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Progressive Christian

2024-12-24T15:17:43-04:00

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.

Hope for the New Year

Last updated on: December 24, 2024 at 3:17 pm By Vance Morgan

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Iin his end-of-the-year op-ed in the Washington Post at the end of 2021 Michael Gerson wrote that The right sees a country in cultural decline, stripped of its identity and values. The left fears we are moving toward a new American authoritarianism. Both are ideologies of prophesied loss. In a society, such resentments easily become septic. So many otherwise irenic people seem captured by the politics of the clenched fist. A portion seem to genuinely wish some of their neighbors... Read more

2024-12-28T12:51:03-04:00

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.

First Sunday after Christmas: In the Beginning was the Word

Last updated on: December 28, 2024 at 12:51 pm By Vance Morgan

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The gospel reading in all three liturgical years for the First Sunday after Christmas is the familiar opening verses of John’s gospel. These verses provide a beautifully poetic introduction to the greatest story ever told. Because the language is poetic rather than discursive, in these verses the author of John has provided two millennia of theologians and persons of faith with more to write, talk, pontificate, preach, argue, and be confused about than could possibly be exhausted in future millennia.... Read more

2024-12-27T15:47:39-04:00

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.

Will we ever fill the hungry with good things?

Last updated on: December 27, 2024 at 3:47 pm By Vance Morgan

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Tomorrow is the Feast of the Holy Innocents on the liturgical calendar, the day that commemorates King Herod’s ordering the slaughter of the male children under two years old in Bethlehem in an attempt to eliminate the newborn Messiah who was rumored to have been born there. I have written about this gruesome part of the New Testament narrative before, focusing on the text from the haunting medieval “Coventry Carol”: Herod the king, in his raging, Charged he hath this... Read more

2024-12-23T10:57:25-04:00

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.

Christus Natus Est: Merry Christmas

Last updated on: December 23, 2024 at 10:57 am By Vance Morgan

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Christmas movies are a big deal at my house. Jeanne goes for the classics, such as “Miracle on 34th Street,” “The Bishop’s Wife,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and (her favorite) “White Christmas.” Those are all fine (except “White Christmas,” which I can take or leave), but I tend to favor more recent ones, like “The Holiday,” ” Love Actually,” and (my favorite) “The Nativity Story.” Movies with Biblical themes were both attractive and problematic in my early years. We did... Read more

2024-12-21T12:46:08-04:00

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 Fourth Sunday of Advent: Mother Mary Comes To Me

Last updated on: December 21, 2024 at 12:46 pm By Vance Morgan

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Three years ago I had the privilege of giving the Advent 4 sermon at Trinity Church in Pawtuxet RI. Here’s what I said. Many of you folks in the pews today are old enough to understand what I mean when I say that I grew up with the Beatles. They were an important part of the soundtrack of my youth. Now, “Alexa, play the Beatles!” is my most common command if I’m looking for music when home alone while reading,... Read more

2024-12-20T17:15:28-04:00

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.

During this Christmas Season, Don’t be Stupid

Last updated on: December 20, 2024 at 5:15 pm By Vance Morgan

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In December of 1942, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a Christmas letter to a number of his friends, relatives, and colleagues—people with whom he had been involved for the previous decade in various escalating behind-the-scenes and increasingly dangerous attempts to undermine the rule of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. This letter has come to be known as “Ten Years After.” As his fellow conspirators waited to see if the latest of numerous attempts to assassinate the Fuhrer would finally be successful,... Read more

2024-12-16T17:44:29-04:00

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.

My Advent Wish for You

Last updated on: December 16, 2024 at 5:44 pm By Vance Morgan

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For many reasons, Advent is my favorite liturgical season. The “Postlude” of my forthcoming book tells one of my favorite Advent stories, which I tell below. I was raised in a version of Christianity that had no sense of the liturgical year. I have often described the landmarks of my Baptist youth as Christmas, Easter, and everything else. I knew nothing of Advent until my twenties, and loved its energy, its carols, its texts–it still is my favorite liturgical season... Read more

2024-12-14T11:13:15-04:00

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.

Why Faith Can’t Avoid Being Political

Last updated on: December 14, 2024 at 11:13 am By Vance Morgan

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I’ve been steering away from politics here ever since last month’s election and intend to continue doing so for the foreseeable future. Except for today. With the understanding that the incoming administration has put “doing something about immigration” at the top of its to do list, I am thinking today of a controversial nativity scene from five years ago. When Claremont (California) United Methodist Church unveiled its annual outdoor Nativity during that Advent season, it caused a stir that made... Read more

2024-12-13T07:14:51-04:00

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.

How to be Hopeful

Last updated on: December 13, 2024 at 7:14 am By Vance Morgan

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Herodotus is considered to be the first true historian in the contemporary sense of the word; historian or not, he’s a great story-teller. He records page after page of anecdotal tales about strange and distant lands, stories often based more on second-hand rumor than direct observation. Consider, for instance, his description of a certain Thracian tribe’s practices at the birth of a baby: When a baby is born the family sits round and mourns at the thought of the sufferings... Read more

2024-12-08T13:14:20-04:00

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.

He Is Like a Refiner’s Fire

Last updated on: December 8, 2024 at 1:14 pm By Vance Morgan

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The reading from the Jewish scriptures for last Sunday’s Second Sunday of Advent was from the prophet Malachi: But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire . . . and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. This text is set brilliantly to music in the early, Advent portion... Read more

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