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Progressive Christian

2022-01-18T18:20:50-04:00

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.

I’m not trying to fix you. I’m trying to listen.

Last updated on: January 18, 2022 at 6:20 pm By Vance Morgan

In a perfect world, I would never give a written final exam in any class that I am involved with. Since I frequently team-teach with colleagues who do not share my vision of a perfect academic world, many courses I am involved with have traditional final written exams. But in my own classes, at least those past the introductory level, final exams are oral. As I often tell my colleagues who are skeptical of the value of oral exams, I... Read more

2022-01-16T16:07:35-04:00

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.

Thoughts on Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Does the Arc of the Moral Universe Really Bend Toward Justice?

Last updated on: January 16, 2022 at 4:07 pm By Vance Morgan

Former President Obama loved to quote a hopeful statement from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” The quote was so important to the former President that he had it woven into a rug in the Oval Office. The statement is controversial, because it can be used to justify all sorts of ideas (since there are many conceptions of what “justice” amounts to), as well as a justification for... Read more

Dr. Martin Luther King

2022-01-15T15:27:16-04:00

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.

Jesus and Adult Beverages

Last updated on: January 15, 2022 at 3:27 pm By Vance Morgan

Miracles come in all shapes and sizes, both unmistakable and inexplicable. Anne Lamott writes that “Grace means you’re in a different universe from where you had been stuck, when you had absolutely no way to get there on your own.” That’s a miracle. Faith is committing yourself to seeing how that miracle plays out. Read more

2022-01-12T14:22:51-04:00

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.

Throwing Away the Image of God

Last updated on: January 12, 2022 at 2:22 pm By Vance Morgan

At the beginning of a recent episode of “Consider This,” NPR’s daily afternoon news podcast, Rev. Jim Wallis, the chair of the Faith and Justice Center at Georgetown University, commented on the fact that many of those who participated in the January 6th, 2021 Capitol insurrection began their activities with a prayer thanking God for “gracing us with this opportunity to stand up for our God-given unalienable rights.” While part of the motivation for the insurrectionists that day was the... Read more

2022-01-11T15:11:36-04:00

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.

Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and the Power of Forgiveness

Last updated on: January 11, 2022 at 3:11 pm By Vance Morgan

I, as well as the rest of the world, was saddened to hear of the death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the day after Christmas. Tutu, who won the Nobel Prize in 1984, was a powerful voice for change in South Africas anti-apartheid movement; he used his pulpit and spirited oratory to help bring down apartheid in South Africa and then became the leading advocate of peaceful reconciliation under Black majority rule. I particularly appreciated Tutu’s theology, which was both... Read more

2023-03-17T12:51:11-04:00

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.

Against Stupidity, We Are Defenseless

Last updated on: March 17, 2023 at 12:51 pm By Vance Morgan

Among the many striking images that we have all seen in the year that has passed since the January 6th insurrection are numerous Christian symbols (crosses, flags, signs, banners) interspersed with all manner of conservative political and social symbols carried and worn by people bent on violence, chaos, and mayhem. A few days after the the insurrection, the New York Times published an article by Elizabeth Dias and Ruth Graham entitled “How White Evangelical Christians Fused With Trump Extremism.” Here’s... Read more

Dr. Martin Luther King

2022-01-05T17:23:31-04:00

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 REAL Reason Why January 6th is Important

Last updated on: January 5, 2022 at 5:23 pm By Vance Morgan

One year ago, a mob of insurrectionists stormed and temporarily occupied the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to stop Congress from fulfilling its Constitutionally mandated duty of certifying the results of the November 2020 presidential election. “It wasn’t pretty” is an understatement. I suspect that “1/6” will become as memorable as “9/11” and “12/7” as days in American history that will live in infamy. I also suspect that the news and social media today will be filled with more... Read more

2022-01-01T11:43:45-04:00

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.

Getting Atheists and Theists on the Same Page

Last updated on: January 1, 2022 at 11:43 am By Vance Morgan

One of the texts that I regularly use in my ethics classes is a collection of essays and interviews that have been posted over the past decade on The New York Times’ “Opinionator” blog. In several of these interviews Gary Gutting, a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, explores the topic of whether belief in something greater than ourselves is rational with several contemporary academics whose work intersects with such questions. One of these interviews is with... Read more

2022-01-01T10:39:42-04:00

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.

In the Beginning was the Word

Last updated on: January 1, 2022 at 10:39 am By Vance Morgan

In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. John 1:1, 14 “In the beginning . . .” ranks right up there with “Once upon a time . . .” as one of the best-of all-time intro lines to a story. On this, the first Sunday of 2022, the gospel reading is John 1:1-18, a beautifully poetic introduction to the greatest story ever told. Because the language is poetic rather... Read more

2022-01-01T10:03:26-04:00

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.

Resolution for 2022: Dream More, and Don’t Waste Time

Last updated on: January 1, 2022 at 10:03 am By Vance Morgan

Happy New Year! It is thirteen years since I arrived on a sub-zero January day—President Obama’s 2009 inauguration day, in fact—at the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research in Collegeville Minnesota for a semester-long sabbatical as a resident scholar. The experience changed my life; I have spent the subsequent years, including more than nine on this blog, exploring and discovering the ways in which these changes have and continue to worked their way into my day to day reality.... Read more

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