Didn’t Jesus teach his followers to take care of the poor? Then why are so many churches and pastors rich? Why do so many Christians talk about “victory” and God’s blessings? It’s all part of prosperity theology – and it’s a scam. That’s the topic of my YouTube video today.… Read More »Prosperity Theology: Don’t Get Scammed
Christian spirituality suffers from a basic problem: most people don’t know what it is. Too often, among Christians, dogma is confused with spirituality. The video explains the problem and identifies some of the authentic expressions of Christian spirituality. The following is a text version of this posting. It was a… Read More »The Problem with Christian Spirituality
The findings from Pew Research are clear: the importance of religion in the lives of Americans is shrinking. Yes, there are lots of problems with institutional religion. In the face of cultural changes, I think it’s important to consider the relevance of the teachings of Jesus even as the importance… Read More »Is Jesus Relevant?
Growing up during the Cold War Era in a family proud of its Eastern European heritage and belonging to an ethnic Eastern European church, there was a story I heard periodically around Easter time. The story made its way into sermons and was sometimes repeated in family gatherings. As the… Read More »Making Sense of the Resurrection of Jesus Today
The cycle is all around us. Life, death, and new life characterize existence as we know it. Perhaps by being more attentive to this cycle we can learn to flow with the changing rhythms of life and embrace life’s richness in each moment. The following is a text version of… Read More »Cycles of Living, Dying, and Rising
Crucifixion: truly a brutal, violent way to kill another human being. A person hangs naked on a cross with lungs filling with fluid, struggling to breathe, and then succumbing after hours of struggle to the inevitable last gasp and death. All the while, one’s suffering is a public spectacle. Such… Read More »Making Sense of the Crucifixion of Jesus
Extravagance: that’s not something we usually associate with Lent. Yet, extravagance is key to understanding the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. To be extravagant, to be lavish, to be imprudent, to be over the top and do something no one else would do — yes, these are all key… Read More »The Extravagance of Lent
Friendship. The term is used frequently and conveys a myriad of meanings. On social media, we “friend” others including people we’ve never met. We refer to people we haven’t seen in years, perhaps since school days, as “friends” yet other than sharing a moment in time, we have little in… Read More »The Way of Jesus in Friendship and Grief
