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Progressive Christian

2018-12-04T09:05:57-04:00

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.

The Taming of Christmas, and How to Make it Wild Again

Last updated on: December 4, 2018 at 9:05 am By Vance Morgan

Just when you thought you had heard and read it all . . . “If Jesus was back among us, he’d be a law-abiding gun owner. He’d support the Police. And he’d say “Merry Christmas” not “Happy Holidays.” This piece of wisdom and insight was shared around this time last year on Twitter by Joe Walsh, a former Illinois congressman turned conservative talk-show host. A number of creative responses were immediately forthcoming, including No, he’d say Happy Birthday to Me... Read more

2018-11-29T17:54:58-04:00

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.

Advent and the Blessing of Being Human

Last updated on: November 29, 2018 at 5:54 pm By Vance Morgan

Each Advent for the past eight years, I have had the privilege of giving a sermon at the Episcopal church that I attend (this year I am up on Advent 4). Last year I gave this sermon on the First Sunday of Advent. In Philosophical Fragments, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard tells a lovely story about a powerful king who falls in love with a lowly maiden. The maiden is unaware of the king’s love, and the king is worried. Knowing that... Read more

2018-11-25T13:05:59-04:00

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.

Trailing Clouds of Glory, We Come From God

Last updated on: November 25, 2018 at 1:05 pm By Vance Morgan

As we approach the Advent and Christmas seasons, I am in a forward-looking and hopeful mood. But that also involves looking back to a point in my life, not that many years ago, when hope took on a new meaning for me. The great but incredibly difficult German philosopher Immanuel Kant, in a rare moment of clarity, wrote that all important human questions can be boiled down to these three: WHAT CAN I KNOW? WHAT OUGHT I TO DO? and WHAT MAY... Read more

2018-11-25T12:31:25-04:00

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.

This is Why I am Not an Atheist

Last updated on: November 25, 2018 at 12:31 pm By Vance Morgan

Despite my consistent self-description as a “person of faith,” I have been accused occasionally over the years, usually by various Christian colleagues, of actually being an atheist. I do take atheism very seriously, and have often written about how this has helped me understand and express my faith more effectively and clearly. I have regularly written on this blog about what atheists and persons of faith share in common and how they can communicate fruitfully and intelligently. I recently received... Read more

2018-11-23T16:12:59-04:00

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.

Does Christianity Solve the Problem of Evil? (spoiler alert: no, it doesn’t)

Last updated on: November 23, 2018 at 4:12 pm By Vance Morgan

In the six-plus years that I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve occasionally been asked what a “Freelance Christian” is. I call myself a freelance Christian because I don’t believe that any particular doctrinal formulation of the Christian faith is satisfactory. This is not because I’m still looking for the doctrinal package for Christianity that fits my own eclectic faith most closely; it’s because I don’t believe Christianity can be packaged in a doctrinal statement at all. Jesus did not come... Read more

2018-11-21T11:44:25-04:00

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.

Black Friday and the War on Christmas

Last updated on: November 21, 2018 at 11:44 am By Vance Morgan

Today is Black Friday, the unfortunate beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Apparently in service to the holiday spirit of capitalism, some stores opened in yesterday’s evening hours, forcing their employees to interrupt their Thanksgivings in pursuit of increased sales. It is also the beginning of this year’s skirmish in the much-hyped “War on Christmas.” This is a “war” allegedly being waged by all sorts of non-Christians in this country, a war whose continuing battlefields include the apparent prohibition against... Read more

2018-11-21T09:08:46-04:00

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.

Is My Ignorance Worth as Much as Your Knowledge?

Last updated on: November 21, 2018 at 9:08 am By Vance Morgan

In early 1980, Isaac Asimov wrote something in a Newsweek article that has been making the rounds on social media over the past few months, something that could have been written yesterday. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Asimov died over twenty-five years ago; I suspect that he would have adapted well to the internet... Read more

2018-11-19T21:05:29-04:00

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.

A Birthday Worth Noting

Last updated on: November 19, 2018 at 9:05 pm By Vance Morgan

Today is my youngest son Justin’s thirty-seventh birthday. If that’s not enough to make me feel old, my oldest son Caleb will turn forty next March. As I often tell people, I fathered my children when I was in my early teens. But today is not about me–it’s about Justin, whom I admire as much as anyone I know. I wrote a celebration of Justin a bit over four years ago on this blog–a number of positive things have happened... Read more

2018-11-20T10:00:59-04:00

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.

Welcoming the Stranger

Last updated on: November 20, 2018 at 10:00 am By Vance Morgan

I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. Matthew 25:35 Over the past couple of weeks I have posted several essays on this blog reflecting on immigration, particularly on the caravan of immigrants inching north through Mexico to our southern border. These posts have generated some interesting conversations both on my blog and on Facebook, more comments than any group of essays I’ve ever posted. One of the Facebook comment threads was particularly “interesting.” On that thread, a person developed an... Read more

2018-11-15T11:45:15-04:00

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.

Mary, Martha, and Time Management

Last updated on: November 15, 2018 at 11:45 am By Vance Morgan

The stereotype of the Type A personality has become an entrenched part of cultural lore. Originally described by two cardiologists in the 1950s as the type of person who is most likely to experience cardiac arrest, Type As are familiar to everyone. Competitive, short-fused, action oriented, no nonsense, humorless, deadline driven, boundless in energy—these are people who not only don’t stop to smell the roses, but tend not even to notice the existence of the roses as they plow through... Read more

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