Posts By This Author
Bill McKibben: Drown Your Neighbor
You can almost hear the desperation creeping into James Dobson's voice. His attacks on Rich Cizik (and all the other millions of evangelicals working on creation care) are ludicrous. There is not a "heated controversy throughout the world" about whether global warming is real. Instead, [...]
Verse of the Day: Greed
This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
- Ezekiel 16:49-49
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Voice of the Day: Gandhi
The earth provides enough resources for everyone's need, but not for some people's greed.
- Mahatma Gandhi
Verse of the Day: "People of this Generation"
"To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.' For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, "He has a demon'; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Nevertheless, [...]
Voice of the Day: Richard Foster
With a power given from above we shout, "No!" to him who promises the whole world if we will only worship him. We crucify the old mechanisms of power- push, drive, climb, grasp, trample. We turn instead to the new life of power, love, joy, peace, patience, and all the fruit of the Spirit.
- Richard Foster
excerpt from "Money, Sex and Power."
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Brian McLaren: Anti-Anti-Global-Warming Group's Silver Lining
I am sitting in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and I just read Jim Wallis' recent post about global warming, responding to the [...]
Jeff Carr: Solidarity with Iran's Christian Minority
My guess is that most Americans either don't know or don't think much about Christians in Iran. The country is, after all, the Islamic Republic of Iran, a theocratic state where Islam is the state religion.
While Islam is certainly the dominant religion, there presently are Christians in Iran, and they trace their roots there back to the 5th century. There are a number of significant minority populations in Iran (including about 25,000 Jews who have a representative in the Iranian [...]
Voice of the Day: Peter Gomes
It is not we who do Christ the favor of worshiping him; it is Christ who empowers us by strengthening us, and enabling us to fight for the things that are worth fighting for, the things that endure; and that is a promise worth fighting for, worth dying for, and worth living for.
- Peter Gomes, excerpt from "Strength for the Journey"
Verse of the Day: Loving Your Enemies
Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will [...]
Verse of the Day: Providing for the Poor
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.
- Leviticus 23:22-22
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Verse of the Day: Clothed in Righteousness
I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made them drop their prey from their teeth.
- Job 29:14-17
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Voice of the Day: James Baldwin
In a society that is entirely hostile, and, by its nature, seems determined to cut you down - that has cut down so many in the past and cuts down so many every day - it begins to be almost impossible to distinguish a real from a fancied injury. One can very quickly cease to attempt this distinction, and, what is worse, on usually ceases to attempt it without realizing that one has done so. ... And this leads, imperceptibly but inevitably, to a state of mind in which, having long ago learned to [...]
Becky Garrison: Bathroom Humor
This bathroom evangelism clip is from the January/February 2007 issue of Outreach magazine. This material is better than any religious satire I could pen - sometimes truth is funnier than fiction.
On a slightly more serious note, in this same issue, they published their list of the 25 most innovative churches [...]
Voice of the Day: Obery M. Hendericks, Jr.
In essence, what Jesus imparted to his disciples was that they must strive for true justice on earth as in heaven, as their righteous service to God; that they must honor God by doing indiscriminate justice, by lifting up "the least of these" on the altar of God's justice and mercy; that they must set into motion a revolution of love and holistic spirituality that demonstrates love for God by treating the needs of even the least of God's children as holy.
-Obery M Hendericks, Jr.
Verse of the Day: Unjust Judgement
You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor.
- Leviticus 19:15-15
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Verse of the Day: Precious are the Needy in His Sight.
For [a king] delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.
- Psalms 72:12-14
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Voice of the Day: Biersdorf on Prayer as an Act of Love.
As an act of love, prayer is a courageous act. It is a risk we take. It is a life-and-death risk, believing in the promises of the gospel, that God's love is indeed operative in the world. In prayer we have the courage, perhaps even the presumption and the arrogance or the audacity to claim that God's love can be operative in the very specific situations of human need that we encounter.
- John E. Biersdorf
excerpt from Healing of Purpose.
Tony Jones: Three Choices in Pluralism
Last week, I caused a bit of a dust-up by wondering aloud about Mitt Romney's LDS faith, including an admittance of my own ignorance about particular practices and beliefs therein. It seems to me that Romney has been less that forthcoming about his commitment to LDS beliefs and practices, and he will be compelled, as the presidential race goes forward, to honestly confront those questions: [...]
Verse of the Day: Admonition for Acts of Injustice
Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat." The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. ... I will [...]