Christians are usually sincere and well-intentioned people until you get to any real issues of ego, control, power, money, pleasure, and security. Then they tend to be pretty much like everybody else. We often are given a bogus version of the Gospel, some fast-food...
I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it. from Parade Magazine (1981)
I have learned significantly from empathetic and mutually respectful listening and dialogue with persons of other religions and advocate such dialogue. from A Thicker Jesus
When our theology and politics as Christians is completely preoccupied with how other people might be sinning rather than how our own sin contributes to the problems of our world, that is when we know our religion is about control rather than redemption.
Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting...
And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls “the image of God,” you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God’s image there. There is an element of goodness that he can...
If your theology causes you to treat other people as less worthy of a home or love or care or safety than yourself--it isn't worth keeping. Religion at its best will always welcome the stranger, mend wounds, share blessings, remove barriers, and expand the table.
The great heresy in American popular religion is the notion that “religion is a private affair,” a secret contract between the believer and God. This individualistic heresy makes Jesus into a close, personal friend who listens, comforts, sustains, confirms, agrees,...
Our Christian religion is being co-opted for the sake of power and control over our culture. Where Jesus chose to save us by his grace and mercy, Christianity is being used to coerce and control people into conformity. This is what it looks like to take Christ's name...
All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. And that's where it turns demonic. Because that's when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake.