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You never know the day your life will change—or the person who will change it. For me, her name was Om Hassan. I was 23, an American soldier…
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Christopher Hitchens, Diana Butler Bass and the Third Great Awakening
Everyone who calls me to speak somewhere, it seems, wants me to address the issue of declining church membership, and particularly how to connect with younger adults. The problem is…
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Whose Kingdom, Which Lord? Jesus & Nationalism, part 5 (Concluding Exhortations… Native Americans as Victims of Nationalism)
By Kurt WillemsThis is part five of a five part series on Jesus and Nationalism. It reads as one fluid written sermon so you may want to read the rest of the…
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Whose Kingdom, Which Lord? Jesus & Nationalism, part 4 (When Two Empire's Collide)
By Kurt WillemsThis is part four of a five part series on Jesus and Nationalism. It reads as one fluid written sermon so you may want to read the rest of the…
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Whose Kingdom, Which Lord? Jesus & Nationalism, part 3 (Give to Caesar What is Caesar's?)
By Kurt WillemsThis is part three of a five part series on Jesus and Nationalism. It reads as one fluid written sermon so you may want to read the rest of the…
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Whose Kingdom, Which Lord? Jesus & Nationalism, part 2 (Caesar Augustus and Empire)
By Kurt WillemsThis is part two of a five part series on Jesus and Nationalism. It reads as one fluid written sermon so you may want to read the . I hav…
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Whose Kingdom, Which Lord? Jesus and Nationalism, part 1
By Kurt WillemsThe next several posts are going to be in the form of a written sermon. I have never spoken this sermon but figured I would use the blog to get…
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Persecution and Epistemic Closure
Epistemic closure is a recently defined philosophical term that describes someone who is so thoroughly encased in the echo chamber of their own ideology that they are completely immune to…
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I Know Your Works
By Morf MorfordI live in what is known as earthquake country. It’s a fairly common sight to see an exposed cliff-side with a diagonal line exposing an ancient earth fracture, where one…
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If It’s Armageddon, Do I Have To Do My Homework?
My son, Mattias, was in a religious school in town for a while for preschool. We knew going in that their beliefs did not align in a lot of ways…
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The Power of Being a Partial Bible Christian!
“By calling ourselves Red Letter Christians, we are alluding to those old versions of the Bible wherein the words of Jesus are printed in red. In adopting the name, we…
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Jesus for Prez
Last Monday was Presidents day. So I tweeted, ‘Jesus for president.‘ on my facebook wall, and with several followers on twitter, this generated some discussion. Some were in support of Jesus…
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Foreclosure Resistance, A Prayer
By Jeremy JohnOh Lord, save your servant who trusts in you. –Psalm 86 A prayer lifts up from the city, like the smoke of incense. A single prayer, in the myriad of…
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Loving Like Jesus: Views and Reviews
I ran across two items recently, one innocent and sweet, the other not so much. The first is a brief exchange between two characters in A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh.…
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Worship and the Poor: Moving Beyond Belief
By Chris LahrWe’ve all seen “the sign” at sporting events. For some reason, of all the Bible verses in Scripture, John 3:16 is the most commonly quoted. Throughout the NFL world this…
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When Dreams Meet Reality: Life in Intentional Community
By Jon HuckinsAfter years of being a youth pastor, I remember the time I came home from yet another event that required endless administration, energy and resources and asked myself, “Is this…
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Can I Let Go of What I Really Want…(VIDEO)
By Kent Annan…so I can find what I really need? I want a Burger King Bacon Double Cheeseburger. I want U2’s “Achtung Baby” blasting my ear drums. I want to drive as…
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Mardi Gras – For Baptists
It’s been almost 26 years since I left Louisiana with my parents, and I still really miss the Mardi Gras season. Mardi Gras is one long, enormous party – in…
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Like Religious Freedom? Wear Ashes on Wednesday!
There’s been a lot of talk about religious freedom over the past couple of weeks. Whatever side of the story you believe, Christianity has taken a hit both from people…
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Sometimes I See
By Morf MorfordSometimes I see That flickering light, Sometimes I feel The earth in motion, Or maybe it’s a stillness Beyond stillness.
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Jeremy Lin and The “Messiah Formula”
No, he doesn’t go down on one knee every time he nails a dunk or a perimeter shot. And as far as I know, he’s not building any hospitals in…
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Occupy Nonviolence: Not Flesh and Blood
Amid the recent police violence in Oakland and the sure temptation of some protestors to resort to violence, I wrote this little reflection inviting all Occupiers to a renewed commitment…
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A Year of Self-Reflection and Growth: Are You Ready for Community?
By Chris LahrIn the past fifteen years there has been a shift towards community that was not even part of most people’s vocabulary before. Fifteen years ago, I did not hear people…
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Is There Such Thing as a Good CEO? (VIDEO)
Check out this story about Haruka Nishimatsu, President and CEO of Japan Airlines, one of the biggest airlines in the world. He takes public transportation, shares an office with co-workers,…
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We Are Christianity: An Open Letter to Frustrated Christians in the United States
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, My name is Bruce Reyes-Chow and I too am a Christian. I am also a Presbyterian minister, a husband, a father and a Democrat.…
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Is That Any Way to Treat a Bible?
By Morf MorfordWe are not Catholic, but for a variety of reasons we sent our daughter to Catholic schools. In a high school religion class, the teacher approached my daughter during class,…
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Wild Goose 2012 (VIDEO)
Over the past few months, the Wild Goose team and the staff at The Work of the People have been poring over video footage to create a highlight video from our debut…
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Reverence for the Sacred Land: A Response to Endemic Violence in Central America
For five years I lived and worked in the outskirts of San Salvador with an organization supporting marginalized families living with HIV/AIDS. Though the agonizing combination of poverty and HIV…
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Exorcise Wall Street
There was an occasion in the 60s where a bunch of hippies surrounded the Pentagon and tried to exorcise the demons. It didn’t work. Despite their valiant effort, not much…
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I Apologize for Inaccurate Statistics on US Gov't War Spending
I APOLOGIZE FOR INACCURATELY QUOTING HOW MUCH THE US GOVERNMENT SPENDS ON WAR. For several years, I have been using a statistic that is grossly understated. I often say that…
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Cussing Christians: Why I’m with Mark Driscoll on this One
By Kurt WillemsMark Driscoll gets this one right. Seriously. In my opinion, we ought to have the freedom to use language contextually and not be bound by religiosity. That doesn’t mean that…
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Stop Abusing the Word "Biblical"!
One of the great epidemics of modern American evangelicalism is the abuse of the word “Biblical” by attaching it to causes and ideas that have nothing to do with the…
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The Black Letter Narrative: More than Red Letters
“By calling ourselves Red Letter Christians, we are alluding to those old versions of the Bible wherein the words of Jesus are printed in red. In adopting the name, we…
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The Buried Talent
By Morf MorfordSometimes I get the feeling that contemporary Christianity has completely missed the point. Here’s what I mean; on a practical, philosophical or political level, what would any of us define…
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Examining John Piper’s “Masculine Christianity”
I really want to give people like John Piper the benefit of the doubt. Given that he’s a minister in the Baptist tradition, it doesn’t surprise me when he only…
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The Reverse Mission: What White People Can Do About Racism
By Chris LahrSeveral years ago I was visiting the town I grew up in and was talking with a local youth worker about my life in Philly. Somewhere in the conversation she…
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On Asperger Syndrome and Broken Hearts
Our son, Mattias, is eight years old. Everyone thinks their kid is special, and in a lot of ways, he’s just a regular kid. He loves fart jokes, enjoys riding…
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Who Hijacked My Church?
“ Cheap levitra for sale Church folks are just too political!” When people are asked why they have decided to leave the church, this has become an increasingly popular response.…
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Within a Yard of Hell…
By Roy GobleThe English missionary C.T. Studd said, “Some want to live within the sound of a church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of…
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A Little Bird Told Me
By Morf MorfordA little bird told me. You’ve probably heard this familiar saying. It comes from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 10:20 to be exact. The full version is: “Do not revile the king…
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Treat Them Like a Tax Collector: Reflections on Matthew 18, Church Discipline, and Andrew
By Kurt WillemsJesus offers a model for reconciliation in Matthew 18.15-17. Often, these three verses are used for the opposite of this: alienation. These words operate as a law in some settings,…
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Dorothy Day the "Great Reformer"?
This morning, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Barack Obama named Dorothy Day as a “great reformer in American history”. Who woulda thunk it? I think President Hoover called her a…
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Collateral Murder and Preemptive Love
Today I was catching up on emails and came across two messages that deeply affected me, maybe because I read them back to back. The first one is from a…
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We Need More Cannibals
Today’s article is the third in a series I’m creating this week on inspired vision. On Monday, I wrote about how the nostalgia preached about in contemporary politics actually leans…
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Of Jaws, Fishing for Men, and the Kingdom of God
Quint the fisherman, played to perfection by the scene-stealing Robert Shaw in the 1975 Steven Spielberg masterpiece, Jaws, was a rugged, thick-skinned, and independent man who played by his own…
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The Cup of Sorrow
Last Sunday, I was watching our pastor’s wife teach the children about one the most emotional parts of the gospel. She was teaching them what the crucifixion meant. As she…
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I’m Mennonite… and Finally Became Anabaptist: Embracing our Mission to Post-Christian America
By Kurt WillemsI’m a Mennonite. Yes, it’s true. Mennonite even in the “ethnic” sense. In fact, I often say that I have more of a family wreath than a family tree because…
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Should Christians Support the rEVOLution?
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul recently argued for a “Golden Rule” in foreign policy in the first South Carolina GOP debate. “We endlessly bomb [other] countries, ” he said, “and…
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Worship and the Poor: The Coming Revival
By Chris LahrI just got back from spending about a month in India with my family. We had the opportunity to stay with our friend who runs a children’s home, made up…
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Evangelicals Support Newt Gingrich
By Tony CampoloThe need for Red Letter Christians to no longer be labeled “Evangelicals” became abundantly clear this past Saturday following the South Carolina Republican Primary. Most Evangelicals claim to be politically…
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Sweet Friendship Ahead for Mormons and Evangelical Christians
By Kay CampbellI have seen a vision of the future of relations between evangelical Christians and Mormons. It’s going to be sweet. This vision came, of all places, at Tuesday’s pro-life rally…
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Going There: Another Take on the Orphan Crisis
It’s been just over two years since a magnitude 7 earthquake hit Haiti, killing more than a quarter of a million people and leaving thousands of children orphaned, overwhelming a…
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Who is my Neighbor?
By Morf MorfordWhen Jesus was asked “Who is my neighbor?” what was the man really asking? Certainly he was expecting a simple, direct answer – one that he could take home and…
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The Worship Wars
By Tony CampoloOne reason churches are splitting these days is over forms of worship. There are those who contend that we are not going to bring in a new generation of young…
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Re-Membering: the Heart of the Gospel
One of my favorite things about being part of a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) community is that we observe communion every time we participate in worship. I know for…
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Biggest Loser Wins: Small Things with GREAT Love
Biggest loser wins. That’s the whole premise of the popular weight-loss reality show featuring women and men who are hundreds of pounds over-weight. Whoever loses the most, wins. Every…
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Resolve to Be Green in 2012: Plastic Bags, John Stott, and the Reign of God
By Kurt WillemsRecently in Seattle Washington a city ordinance was passed which bans the use of single use plastic bags. In other words, if you go to the grocery store to purchase…
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Churches Host ‘Water Sunday’ to Fight Global Water Crisis
By Kevin HerrFor the time it takes you to read this blog post, six children will die from water-borne illnesses. Three children for every minute of every day. That number is amplified…
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None is Saved While One Still Suffers
For some, the central message of Christianity is about personal salvation. What it is exactly that we need saving from is debatable, depending on who you ask: from the fires…
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What Would MLK Do? Christians and Climate Change
Early in the civil rights movement, Bayard Rustin said to King, “I have a feeling that the Lord had laid his hand upon you. And that is a dangerous, dangerous…
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This Train: Songs of the Civil Rights Movement
By Morf Morford“I’m not black, but there’s a whole lot of times I wish I could say I’m not white.” -Frank Zappa The history and progress of civil rights in America has…
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A few highlights coming in 2012. . .
Sometimes folks ask me if I’ve spoken at any conferences I get excited about. I’ll be speaking over 150 times this next year in about a dozen countries — at…
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If You Wanna Get to Heaven, You Might Wanna Listen to the Ozark Mountain Daredevils (Ode to Dale and Mary)
Dale and I became fast friends a few years ago because of our love for the music of that Missouri band of rural hippie farmers known as the Ozark Mountain…
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Hating Religion, Loving Jesus: A Well-Meaning False Dichotomy
This week has seen a new viral sensation take over our computer screens. A spoken word artist who goes by the name Bball1989 released a video on YouTube that has,…
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On the Receiving End: Beggars and PBJ
By Chris Lahrcialis online without prescription300.jpg” alt=”” width=”189″ height=”216″ />I have had many people ask me whether or not they should give money to beggars. My reply is always, “First beg, then…
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Two Years Later: A Prayer for Haiti
By Kent AnnanLoving God, We come to you, first, in silence. We mourn those who died two years ago in the earthquake. And we mourn with those who continue to mourn. We…
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The Kingdom Belongs to Such as These? (Luke 18:15-17)
By Morf MorfordI am less concerned about whether there is a Hell or not, than I am about the supposedly agreed upon criteria for going – or not going – there. Most…
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Why Gender Hierarchy Makes No Biblical Sense to Me
My wife and I decided to do something bold for our wedding. Each of us preached while the other person washed our feet, rotating halfway through the sermon. The text…
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It’s Tebow Time!
By Joe PerdueFirst, let me say that I am a Tim Tebow fan. If you had asked me what time it was on any given Saturday between 2006 and 2010 I would…
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Can Christians Learn from the War in Iraq?
A number of commentators have been asking what lessons we might learn from the war in Iraq. With American troops having been so recently withdrawn from that nation, this is…
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Identity Crisis: A Jesus that is Insipid and Powerless
By Ann FedeliI sense that the church is in the midst of a serious, but potentially transforming, identity crisis. Several observations have led me to this conclusion. On one hand, I see…
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The Nerd Gospel
I have a number of identifiers on my various venues I write for and on my email signature: heretic, antagonist, father, son, instigator, pop culture junkie, theologian, social media guru,…
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A Gift for Blago? And You and Me…
“My life is ruined.” These words were uttered by Rod Blagojevich to Judge James Zagel on December 7 as he pleaded for mercy. His life is ruined, with “nobody to…
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12 Hopes for 2012
12. Do something really nice – that no one knows about. 11. Spend more money on other people than I spend on my self. Love my neighbor as I love…
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2011: The Year of the Hell Debate
2011 was a turbulent year for American evangelical Christian identity. A major lightning rod within our identity crisis was the publication of Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. Under the surface…
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Noting a Woman’s Body
By Enuma OkoroGod knows women’s bodies always have a way of getting our attention. This is not breaking news. But in the past two weeks two storylines have been breaking out and…
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Christians, Take Up Your Mats and Walk
There’s an old joke that speaks directly to one of the biggest issues holding back Churches these days: How many Christians does it take to screw in a light bulb?…
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“Class Warfare” in Mary’s Magnificat?
As our call to worship the fourth Sunday in Advent, we read Mary’s Magnificat, a prophetic song that she bursts into in Luke 1:46-55 after her cousin Elizabeth confirms that…
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The Ecstasy of Spirituality on Christmas
By Tony CampoloThe ecstasy of spirituality might be compared to an experience I had when I was seven years old. It was Christmas, and I wanted more than anything to have a…
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The Christian Industrial Complex
I went into a Christian bookstore the other day and was surprised to see some of the most prominent display space given over to military flags for the U.S. Army,…
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The Challenge Of Keeping The Real Christ In Christmas
Like most kids, when I was growing up I looked forward to Christmas with eager anticipation. With each passing day the excitement heightened. I constantly fantasized about how wonderful it…
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The Better Beard at Christmas: Santa or John the Baptist?
By Kent Annanbuy cheap cialis I’ve never donned a beard or red suit for Christmas. So far that’s my personal line. But something happens when you have kids. Categories of cool, kitsch,…
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Chinese Christmas: Always Winter and Never Christmas
By Morf MorfordIn mainland China, at least in 1999, they didn’t celebrate – or even acknowledge – Christmas. The lingering brutal winters fit that line from “The lion, the witch and the…
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Waiting with Mary: “Being” Rather Than “Doing”
Before Leah and I moved to Durham to start Rutba House in the summer of 2003, we spent a long weekend at Mary’s House Catholic Worker, a hospitality house for…
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A Season for Mischief and Conspiracy: A New Take on Christmas Charity
Critiquing the thick irony of the Christmas season is fair. It’s ludicrous that we celebrate the birth of the homeless baby Jesus by indulging in the biggest consumer spending of…
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How to Respond to Our All-American Muslim Neighbors
Lowe’s national retail chain, following a conservative Christian group’s call for businesses to boycott advertising on a new TLC reality show about Muslims, pulled its advertisements from All-American Muslim. The…
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Christmas: The Season of Grieving
Christmas is known for being the season of giving, good cheer and peace with all men. It’s where families come together for food, gifts, fellowship and celebration. It’s sparkling lights,…
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Of Mice And MIN…ISTERS (Ode to Advent and Axl Rose)
I’ve heard it said that Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose was, and still is, an angry, angry man. I have no reason to doubt it. There simply is no…
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Church Leaders Join Fight Against Italian Energy Giant in Rural Guatemala
Tension filled the cramped, block-wall room in the Guatemalan highlands as indigenous leaders sat across from negotiators for ENEL, an Italian-based energy company building a US$228-million hydro-electric dam in the…
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Taking the SEX out of Sex-mas!
By Kurt WillemsThen one foggy Sex-mas Eve, Victoria came to say: Consumer with your eyes so wide, buy this bra and panties tonight. Twenty-year-old young women wearing unmentionables stare into the camera…
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War on Christmas
By Morf MorfordAnd then there are those who rouse our passions about a “War on Christmas”. I found this tedious last year, and the year before, and the year before… But this…
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The New Evangelicals
By Marcia PallyThough public support for both major political parties is very low, one group of voters is usually exempted from this malaise: evangelicals. It’s assumed that at least these “values voters”…
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Tim Tebow: The Mile High Messiah
You don’t have to be from Colorado these days to hear about the so-called “Tebow Mystique.” An adoration for the new Denver Broncos quarterback that borders on hero-worship or even…