conservatives need liberals to keep them looking for the new things God is doing in the world. God's truth is bigger than any one part can claim. That is why the endless divisions within the Christian church through the centuries have been so tragic.
Episcopalians Falling Out of Love
I deeply believe that the widespread acceptance of gay members and clergy against the loud agony of the minority in the Episcopal Church is just like what happens when someone comes out in a family.
Text, Context and Pretext
Miller interprets the Bible the way many Christians do--seriously, but not literally. She reminds us that using a text or string of texts to prove a point only proves one point: that the advocate or community brings a presumption about God or the Bible or Christianity to bear on the text.
It's About Time: A President With a Subtle Turn of Mind
As far as I can see, Obama doesn't do what some neoconservatives do: happily appropriate a darling of "liberal" Christians to their own, often militaristic, course.
No Substitute for Church Going
Plenty of people think they can go it alone--making up a faith and observing it privately. But even the great mystics and hermits of early Christianity knew they had to be linked to community or else the power of the solitary life could turn to plain weirdness.
Chill, Everybody
Thanksgiving is both a religious and non-religious word, and makes sense either way. Let our presidents get writers clever enough to speak in a generously inclusive way, and thereby uphold a national tradition.
Thinking religion is hard work
In her great scholarship on the history of fundamentalism, Armstrong has made the case for thoughtful, honest, steady, non-reactive and, yes, thoughtful religion. I believe in a God who calls me to live compassionately and to think compassionately.
Cosmic Companionship
Obama's spontaneous, clear, concise, incisive response to Brooks' query regarding Niebuhr gave me hope and assurance that Obama understood well and carried in both his heart and mind Niebuhr's brand of pragmatic, Christian realism.
A Victory for Humanity
Our president-elect is also a man of faith. And he did the quintessentially American thing of choosing, as an adult, his expression of faith.
The War of the Gods
The lifeblood of a democratic society is its continuing capacity to engage in thoughtful, open, candid, substantive, debate and discussion. Neither public life, nor church life, nor the media encourage and support the forms of discourse a democracy needs.
McCain and Obama: Two Lonely Souls
I watched the third Presidential Debate and I saw two lonely human beings. Who, if anyone, is pastoring -- truly caring for -- the spirits of these two men through this stressful time?
Guilt by Association Un-American and Un-Christian
It's blindingly obvious to me at least that if there was ever a time to stay on the issues and try to deal with the awful mess we're in, it's now. Judgment works both ways, and I think a lot of us are going to judge candidates who lean heavily on guilt by association, a discredited American political idea if there ever was one.
No Jargon or Posturing, Please
I want to know what they really believe about the meaning of life.
Nuanced and Morally Serious
If we really want to protect life, we need to let religious practice and moral reasoning lead us whenever possible.
Palin, Evangelical Religion and Enlightened Religion
I share with Sarah Palin what I assume is both anxiety and pride over a son serving in Iraq. Unlike Governor Palin, I do not believe that our nation's leaders have sent our sons on "a task that is from God."
Will Conservatives Tell Palin to Practice What They Preach?
Governor Palin clearly proved she can be the attack dog for the Republican Party. Will conservative Christians hew to their scriptural guidelines reminding her and the world that the Bible says "suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."
Clergy and Politicans Not the Same
Comparing Sarah Palin's possibility to be Vice President or being ordained in a faith tradition that does not accept women is comparing clergy to politicians. Not the same.
Time to Move From Faith to Interfaith
My concern is whether both Senator Obama and Senator McCain will have the same type of events at a synagogue, a mosque, a gudwara and an ethical society. And whether CNN will carry those events live.
Senators, What Have You Done for Us Lately?
As U.S. Senators, will each of you tell us what you have done as Senators to encourage the development and use of alternative power sources?
