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Progressive Christian

2020-10-05T06:16:04-04:00

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.

On Earth, as it is in Heaven: Why Faith is Always Political

Last updated on: October 5, 2020 at 6:16 am By Vance Morgan

Last Sunday, it was my turn to be lector at church. The reading from the Jewish scriptures was as basic as they come—the Decalogue. Any reading from scripture that begins with the words “Then God spoke all these words” is a bit intimidating, but channeling my best imitations of Cecil B. DeMille, James Earl Jones, and Morgan Freeman, I dove in. To be honest, my attention has always been drawn most strongly to what the people of Israel say when... Read more

2020-10-04T07:29:31-04:00

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.

It’s Blessing of the Animals Sunday . . . but who is really getting the blessing?

Last updated on: October 4, 2020 at 7:29 am By Vance Morgan

Today is Blessing of the Animals Sunday, which this year is bittersweet for me. My beloved dachshund Frieda died two years ago; for several years she accompanied me to the reader’s lectern at church for Blessing of the Animals Sunday as I read the story of Balaam and his ass from Numbers. My friend and confidant Marsue, an Episcopal priest who loved Saint Francis, and for whom Blessing of the Animals was a bigger liturgical event than Easter or Christmas,... Read more

2020-10-01T06:18:34-04:00

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.

Take a Deep Breath

Last updated on: October 1, 2020 at 6:18 am By Vance Morgan

Jeanne and I did not watch the presidential “debate” on Tuesday evening, choosing instead to preserve our sanity by watching the newest episode of “The Sounds,” our latest favorite show from Acorn. After listening to an hour of post-game analysis on MSNBC after the debate, followed by some of “Morning Joe” Wednesday morning, it was clear that we had made a wise choice. I posted the following on Facebook: “Take a deep breath, people. It’s a new day,” above this... Read more

2020-09-29T12:55:04-04:00

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 Few Thoughts Before the First Presidential Debate

Last updated on: September 29, 2020 at 12:55 pm By Vance Morgan

The first debate between the 2020 presidential nominees is this evening. It will come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog regularly that I have a favorite in the race and that I am appalled by his opponent—so much so that I’m not sure that it would be a good thing for my blood pressure to watch the show. As I thought about the debate and the remaining weeks of the campaign—along with the several difficult weeks that... Read more

2020-09-26T13:55:48-04:00

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.

“It has been done in your name”: When Christians do un-Christian things

Last updated on: September 26, 2020 at 1:55 pm By Vance Morgan

One of my teaching teammates this semester in the interdisciplinary course I regularly participate in is a Victorian literature scholar. This, of course, includes Charles Dickens. Her choice from Dickens for the syllabus was the über-familiar A Christmas Carol; she gave two lectures on this text over the past week (recorded and delivered on Zoom, of course, since we have no face-to-face classes right now). A Christmas Carol in September might seem anachronistic, but the text is about far more than... Read more

2020-09-20T13:34:35-04:00

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.

Karl Marx and the Parable of the Vineyard Owner

Last updated on: September 20, 2020 at 1:34 pm By Vance Morgan

My college campus is in the middle of a (hopefully) temporary lockdown, due to a spike in Covid-19 positives last week. After a monumental effort over the summer to make it possible for us to open campus at the end of August to in-person students, followed by three weeks of apparent success, classes are now fully remote as they were for the last half of the spring semester. On campus students are restricted to their residences on campus, as off-campus... Read more

2020-09-21T10:07:16-04:00

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.

Don’t Be a One Issue Voter–even if that issue is abortion

Last updated on: September 21, 2020 at 10:07 am By Vance Morgan

With the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginzberg, the abortion issue is slowly percolating to the top of an “important issues” list already so full that it is impossible to keep proper track of all of the items on the list. If President Trump, Mitch McConnell, and the Republicans get away with ramming a conservative justice through nomination and confirmation, will the landmark decision Roe v. Wade be overturned? White evangelical Christians, who support Trump in numbers exceeding 80%,... Read more

2020-09-20T12:12:53-04:00

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.

WTF Is This??–A story about change

Last updated on: September 20, 2020 at 12:12 pm By Vance Morgan

Organized religion often is a source of packaged answers and comfortable solutions to important questions about God and ourselves. Today’s lectionary reading from the Jewish scriptures is one of my favorites.. It suggests that eventually such answers and solutions must be left behind. In Exodus, the Israelites (who were miraculously delivered from the pursuing Egyptian armies by the parting of the Red Sea a few chapters earlier), are complaining. And with good reason, because they are hungry in the middle... Read more

2020-09-17T06:10:07-04:00

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 Dangers of Cognitive Immorality

Last updated on: September 17, 2020 at 6:10 am By Vance Morgan

An item popped up on my Facebook news feed not long ago reporting that Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird had recently been pulled from a junior-high reading list in a Mississippi school district. Lee’s novel has raised controversy ever since its publication for racist language and dated racial stereotypes, but in this case the explanation for banning the book was straightforward. The school board president reported simply that the book “makes people uncomfortable.” As a teacher who regularly has... Read more

2020-09-14T20:51:05-04:00

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 Fat, Relentless Ego . . . and what to do about it

Last updated on: September 14, 2020 at 8:51 pm By Vance Morgan

This past weekend, Jeanne and I, along with our two sons and our daughter-in-law, travelled from Providence to Long Island for the wedding of one of Jeanne’s nieces. It was the first time the five of us had been together since last Christmas, and the first time we had all been together in Providence in over two years. Jeanne is the youngest of five; the wedding offered the rare opportunity for all five of the siblings to be together in... Read more

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