The communal life envisioned in the vine metaphor raises a strong challenge to contemporary Western models of individual autonomy and privatism. At the heart of the Johannine model is social interrelationship and corporate accountability. The vine and branches...
The question is not whether we should mix Christianity and politics. To follow Jesus is to be political. The issue is whether our understanding of Christianity makes the world more gracious or less gracious. Do we work against injustice, oppression, greed, and...
The issue is not that people fear change so much as they fear the in-between. What is known is what is comfortable, even if it is not the healthiest of situations. Anything that brings uncertainty into our lives can be paralyzing. People are inclined to stay in the...
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...
The alligator--the chaos, the storm, the danger, the divorce, the illness, the crisis--and the human response--what you and I do in the midst of chaos--and the presence of God in chaos--these are profound issues of faith. And the stories about chaos and God and us are...
Nothing is quite so uninteresting as a religious moralism that is always on the side of the angels but never fights any particular evil; which advocates brotherhood, but never in a specific situation; and which admonishes men to be just, but never hazards an opinion...
One other picture that will always be a part of my memory of that week is the way people all across the land crowded into their places of worship. ...My fear is that we are beginning to think and act like we are on our own again and we can do it alone. ...We need God...