Q revels in being different but generally avoids direct confrontations. A standard Q tactic is to pair apparent opposites together and have them talk about something on which they can agree. Two years ago in Washington, Moore’s predecessor, the conservative Richard Land, was seated next to the left leaning Jim Wallis of Sojourners to tag-team immigration reform. The odd couples this year included the state’s Republican Governor Bill Haslam and Nashville’s Democrat Mayor Karl Dean who traded compliments and discussed public education. A Jewish Israeli mother who had lost a son and a Muslim Palestinian father who had lost a daughter shared the emotional stories that brought them together to work for peace. Theologians Matthew Levering and Timothy George summarized the unity achieved through 20 years of work by Evangelicals and Catholics Together, an effort begun by Gabe Lyons’s mentor Chuck Colson and First Things’s own Richard John Neuhaus.
Faith
Brandan Robertson 5-08-2014
Photo via Jaromir Chalabala / Shutterstock.com
Dear church,
Let me start off this letter by expressing my deep love and appreciation for you. I have been an active participant in the community of faith for about 10 years now, and I have been profoundly blessed, cared for, loved, and inspired to be a better human being through you. I have also seen — and even participated in — some of your ugliest and most unfaithful moments in recent history. But through all of these experiences, nothing but utter appreciation and love remains for you. I believe, in the words of Bill Hybels, that the church is the hope of the world. I believe in your great power and potential to renew and reconcile our broken world through the way of Jesus. I believe that you can do it. That we can do it, together.
With that said, there has been a lot of talk recently about your impending death. For a long time, I believed the hype. I saw the numbers of millennials who were walking away from the churches and both mainline and evangelical churches closing their doors. I was convinced that maybe the church had truly seen the end.
But I was recently reminded that what we have been witnessing in the West is not, in fact, the death of the church at all.
5-08-2014
Signers include National Association of Evangelicals President Leith Anderson, Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell D. Moore, Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Sojourners’ Jim Wallis, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, Anglican Church in North America Archbishop Robert Duncan, United Methodist Bishops Ken Carter of Florida & Mark Webb of Upper New York, United Theological Seminary President Wendy Deichmann (United Methodist), Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Metropolitan Methodios of Boston, Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, Focus on the Family Founder James Dobson, Beeson Divinity School Dean Timothy George, Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary President Dennis Hollinger, Willow Creek Pastor Bill Hybels, Northland Church Pastor Joel Hunter, National Religious Broadcasters President Jerry Johnson, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Prison Fellowship Ministries President Jim Liske and Institute on Religion & Democracy President Mark Tooley.
5-08-2014
These tensions are also increasingly relevant to the Democratic Party. After decades of playing defense when it comes to faith and politics, Democrats have begun to coalesce around a set of issues important to the faith community. Organizations like Faith in Public Life,NETWORK, Sojourners, PICO and the National Latino Evangelical Coalition (all of whom the authors consulted for the Faith in Equality report), provide external communications and political support to core Democratic issues, including economic fairness and addressing inequality.
5-06-2014
And guess what? It didn’t really change anything. I still don’t have agents and publishers knocking down my doors. I still get fewer than five comments on most of my blog posts. “Why I am a Christian Democrat” still brings in a fair amount of traffic; it is almost always one of the most popular posts on my blog. But otherwise, my writing life today is very much the same as it was back in October 2012. I write here a few times a week. I guest post for friends’ and colleagues’ blogs. Without a solid idea for another book, I’m focusing on getting articles and blog posts published by print and online magazines, including the Christian Century and Sojourners.
5-05-2014
Trauma impacts the lives of those it affects. Whatever time of life a person is traumatized–as an infant, child, teen, or adult–life is never the same. A post at Sojourners by Catherine Woodiwiss explains ten ways trauma can change a life. What she has to say speaks volumes to caregiving parents who are dealing with grief.
5-05-2014
What is the best meaning of the word "evangelical"? Perhaps this: a deep belief in Jesus, a consistent commitment to follow Jesus, and a real love for Jesus -- one who applies Jesus' life and teachings to their everyday lives. By that definition, Glen Stassen was an evangelical -- the best kind. If more evangelicals were like him, the term would have an enormously better image in our society.
5-05-2014
Rev. Jim Wallis joins Morning Joe to discuss his new book “The (Un)Common Good,” and the life of Christian ethicist Glen Stassen.
5-05-2014
They point to religious organizations working on progressive causes, including "Sojourners, the Religious Action Center of Reform Juda¬ism, Faith in Public Life, Evangelicals for Social Action, the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, the Evangelical Climate Initiative, the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good."
5-05-2014
Sojourners is an organization whose mission is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church and the world.
5-05-2014
In the 1980s, we worked with the local Interfaith Committee on Latin America to stop the U.S.-backed wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Our summer Peace Camp, now in its 32nd year, started in 1982, when we hosted Jim Wallis of Sojourners as our keynote speaker. In 1987, we launched our yearly Peace Essay Contest.
5-01-2014
Proclaiming that the tomb is empty – that Jesus has risen from the grave – is the most powerful witness any Christian can offer. But if our Easter celebration stops at proclamation then we’ve shortchanged the world of the hope and joy it sorely needs. The resurrection must also be about embodiment. It should change the way we live and move and have our being. Easter should transform and strengthen us to participate in God’s reconciling work in the world.
5-01-2014
The ugly racial statements of the Los Angeles Clipper owner Donald Sterling sparked a series of hopefully historic events over the last several days. The press conferences on Tuesday by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and the player’s representative in this crisis—are worthy of deeper reflection.
5-01-2014
Lindsey told The Christian Post that he saw the book as part of his "lifelong passion and calling" to "write biblical theological truth" regarding "personal and public life."
Lindsey also told CP that he "came from a more left-oriented perspective, sort of Jim Wallis and Sojourners and Ron Sider."
"I still appreciate much of what they taught me, but I think probably the great turning point was reading Michael Novak's book Spirit of Democratic Capitalism and other things that sort of opened my eyes that there was more to the story than what I've been told," said Lindsey.
Christian Piatt 5-01-2014
Sarah Palin in Plano, Texas in 2009, Jennifer A. Walz / Shutterstock.com
Most people in their right minds consider Sarah Palin’s statement about using waterboarding to “baptize” terrorists as insensitive at the very least. It further reinforces the notion that she will say or do nearly anything to grab a headline, even if it is at the expense of her own integrity, and perhaps that of her political cohorts or even her faith.
She’d be doing all of us a favor if she’d simply stop talking publically. But in as much as she continues to be afforded a microphone and speaking pulpit, we get to bear witness to her attempts to improvise a caricature of herself on the fly.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of the statement to me is not the brazenness of it, or even the apparent lack of self-awareness or personal filter. It’s that she’s actually speaking on behalf of a significant – albeit shrinking – subset of Christian culture in the United States. It’s the strain that believes that the Prayer of Jabez (a prayer about expanding one’s spiritual territory) is a Manifest Destiny of sorts from Jesus to his followers. We’re to reach to all corners of the earth, emboldened with a “be assimilated or be eliminated” mentality at our backs.
4-28-2014
Asides war and crisis, the Central African Republic (CAR) remains relatively unknown to the world. But when causes are worth mentioning, the moves faster than imagined. The evidence of this is reflected in the work of three CAR citizens with mission to restore peace to the crisis-ridden country. “Imam Omar Kobine Layama, president of the Central African Islamic Community; Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the Archbishop of Bangui; and Nicolas Guérékoyame-Gbangou, president of the Evangelical Alliance of the Central African Republic, are religious leaders who actually do what their faith tells them to do,” said Jim Wallis, founder and editor of Christian magazine, Sojourners. “Because of their efforts the world is taking notice of the conflict.”
4-25-2014
There's an old hymn that many Christians have sung for nearly a century. "How Great Thou Art" celebrates the glory of God while considering, "all the works thy hands have made." It reminds me of the psalm that reads, "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge."
4-25-2014
And from Central African Republic (CAR), which is still a war zone as it battles with sectarian crisis, Imam Omar Kobine Layama, Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga and The Rev. Nicolas Guérékoyame-Gbangou, all faith leaders working assiduously to ensure peace returns to CAR, made the list.
According to Jim Wallis, President and founder of Sojourners, “Imam Layama and his family have lived with the Archbishop since December when it became too dangerous in Bangui to stay in the imam’s house.”
Guy Nave 4-25-2014
Victor Tongdee/Shutterstock.com
Like many people, I was troubled when I heard about the recent shooting outside of a Jewish community center in Overland Park, Kansas. According to several news accounts, the perpetrator — Frazier Glenn Cross — yelled, “Heil Hitler” at onlookers as he was being carried away in a police car. Cross also has a long history of anti-Semitic behavior and has publically declared a hatred of all Jews.
In addition to being troubled by this act of hatred and violence, I was also troubled by the quick response of CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor, Daniel Burke, who made it a point to emphasize that Frazier was not a Christian but rather allegedly an adherent of Odinism, a “neo-pagan” religion which, according to Burke, “has emerged as one the most vicious strains in the white supremacist movement.”
While the annals of Christian history — ancient and modern — are full of accounts of violence perpetrated in the name of Christianity, my objective here is neither to defend Odinism nor to criticize Christianity. Instead, I want to highlight the socially constructed nature of beliefs and beliefs systems and emphasize how these socially constructed beliefs say far more about us than they do about the “gods” we claim to accept or reject.
4-24-2014
As violence ravages Central African Republic, three men are working tirelessly for peace to hold their country together. Imam Omar Kobine Layama, president of the Central African Islamic Community; Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the Archbishop of Bangui; and Nicolas Guérékoyame-Gbangou, president of the Evangelical Alliance of the Central African Republic, are religious leaders who actually do what their faith tells them to do. Sharing a meal with these three showed me again what can happen when faith leaders walk their talk. Their witness has come with significant personal costs. For example, Imam Layama and his family have lived with the Archbishop since December when it became too dangerous in Bangui to stay in the imam’s house. Because of their efforts the world is taking notice of the conflict. The imam eloquently stated an important truth: “Politics try to divide the religious in our country, but religion shouldn’t be a cause of hate, war or strife.”