“O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.” (Isaiah 3:12) “… he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.” (Isaiah 5:7) About twenty years ago, I was asked by a
Every day, in our society, we see examples of gross injustice. We bemoan what seems, to most of us, a growing trend. But we don’t quite know how to make sense of it. What the talking heads who comment on the problem all too often
“Of course you would be welcomed at our church!” began the email that I received from an Episcopal priest. My partner and I were moving from Atlanta to a small town in South Carolina in the same year that Gene Robinson was elected bishop of
Notice the tenses in Wikipedia’s entry on “Exodus International” posted only a day or two after events necessitated a change from the word “is” to “was”. Quote: “Exodus International was a non-profit interdenominational ex-gay Christian organization that sought to help people who wished to limit
This article appeared in my June 22nd column entitled, “Christianity and Society,” that appears in the “Sacramento Valley Mirror.” “He hath shown thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and
The familiar “Protestant-Catholic-Jew” mantra no longer defines American religion. Politicians, bloggers, statisticians, and demographers now conventionally add “Evangelical” to the classifying. When Will Herberg wrote the canonical book Protestant-Catholic-Jew in the mid-fifties, Evangelicals appeared to be marginal at best. In recent decades they make the
Often in our lives, we find we must minister both in what we say and what we do. And we must do that wherever the opportunity presents itself. LGBT Christians tend to feel inhibited about sharing the gospel. Who will listen to us? There are
Poll after poll has found that the Catholic papacy is out-of-step with its increasingly shrinking U.S. flock. On the topic of abortion, 55% of U.S. Catholics do not want the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision overturned, 67% favor pre-marital sex, 71% approve of divorce,
There has to be a distinction between “religious conservatives,” and “religious fascists.” Those who seek to deny others basic civil rights, and cast aspersions on assorted minority groups such as gays and illegal immigrants are religious or secular fascists. People like Franklin Graham, Ken Hutcherson,
David Cole captures readers’ attention with the observation that “the gay rights movement has achieved more swiftly than any other individual rights movement in history, not merely the impossible but the unthinkable.” A few years ago, writes Cole, “those who fought for the right to
