The values, priorities, and character traits Jesus calls for in what's known as The Sermon on the Mount don't align well with much of what drives Americanized Christianity today. Merciful? Pure in heart? A thirst for righteousness? Hardly. Peacemakers? Willing to...
Until I went to seminary, no one had taught me how to clean the lens of my awareness and perception. Studying the philosophy of Franciscan John Duns Scotus (1266–1308) for four years had a profound effect on me. Duns Scotus taught (admittedly in rarefied Latin) that...
From the Native Americans' marginalized position, they have a unique "bias from the bottom" that we would do well to pay attention to. We could learn from them, among other things, that land cannot be owned and Spirit cannot be divided. The Earth and all its...
Most young adults I know aren't looking for a religion that answers all of their questions, but rather a community of faith in which they feel free to ask them.
I’ve come to see that the call of God, the love that bids us welcome, is always a call to become the true you. Not a doormat. The true you. Not an imitation of someone else. The true you: someone made in the image of God, deserving of and receiving love. The ability...
The reality of human society and acquisitiveness is such that the poor will always tend to be exploited; a society built on the competitive principle means that in order for there to be a winner, there must be a greater number of losers. In such a society, where law...
We all die eventually; we have no choice in the matter. But there are degrees of death before the final physical one. If we are honest, we acknowledge that we are dying throughout our life, and this is what we learn if we are attentive: grace is found at the depths...
Religion is the safest place to hide from God.
The separation of faith and love is always a consequence of a deterioration of religion.
I have one life and one chance to make it count for something . . . I'm free to choose what that something is, and the something I've chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort. My faith demands --...