It’s an ancient tradition. Over the last 1500 years or so, Christians have observed a period of prayer and fasting prior to Easter. In time, a forty-day period (Sundays aren’t included because Sundays are a memorial of Easter) emerged within the Christian tradition and came to be called Lent. The… Read More »Lent and the God of Jesus
The Christian Church in the United States is dying. That should come as no surprise to anyone. It happened in Western Europe and Australia after World War II. It happened in Canada and Ireland as well. Now it’s happening here. Attendance at churches of every kind is declining. Yes, even… Read More »The Christian Church is Dying
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 »Make Sense of the Crucifixion of Jesus
I have several friends who no longer call themselves “Christian.” It’s not that they’ve lost their faith or given up on God or something like that. Instead, they don’t want to be associated with the narrow-minded, judgmental folks who present themselves as the “true Christians” of today. (You know the… Read More »The Christianity of Jesus
It’s a stark image, one familiar to Christians who observe the time of Lent and Good Friday. Jesus hangs on a cross. On either side of him are two other criminals who also received a death sentence. As the gospel writer known as Luke conveys, one criminal who shares this… Read More »Pain and Paradise
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 there… Read More »Making Sense of the Resurrection of Jesus Today
Sometimes I attend services in an Episcopal Church. Before people share the bread and wine known as communion, the priest makes a dramatic gesture. Holding the circular bread-wafer so that all can see, the priest exclaims: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” In unison, the response comes from the… Read More »A Progressive Christian Minister Reconsiders Atonement
I am in awe that all four of my grandparents were part of a great exodus to the United States. From 1890 to 1914, 70% of the immigrants to the United States were from Eastern and Southern Europe. It was an immigration phenomenon that brought 1.2 million people to the… Read More »Lessons from My Family about Immigration