When you hear someone "making room" for bigotry embedded in state law or church polity, look at who they are. If they are not one of the people oppressed by that policy, but they're making room for it, they are complicit in the oppression, not at all a neutral...
03178 – Conflict Can be Agent of Change
Conflict is a natural part of being in a community. It cannot be avoided or controlled by anyone, but it can be an agent of change. When you approach conflict from a defensive posture, it can escalate the situation to where a third party is needed to help resolve the...
01763 – What Does Our Framing Story Tell Us?
If it [our framing story] tells us that the purpose of life is for individuals or nations to accumulate an abundance of possessions and to experience the maximum amount of pleasure during the maximum number of minutes of our short lives, then we will have little...
01678 – Still the Same Light
One Song Every war and every conflictbetween human beings has happenedbecause of some disagreement about names.It is such an unnecessary foolishness,because just beyond the arguingthere is a long table of companionshipset and waiting for us to sit down.What is praised...
01591 – Scapegoating is Human Nature
Human nature, when it is seeking power, wants either to play the victim or to create victims of others. In fact, the second follows from the first. Once we start feeling sorry for ourselves, we will soon find someone else to blame, accuse or attack—and with impunity!...
01539 – Peace and Conflict
Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.
01379 – Interpreting “God’s Word”
The issue should not be oversimplified into whether people will live by God's word or mere human teaching. Given this choice, all religious people will choose "God's word." But for all sides of the debate, God's word is not available directly, only through human...
01290 – Creation: Scripture vs. Science
I don't think that there's any conflict at all between science today and the Scriptures. I think that we have misinterpreted the Scriptures many times and we've tried to make the Scriptures say things they weren't meant to say. I think that we have made a mistake by...
01144 – Modern Worldwide Race Relations have Biblical Roots
The preoccupation with protecting boundaries between the chosen and the despised people is not limited to the Samaritan/Jewish conflict of the first century. Throughout human history, people and nations have defined themselves over against other groups. The history of...
00925 – Which Music/Worship Style Please God Most?
Which style of music pleases God the most? This basic question has generated innumerable different answers from sincere Christians. In the first 800 years after Christ, most worship music was simply unison melody. One day someone added a second part, and harmony...