Menu“In the beginning was the relationship,” said a former colleague at Phillips. Not the individual, but the relationship is the fundamental building block of human life. Contemporary understandings of physics and biology largely share the same perspective: individual elements and entities are separate only for analytical purposes. In reality, relationships and community are of first-order […]
How many articles and studies detail the dangers and detriments of valuing quarterly profits over long-term investments? How many times have we, the American people, been warned that our sense of “the public,” “the common” is too thin? Or, in the colloquialism my late father repeated often in reference to society where taking is valued […]
Whether we members of the human race want to be or not, we are each part of a larger whole. We ignore the connections, we ignore our relationships, at our peril. Whatever lessons and reminders there may be in the global pandemic that is spreading at internet meme-like speed, surely one of those lessons and […]
I’m thrilled that the Oklahoma Legislature remains so interested in supporting religion in the state. In recent years, bills have been submitted (not all passed or will pass) to put “In God We Trust” everywhere except washrooms (slight exaggeration), proclaiming the Year of the Bible, and to display the Ten Commandments held by an angry-looking […]
Political partisanship rules all types of discourse, including religious discourse. The terms that express political partisanship—alt-right, right, conservative, moderate, liberal, progressive, radical—have infected the nation’s speech. It is nearly impossible for religious types, who have been labeling ourselves and others for centuries, to eschew labels. But, today, labeling is dominated by partisan politics. And this […]
Let’s imagine that the end justifies the means to get there. The assumption of that statement is that the end is a good or that the end is morally good—for someone or some group. In our acutely polarized era, considering the good of the ends toward which we drive seems essential but I’m not seeing […]
By Gary Peluso-Verdend On July 30, 1956, President Eisenhower signed the bill that made “In God We Trust” the national motto. This was the first official national motto and replaced the unofficial one, which goes back to the Franklin-Jefferson-Adams era, E Pluribus Unum: Out of many, one. At the same time in the 1950s, America […]
I’m called by God to the ministry, I’m called by the people to this pulpit, and I can do anything I want. Called by God. And successful. Believe me, I’m successful. I don’t care what data points one wants to assess me with. No congregational stats are more compelling than attendance and money. Look at […]
Culture is like soil. Life on the entire planet depends on healthy soil to create and sustain the necessary matrix for life. Similarly, good life in any human community requires healthy cultures that contain the nutrients for desirable elements to grow and flourish and that discourage the growth of undesirable elements. Growing religion is not […]
I have previously written on why moderate and progressive religious communities need to talk more about politics. Here, I want to expand on the topic with which I opened that essay: the reticence and resistance to engaging and fostering conversations about politics in religious communities. (Politics in terms of ethics, policies, desired ends, taxing and […]