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Does God Evolve?
A few years ago I heard Bishop John Shelby Spong say the Bible is the story of pre-scientific, tribal people who lived before it was known that germs cause disease. He wasn’t denigrating the Bible. He was emphasizing that context should be considered...

Posted 11-17-2009 7:27 PM by Perspectives

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Can Faith Become Relevant?
I needed to break free two frozen screws to remove a solenoid from a starter motor. Lacking an impact driver, I went to the local Pep Boys auto store. I waited as a salesperson explained a tire sale to a customer. The customer weighed the prices and decided...

Posted 11-14-2009 8:51 AM by Perspectives

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The Media and Junk Culture
Around three in the afternoon on July 2, three cable news networks simultaneously played and replayed a video of Michael Jackson’s last rehearsal taken two days before his death. California was effectively bankrupt, issuing IOU’s for the first...

Posted 07-03-2009 10:37 AM by Perspectives

Faith and Religious War in Somalia
As if fractured Somalia were not divided enough, a report this week says Islamic groups are realigning for renewed fighting. Somalia disintegrated 15 years ago when a corrupt government fell. Clan fighting plunged the country into anarchy and it’s...

Posted 05-26-2009 7:14 PM by Perspectives

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The Institution as Connection
Institutions are necessary, desirable and, for all their faults and foibles, valuable. Here’s why. They can mobilize and when they do they achieve scale. They enhance capacity. They empower. In the case of religious institutions, they are expressions...

Posted 05-17-2009 5:00 AM by Perspectives

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Are Institutions Obsolete?
Institutions. We don’t like them or trust them. Sometimes we want to bring them down a notch or two. They’re cumbersome, territorial, political and dysfunctional. They’re always behind the times. It’s easy to dislike them. Writing...

Posted 05-15-2009 4:46 PM by Perspectives

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From Instant Gratification to Deferred Gratification?
Can the U.S. move from a culture of instant gratification to deferred gratification? The question was inspired by a program on NPR this morning. From the car radio I went into a meeting where the same thing was being talked about. There’s a lot...

Posted 05-13-2009 9:54 PM by Perspectives

Rethink Church in the Parking Lot
The worker from Eduador spoke of his family back home as he stood in the Home Depot parking lot in Washington, D.C. last week. His brow wrinkled and his voice broke. He’s a long way from home and his existence here is day-to-day precarious. As I...

Posted 05-09-2009 11:18 AM by Perspectives

Worship Often: Approve Torture
The more often you attend church the more likely you are to approve torture. As startling as it sounds, if we are to believe the latest Pew research on religious attitudes, that’s the case. This is just breath-taking. That a religious community...

Posted 05-03-2009 7:36 PM by Perspectives

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Athiests Out of the Closet
Athiests are coming out of the closet. And in South Carolina, no less; a place noted for the strength of its religious and political values, strongly conservative and deeply held. That’s the gist of the NY Times piece on "emerging" athiests...

Posted 04-29-2009 10:47 AM by Perspectives

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Bono’s Search for the Soul
Rock Singer and humanitarian activist Bono asks about the state of our souls in this time of great change. In a Sunday op-ed he recounts Easter worship on an unnamed island and discusses the need for new beginnings. He writes affectingly about his search...

Posted 04-20-2009 5:50 AM by Perspectives

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Ending Victimization, Claiming Empowerment
The Taliban have exploited class differences to gain control over the Swat Valley in Pakistan. The Dalit people, known as the "untouchables" in India’s caste-based social system, are throwing off oppressive discrimination to claim liberation...

Posted 04-18-2009 8:50 PM by Perspectives

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Post-modern Religious Sensibility
Referring back to the earlier discussion about a Post-Christian America, I found this commentary by Judith Warner relevant. Giving her first-person views of a mixed religious childhood, she quotes Charles Darwin who said if the brain is impressed early...

Posted 04-11-2009 6:21 AM by Perspectives

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Post-Christian America?
The loss of the political agenda of the religious right and Christian dominionists is not a marker for the demise of Christianity in the U.S. Writer Jon Meacham apparently felt the need to clarify further the point of his cover story in Newsweek which...

Posted 04-08-2009 8:54 PM by Perspectives

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Neglecting the Global Economic Crisis?
As the economy continues downward, attention narrows and becomes more local. Much of what I’ve been reading lately treats the financial crisis as a U.S. issue. In doing research recently I looked at several statements about the crisis by religious...

Posted 02-23-2009 10:26 PM by Perspectives

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