Commentary

10-24-2020

Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, offers a sermon on the prophetic witness of the church ahead of the 2020 election.

10-24-2020

Dr. Stephen Schneck, executive director of Franciscan Action Network, offers a Roman Catholic reflection on the deep, structural racism of American life. Beyond individual virtue, what is needed is political and social action to address the systemic and embedded racism in American institutions, social practices, and culture.

10-24-2020

Nikki Toyama-Szeto, executive director of Christians for Social Action, offers a sermon on Acts 17:24-28, describing us as God's offspring. Toyama-Szeto explores this picture of  a reality in which all people, made in the imago dei, are able to flourish. 

10-24-2020

"To be an antiracist church is not a political statement, it is a deeply theological Christian statement."

Betsy Shirley 10-23-2020

Halloween decorations and support for President Donald Trump in Warren, Ohio. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Techno-authoritarianism, Christian nationalism, election fairness, and other stories about things we fear and how to get us all through safely.

Sean Feucht performing in Seattle, Sept. 10, 2020. Screengrab from YouTube.

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth,” Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:24. But when our worship is based in a denial of truth and runs counter to the nature and character of God is it truly worship? This is a question I have been pondering in considering a series of worship events organized by Sean Feucht, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, worship leader, and politician.

Melody Zhang 10-22-2020

Photo by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash

The work of unlearning racism and undoing our habit of exploitation — of the earth, of other bodies, and other neighborhoods — is long.

10-22-2020

In this special SOTN episode, Rev. Jim Wallis joins Peter Eisner and Jonathan Winer, hosts of District Productive's Unconventional Threat, to discuss Lawyers and Collars, an initiative that seeks to ensure that everyone--including our most vulnerable citizens — is able to safely and effectively exercise their right to vote.

Stephen Mattson 10-22-2020

On Sunday, President Donald Trump joined a Las Vegas church service where a pastor pronounced that God told her Trump would receive a “second wind” and introduced the president against the backdrop of dancers waving American flags with the Statue of Liberty on them. On Tuesday, televangelist Pat Robertson said God told him Trump would win re-election, and it would set off a series of events ushering in the End Times.

Amanda Tyler 10-20-2020

Photo by Tiffany Tertipes on Unsplash

In the midst of a tumultuous election season, Christians in the United States are discerning faithful ways to engage with politics. Christian discernment involves understanding ourselves, our relationship to God, our connection to our neighbors, and our most deeply held values.

Sabina Wong 10-19-2020

The author's grandparents, mother, and uncle in August 1959. Photo courtesy of the author.

My kids are the great-granddaughters of Chinese immigrants, but until recently, I hadn’t shared much about our immigration story or been a vocal advocate for immigrant rights. Instead, like many evangelicals, I had absorbed hardline views on the subject.

10-17-2020

Shane Claiborne offers a sermon on the peculiar politics of Christ.

10-17-2020

The economic disparities in our country are enormous and have been built on structural racism resulting in an economic caste system. We, as citizens of the Kingdom of God, have a responsibility to steward our power to work on behalf of the most marginalized people in our country.

10-17-2020

Rev. Mariama White-Hammond , founding pastor of New Roots AME Church in Dorchester, Mass., offers a sermon on the Genesis creation story and our role in that story.

10-17-2020

Michael-Ray Mathews' sermon is a reflection on Ephesians 6:10-19, his transformation in Ferguson, the work of racial justice, and the 2020 election.

Jennifer Butler 10-16-2020

Churches have been barred from directly supporting or opposing candidates since the passage of the Johnson Amendment in 1954. But pastors can still work on the election in meaningful ways without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status, so long as they are mindful of the rules.

Voters on presidential election day in 2016 in Arlington, Va. Photo by Rob Crandal / Shutterstock.com.

Immigration is never out of sight for those whose lives depend on it, even while it may have not been a topic of choice for presidential and vice-presidential debates this year. Candidates and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have used the stories and experiences of immigrant people for political gain. But for many immigrant people, engaging in the larger immigration discourse and advocacy work is primarily about our families and our communities: their present reality and their future opportunities. It is not about touting a “welcoming” nature or defending a seemingly attacked territory or national identity as politicians and others have often approached it.

10-10-2020

How do we, as a nation, miss Jesus in our national priorities? Is Jesus disappearing from the scene?

10-10-2020

Jenny Yang, vice president of policy and advocacy on refugee resettlement at World Relief, offers a sermon on the refugee crisis ahead of the 2020 election.

Adam Russell Taylor 10-08-2020

Workers wearing protective suits bury a coffin at the Muslim burial area provided by the government for victims COVID-19 at Pondok Ranggon cemetery complex in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 16, 2020. REUTERS/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana

Pope Francis has a penchant for impeccable, maybe even providential timing. His encyclical Laudato Si’ came out just months before the 2015 Paris climate summit and played a key role in influencing public opinion and galvanizing political will behind bolder climate action to protect “our common home.” Now, less than a month before the most consequential U.S. election in generations, the pope’s new encyclical provides a powerful rebuke to a politics of division, fear, and hate while also casting a vision for the human family that is deeply relevant to applying our faith to U.S. leadership in the world.