To our most bitter opponents we say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience...
It is only the infinite mercy and love of God that has prevented us from tearing ourselves to pieces and destroying His entire creation long ago. People seem to think that it is in some way a proof that no merciful God exists, if we have so many wars. On the contrary,...
Christ has no body now on earth but yours,no hands but yours, no feet but yours;yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion looks out on the world,yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing goodand yours are the hands with which He is to bless us...
Often in discussions of prayer we confuse it with other valid aspects of any life in which prayer is functioning as it ought. And that is not helpful. In fact, it can result in prayer’s being replaced and omitted. We may confuse prayer with special states or...
The ideal of church music is found in its function. This function is religious: to bring to stronger and clearer consciousness and to greater vitality our inherent religious nature. At the heart of church music must be the consciousness of this religious nature: the...
The church’s song, like music itself, is a gift of God. Music is a joy and delight with which God graces creation. We do not bargain for it. We do not deserve it. It is simply freely given, there for the hearing, a joyous overflow of creation’s goodness. from The...
In worship we are ascribing greatness, goodness, and glory to God. It is typical that we put every possible aspect of our being into it, all of our sensuous, conceptual, active, and creative capacities. We embellish, elaborate, and magnify. Poetry and song, color and...
Churches have almost come to blows over whether God is better heard in an organ or a guitar. Sometimes worship is fast and loud—a find way to celebrate God’s goodness. At other times, worship is solemn and thoughtful—also a fine way to celebrate God’s goodness. Some...
Why is racism morally wrong? Because it is hostile and indifferent to the good of the other. It is our moral duty to have regard for the well-being of every human being and to promote and protect it insofar as our attitudes and actions have power to affect that...
Holy delight and joy is the great antidote to despair and is a wellspring of genuine gratitude—the kind that starts at our toes and blasts off from our loins and diaphragm through the top of our head, flinging our arms and our eyes and our voice upward toward our good...