Some people believe the alternative to bad religion is secularism, but that's wrong... The answer to bad religion is better religion--prophetic rather than partisan, broad and deep instead of narrow, and based on values as opposed to ideology.
Quite an exchange a student had w/theologian, Karl Barth. Student: "Sir, don't you think that God has revealed himself in other religions & not only Christianity?" Barth: "No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has revealed...
Jesus said that peacemakers would be known as the children of God. Not the fear mongers. Not the authoritarians. Not the gatekeepers. Not those who see their religion as a war against the world. He said, “blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children...
It reveals how little we Christians actually believe that Christ conquered sin and death on the cross when we treat our religion like a war that hasn't been won rather than a work of compassion and treat the world as an enemy to be conquered rather than a neighbor to...
I think good preachers should be like bad kids. They ought to be naughty enough to tiptoe up on dozing congregations, steal their bottles of religion pills, spirituality pills, and morality pills, and flush them all down the drain. The church, by and large, has...
The religions start from mysticism...But, I compare this to a volcano that gushes forth ...and then ...the magma flows down the sides of the mountain and cools off. And when it reaches the bottom, it's just rocks. You'd never guess that there was fire in it. So after...
I, too, am tired of the tame God and boxed-in-Christ, distorted by control-seeking humans who use religion to maintain the status quo. I'm yearning for a wild God that compels me to full participation in this miraculous dance of life, deepening the meaning in a core...
Religion without the Spirit, without authentic spirituality, basically becomes a way to give divine sanction/endorsement/legitimization to our biases and prejudices and it becomes a way to maintain the status quo. It also becomes a means of exerting control over...
It is important to distinguish between different versions of the “same” faith. All faiths are contested. We dare not make sweeping generalizations about other religions or even about our own religion. from Moral Leadership for a Divided Age 2525 1 comment Like Comment...
Nobody is born Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Atheist, Republican, Democrat. People are born human and are conditioned by narratives and ideologies of race, religion, culture, politics, nationality, and society. This is not necessarily a...