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Progressive Christian

2019-01-13T18:48:48-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Donald Trump, and Stupidity

Last updated on: January 13, 2019 at 6:48 pm By Vance Morgan

Why do intelligent people believe lies that are easily exposed as lies? Why do intelligent people treat facts as disposable opinions? These are questions as current as today’s news. This past week we were served a steady diet of a national emergency that isn’t an emergency, supporting numbers that are easily shown to be fabricated, and occupants of the highest offices in the land saying things with a straight face that anyone with a computer can verify as false within... Read more

2019-01-10T18:34:53-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Just Your Typical Family, or Jesus Gets Grounded

Last updated on: January 10, 2019 at 6:34 pm By Vance Morgan

Each week for many years, Garrison Keillor told “Prairie Home Companion” listeners the news from Lake Wobegon, where “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” I’ll bet the Holy Family was like that. Lots of people think their children are well “above average”—hence, the bumper stickers in which parents boast that they are the “Proud Parents of an Honor Student at _________.” Everyone thinks their child is precocious and the smartest/best... Read more

2019-01-08T14:50:58-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A New Year’s Resolution: Dream More, and Waste Less Time

Last updated on: January 8, 2019 at 2:50 pm By Vance Morgan

At the beginning of a new year, I often find myself thinking not so much about the year just ended, but rather about the year just begun. Although it was a perfectly fine year on a personal level—my youngest son got engaged, I signed a contract for a new book, Jeanne and I went to Scotland on vacation, and many more positives—2018 was eminently forgettable from a national and global perspective. But I am an incurable optimist, so I hope... Read more

Channel - Contemplative

2019-12-17T20:48:37-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Best of 2019 #4: The Dangers of Tribal Christianity

Last updated on: December 17, 2019 at 8:48 pm By Vance Morgan

Last May, Are Evangelical Christians Discriminated Against? The Dangers of Tribal Christianity Read more

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2019-01-03T12:45:53-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Alexa, Hear My Prayer

Last updated on: January 3, 2019 at 12:45 pm By Vance Morgan

I read a fascinating article in the November 2018 edition of The Atlantic that explores the various ways in which virtual assistants such as Alexa and Siri have begun to occupy more and more important spaces in our lives. My household does not have such an assistant, and it’s probably a good thing. Home is the one place where my conversation tends to be unfiltered. I read the article largely because, as a person with no virtual assistant, I have often wondered... Read more

2018-12-24T12:27:30-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Paying Attention to What’s Behind the Curtain

Last updated on: December 24, 2018 at 12:27 pm By Vance Morgan

Not long ago I led a seminar with a number of colleagues from the Honors Program as part of a two-day end-of-the-semester workshop. Our text was several essays from Michel de Montaigne, a sixteenth-century diplomat, philosopher, and introvert who has become one of my favorite authors over the past few years. My general tendency, both as a philosopher and as a normal human being, is toward the details rather than grand, sweeping schemes, and toward skepticism rather than certainty. Montaigne speaks... Read more

2018-12-31T13:44:24-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Top Five of 2018

Last updated on: December 31, 2018 at 1:44 pm By Vance Morgan

On this New Year’s Day I’m taking a final moment to look back at the year just finished. 2018 was my first full calendar year blogging on Patheos (although this blog is now well over six years old). Here, according to Google Analytics, are my top five posts from 2018! 5: Several news outlets called the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings the top news story of 2018–my October reflections on that process came in at #5: Doctor Ford, Judge... Read more

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2018-12-30T08:50:35-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Slouching Toward 2019

Last updated on: December 30, 2018 at 8:50 am By Vance Morgan

Love does not say “I ought to love”—it loves. Pity does not say “It is right to feel pity”—it pities. Justice does not say, “I am bound to be just”—it acts justly. George Eliot There are eight to ten movies that Jeanne and I watch religiously during the Christmas season, from the obvious (“It’s a Wonderful Life,” “White Christmas”) to a few that are not as well-known. We began our annual Christmas movie-watching binge this year with one of the lesser... Read more

2018-12-26T20:08:56-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It’s the Incarnation, Dammit!

Last updated on: December 26, 2018 at 8:08 pm By Vance Morgan

On Christmas Eve morning, I noticed that a Facebook friend had posted a poll on her site. The question was: Which is more meaningful to you—Christmas or Easter? While many respondents commented that their vote was based on which of the two seasons they found more entertaining or less stressful, the most interesting comments were from those who made their choice on what these two holidays mean to them as persons of Christian faith. The underlying faith question is: Which... Read more

2018-12-25T19:25:29-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Murdering the Innocents: A Different Kind of Christmas Story

Last updated on: December 25, 2018 at 7:25 pm By Vance Morgan

This Christmas season seems more dissonant than most, with violence across the globe, a partial governmental shutdown, and jostling for air space with department store muzak and familiar stories from the pulpit. During a conversation with a number of friends the other day I was reminded that the juxtaposition of promise and death, of expectation and suffering, is nothing new. This dissonance is built into the fabric of the stories that we tend to tell selectively and sanitize for public... Read more

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